Free Book Removal Services

Q. Why does your work stand out from others who do what you do?

A. First and foremost, our service is absolutely FREE. Not only that, but we go to our donors' locations to remove their books, and will even box them up when requested. Secondly, Helping Hands Books LLC is the only service of our kind that benefits local youth by funneling much of our profits from online sales into donations for youth development agencies. And finally, with regards to large library removals, we even offer our donors .10 cents to $1.00 for every eligible book we receive.

Q. What do you like most about your job?

A. The fact that we are able to transform used and unwanted books into a funding source that benefits young people. Knowing that every book we receive is saved from landfills, and that every book we sell contributes to the health of our surrounding communities. We also love books!

Q. What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A. What happens to all the collected books and media that do not meet acceptance guidelines?

The books that do not end up on one of our on-line marketplaces get redistributed to local senior centers, Goodwill, Salvation Army, Day Care Centers, Local Prisons, or end up filling the book shelves at various train stations for people commuting to work. The rest are recycled.

You donate up to 20% of your sales to local youth serving agencies, but where does the other 80% go?

Operating a business like ours takes time and money. We need to pay for storage unit rental fees, bookshelves, shipping materials, promotional materials, collection boxes, and storage boxes. We also have to pay for the gas and tolls it takes to pick up people’s donations. Ebay, Half.com, and Amazon all charge us fees for listing and selling on their sites, and we have to pay monthly for our website domain name and hosting. We have college students who we pay to sort and list, and of course we have to pay ourselves for the time we put in. Finally, Uncle Sam takes a chunk in the form of taxes. Would we like to give more? Of course! However, if we gave more money away we’d quickly go out of business, and that wouldn’t be good for anyone.

Can I get a receipt for my book donation to be used for tax write-off purposes?

We can give you a receipt, but we’re not a non-profit, so you will not be able to use the receipt you get from us for tax deduction purposes. However, we can offer you .10 cents to $1.00 per eligible book. We would still need to sort through your donation to determine what we can use and what we’ll find another home for. Once you’re donation is completely sorted, we’ll tally up the amount we owe you and send you a check.

What kinds of books and media items would generate the most money for youth programs?

In general, academic textbooks and study guides have the capability of generating the most money for youth programs. Most of the textbooks we receive are used copies that campus bookstores refused to buy back from students. Recent fiction, children’s books, and books on CD do well also. We also accept used CDs, DVDs, and video games.

What’s a social venture?

A social venture is a kind of business model where success is measured by the positive impact it makes in the world; specifically in addressing a social issue. At Helping Hands Books, it’s all about youth development. Social ventures harness the power of capitalism to generate a “social profit”- which is the portion of sales that ends up benefiting our non-profit youth development agencies.