David Ames wrote:

midlib wrote:

I am a middle school librarian with a limited budget. I have been
granted permission to sell my back issues of Nat'l Geographics to
generate funds for badly needed new materials. My stash goes back to
the mid 1950s and most are in at least "good" shape; almost no maps
remain in them. I'd prefer one fast, easy transaction. What's my
best bet?

When my wife volunteered in Middle School, the duplicates of National
Geographic were for the youngsters to cut up.

It's sad but true.

This is one of the more depressing aspects of book collecting (or I
suppose any collecting)--to discover that what you have collected has no
resale value. I suspect that we have a lot like that, which is why I'm
much more sanguine about books that we bought to read than with those
that we bought to "enhance the collection".

As for National Geographics, we occasionally bought a few at library
sales if they happened to have articles about someplace we had 1) just
gone to, or 2) were going to next. But in general, the maps were the
most valuable parts of them, and we often bought an issue *just* for the
map (e.g., the ethnographic map of North American tribes). If the maps
are missing, the issues have lost a lot of their appeal.

One possibility other than for cutting up, though--would senior centers
or nursing homes be interested? The high-picture content might make
them good for people whose eyesight isn't up to a lot of reading. (This
doesn't raise any money, of course, but it may get the magazines another
cycle of use.)

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
The fundamental precept of liberty is
toleration. -Calvin Coolidge