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How to sell/dispose of books, mags, s/w

Pythonista

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Feb 17, 2026
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After 60 years in IT, I have a ton of books, manuals and magazines, e.g. Dr. Dobbs, CACM, C/C++ User Journal, MSDN. Attached pic shows some of them. What is the best way to sell/dispose of them? I hesitate to post in Vintage Computer Items For Sale or Trade in case that is not appropriate.
Thanks for any advice!
263244188.jpg
 
I think that would be totally appropriate to let people here know that these are for sale if you're up for the labor of shipping some of them out (or give a local pickup option). Posting what you are selling or giving away in places like Facebook Marketplace (if you use that) can help too. And since you have a lot of programming manuals, you might post on programming related forums or groups if you're part of any of those, even if the group is not focused on vintage software/hardware.

At least from a collector and financial value standpoint, I think there is more demand for computer magazines than programming language manuals (more pictures, nostalgia blast, easy to read for entertainment, etc) - though I've offered programming manuals from the 80s/90s before for nominal amounts or free, and was able to sell/give many of them away without a lot of trouble. For me it was less about making money, and just finding a way to connect the books to people that might still be interested in them, saving them from the landfill or recycling. I think there was more demand for stuff related to C/C++ and assembly compared to other things.
 
I think that would be totally appropriate to let people here know that these are for sale if you're up for the labor of shipping some of them out (or give a local pickup option). Posting what you are selling or giving away in places like Facebook Marketplace (if you use that) can help too. And since you have a lot of programming manuals, you might post on programming related forums or groups if you're part of any of those, even if the group is not focused on vintage software/hardware.

At least from a collector and financial value standpoint, I think there is more demand for computer magazines than programming language manuals (more pictures, nostalgia blast, easy to read for entertainment, etc) - though I've offered programming manuals from the 80s/90s before for nominal amounts or free, and was able to sell/give many of them away without a lot of trouble. For me it was less about making money, and just finding a way to connect the books to people that might still be interested in them, saving them from the landfill or recycling. I think there was more demand for stuff related to C/C++ and assembly compared to other things.
Thanks! Good tip about the magazines. I'm not into the effort of listing and shipping individual books; perhaps I'll bundle all the C, Python PHP, etc. as lots. I'll try programming groups as well. I'm like you; it's less about making money than avoiding the landfill.
 
Thanks! Good tip about the magazines. I'm not into the effort of listing and shipping individual books; perhaps I'll bundle all the C, Python PHP, etc. as lots. I'll try programming groups as well. I'm like you; it's less about making money than avoiding the landfill.
Good plan! Good idea to bundle based on similar subject matter.
 
Thanks! Good tip about the magazines. I'm not into the effort of listing and shipping individual books; perhaps I'll bundle all the C, Python PHP, etc. as lots. I'll try programming groups as well. I'm like you; it's less about making money than avoiding the landfill.

FWIW we should all collectively try to avoid dumping stuff in landfills, especially if it has any value to someone else.

It's easy to dump stuff, impossible to get it back (if, for example, one's mind, opinion, or situation changes), and not so great for the environment.
 
You have some cool stuff there like Softice for Windows and Microsoft MASM (do you have the disks for those)?
 
Definitely some interesting tidbits in there. Do you have a full list of what's on offer put together?

(Would definitely be down for the K&R and the C/MIDI books, if you're looking for interested parties.)
 
I'm interested in Schulman's Undocumented DOS! Would you consider sending a single volume through the mail?
 
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