I have some old books that i would like to donate to the USCF. Not asking anything for them. I feel like I should give something back to USCF, I’ve enjoyed chess for so many years.They’re old but good books. Here are some but not all:
The Games of Robert J. Fischer (Wade and OConnell)
The World Chess Championship (Wade)
Candidate Matches 1971 (Cafferty)
Test of Time (Kasparov)
The Moscow Challenge (Keane)
World Chess Championship 1978 (Keane).
Showdown Seville (Keane)
maybe a couple of others
Does USCF take book donations? Someone from USCF can email me at karchad@optonline.net if they want. Thanks. For the record, i’m not cleaning out my entire chess collection. I just feel that chessbase enables me to clear some shelf space for newer chessbooks!
According to Judy Misner, the USCF office recommends that people consider donating their books to local hospitals, VA hospitals, nursing homes, or libraries.
Schools that have a chess program might also be interested.
You could also contact the Chess Trust, they might be able to suggest somewhere you can donate them to and get a tax writeoff.
People looking to sell used books can try Fred Wilson in NYC or the USCF Classified Ads.
email me at brucebro@optonline.net. Basically, if you pay UPS postage, i’ll send you the books. i’d like these books to at least go to someone who will use them, and apparently, you’re interested enough.
i think they’re really good books. Talk to me thru email - Bruce
If someone is looking to sell their used chess books, I’d suggest using half.com.
Seller sets the price and the items stay advertised and active as long as you like.
I unloaded by entire collection of about 100 books this way and got decent dollars for them. Taking them to the post office and sending them by “media mail” rate beat hawking them at a table outside of chess tournaments.
Libraries will generally not commit to putting donated books on shelf. I offered Chess College 1, 2 and 3 (brand new) to a library on condition they were accepted for their circulating collection. They made no response. I gave them to our local PBS station and they auctioned them for a little more than the bargain price I paid to a remainder house. Twenty-some years ago I donated a book of Gligoric’s game and Basic Chess Endings to a public library. The games collection, a year later, was in the card catalog. BCE, a year later, was not in the card catalog. Apparently they procured a pittance for it. I don’t agree with buying books for five dollars to let them be sold for one dollar.
Another thing about libraries is that some weed out older books – I have heard of a 25-year rule being used.
In early 1981 I gave a number of books to our local library and saw them on the shelves for quite a while. More than one person asked me why my name was in so many chess books in the library. Guess it depends on the library.
