I’m so sorry but we’re still talking about Marie Kondo. The popularity of her Netflix show Tidying Up caused an uptick in donations to thrift stores and used bookstores, according to CNN, the New Yorker, and Seattle’s Stranger. Not every store has seen more incoming books, but plenty have, including New York’s Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, a two-story bookstore stocked entirely with donated books. Now’s the time to take your “want to read” list to a used bookstore and stock up, while everyone else is cleaning house.
“We always see a uptick in donations at the end of the year as it’s everyone’s last chance to donate for the tax season,” a Housing Works representative tells Lifehacker by email. “However, with the show the uptick has continued well into the new year. Our bookshelves are getting replenished with lots of new inventory.”
Not every store is getting more books; Detroit’s John K. King Books, for example, tells Lifehacker they haven’t seen any change. And don’t expect lower prices at bookstores, just higher volumes of the same cheap copies. (Even Housing Works, which doesn’t pay for its stock, says they haven’t lowered prices.)
For lower prices, look on Amazon, eBay, and AbeBooks, where sellers have to compete. Online sellers don’t just include people getting rid of books; charity-run stores like Housing Works and Better World Books also sell online, as do many for-profit stores. (That’s actually the main revenue source for many brick-and-mortar used bookstores.)
The overflow should continue as long as people keep Kondo-ing—until everyone starts filling up their empty houses with books again. So keep checking your bookstores, and remember, as Jezebel says, you’re still competing with every other packrat.