I was having an off-site chat with guineapigmum about the joys of dealing with the mounds of kids’ outgrown clutter that fill our homes and I mentioned the GreenMetropolis website as a great way of finding loving homes for surplus books. So here’s that info I promised you, gpm!
GreenMetropolis ‘recycle’ books and make a donation to the Woodland Trust for every book they process. In practice, it’s a neat, easy way to buy and sell books. You just type in the ISBN number and select a tickbox for the condition of the book (As New, Excellent, Good, Acceptable). That’s it. The site finds the book image and the write-up - much easier than sites like Ebay. Then your book sits on the site indefinitely - until it sells or until you remove it. When it does sell, it’s all done through GreenMetropolis as the middleman. You are contacted by GM, not the buyer. GM give you the seller’s address and you post off the book. GM transfers the money to you. It feels more discreet than Ebay.
Standard paperbacks sell at £3.75, and you get £2.75. There’s pricing options for hardbacks and larger books, and discount options too. You can transfer the takings to your bank account whenever you like. Or you can run the whole business as a cashless operation, using the credit in your ‘account’. On average you can buy four standard books for every five you sell. Once the account is set up (they do need credit card details for surety) a trustworthy child could run it with minimal supervision. We’ve bought or sold well over a hundred books but never had to pay out a penny. Occasionally we cream off the account when the money mounts up.
Other plus points? GM are swift to cancel your order or refund your money on the rare occasions that there is any problem. There also very understanding if you have to admit you can’t find where the *$&! book is that you posted on the site months ago and that they’ve now sold. Downsides? Well, don’t forget that you have to foot the postage as well - take that into account when working out your profits. And the site itself is not brill for general browsing, although it’s fine for specific searches. If I’m ever looking for books, I do my browing on Amazon, cross-checking purchases with GM in another browser window.
GM is one of those neatly satisfying little things in my life. See you there.
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