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UNM School of Law & Albuquerque legal community

Law textbook donations in Albuquerque — casebooks, bar prep, hornbooks, and everything from 1L to the bar exam

The UNM School of Law is the only law school in New Mexico, and every year it produces a predictable wave of unwanted legal materials — casebooks that weigh more than a small child, bar prep binders that cost a fortune six months ago, hornbooks that served their purpose through finals, and supplement series that are now highlighted beyond recognition. Add in retiring attorneys, law firms going paperless, and the steady churn of legal editions, and Albuquerque has a constant stream of law books looking for somewhere to go. The New Mexico Literacy Project — a one-person operation run by Josh Eldred — offers free pickup and 24/7 drop-off at 5445 Edith Blvd NE. I take all of it — casebooks, hornbooks, supplements, bar prep sets, law review journals, study aids, NCBE practice materials, legal research texts, and the random box of CLE materials from the back of a law office closet. Any condition, any edition, any quantity. This page covers the full picture: what law books are worth, why the edition cycle matters, how to handle the post-graduation and post-bar-exam cleanout, what to do with a law firm library deaccession, and honest advice about when you should try selling before donating.

Call 702-496-4214 Text to schedule pickup

Last verified May 2026 · Original research by Josh Eldred

UNM School of Law — the only law school in New Mexico

The University of New Mexico School of Law sits on North Campus, separate from the main UNM campus south of Lomas. It’s the only ABA-accredited law school in the state, which means every New Mexico-trained attorney passed through the same building, used many of the same casebooks, and accumulated the same kinds of materials. When those materials become unwanted — at graduation, after the bar exam, during a career transition, or when a firm downsizes — they flow into a relatively small local market that can’t absorb all of them.

A typical UNM law student accumulates somewhere between two thousand and five thousand dollars worth of legal materials over three years. That includes the required casebooks for the 1L curriculum, elective casebooks for upper-division courses, hornbooks and treatises used as supplements, the various outline and study aid series, and finally the bar prep materials that represent the single largest textbook expense of the entire law school experience. By the time a student walks across the stage at commencement, they’re carrying a small library’s worth of heavy, expensive books that they’ll almost certainly never open again.

The New Mexico Literacy Project runs from a warehouse at 5445 Edith Blvd NE, operated by Josh Eldred — about fifteen minutes from the law school heading north on I-25 or up Edith Blvd. Free pickup from anywhere in the metro, or a 24/7 outdoor drop box that’s accessible day and night, 365 days a year. No minimum quantity, no condition requirements, no appointment needed for the drop box.

This page is specifically about law textbooks and legal materials. For the broader UNM textbook donations guide covering all departments, or the general textbook donation guide for Albuquerque, those pages cover the full picture. If you’re trying to decide whether to sell your textbooks rather than donate, I have honest advice on that too — and some of your law books may be worth selling first.

Casebooks — the primary law school textbook format

Casebooks are the defining textbook format of American legal education, and they’re unlike anything used in other graduate programs. They’re huge — typically eight hundred to fourteen hundred pages. They’re heavy — most weigh three to five pounds. They’re expensive — new casebooks routinely cost between one hundred fifty and two hundred fifty dollars. And they’re built around edited judicial opinions rather than explanatory text, which means they’re genuinely difficult to read in a way that an organic chemistry textbook, for all its challenges, is not.

The standard casebooks that UNM law students encounter include titles that anyone who’s been through an American law school will recognize. Prosser, Wade, and Schwartz on Torts. Dukeminier, Krier, Alexander, and Schill on Property. Chemerinsky on Constitutional Law. Crandall and Whaley on Contracts. Sullivan and Cromwell on Evidence. These are the workhorses of the 1L and core upper-division curriculum, and they’re assigned at law schools nationwide, not just at UNM. That national demand is what gives current-edition casebooks their resale value.

The resale picture for casebooks is binary in a way that surprises a lot of law students. A current-edition casebook in the core 1L subjects has meaningful resale value — enough that I genuinely recommend trying to sell it through other channels before donating. A casebook that’s one edition behind has dramatically less value. Two editions behind, it’s essentially at donation level. The reason is straightforward: professors assign specific editions because the case selections change, and a student with the wrong edition can’t follow along in class.

When casebooks come through as donations, I sort them by edition currency. Current editions go to resale channels where the revenue funds the free pickup operation. Prior editions still find readers — self-study students, practitioners who want a reference, international students studying American law. The truly outdated ones go to recycling. But given their size and weight, recycling a casebook rather than landfilling it matters — that’s three to five pounds of paper staying out of the waste stream per book.

Stacks of casebooks from law school? I’ll pick them up for free, anywhere in the metro.

Call 702-496-4214 Text photos for pickup

Hornbooks and treatises — the supplements that hold their value

Hornbooks occupy a different niche than casebooks in legal education. Where casebooks present raw judicial opinions and leave you to extract the rules through Socratic dialogue, hornbooks explain the law directly — they’re treatises written by leading scholars that lay out the doctrine, discuss the policy rationale, and trace the development of legal principles. Law students use them as supplements to their casebook courses. Practitioners use them as reference works. Academics use them as starting points for research.

The important distinction for donation and resale purposes: hornbooks hold value longer than casebooks. A current-edition hornbook on a foundational subject is in the highest value tier. But even a hornbook that’s one or two editions behind retains meaningful value because the underlying legal principles it explains don’t change as rapidly as the case selections in casebooks do. The classic treatise series — Prosser on Torts, Corbin on Contracts, Williston on Contracts, Wright and Miller on Federal Practice — have maintained demand across decades because practitioners and judges continue to cite them.

UNM law students typically buy hornbooks selectively — one or two for their most difficult 1L courses, maybe a few more for upper-division subjects that they find conceptually challenging. The investment per hornbook is substantial, usually seventy to one hundred twenty dollars, and the books are well-made hardcovers designed to survive years of use. This combination of high initial cost, durable construction, and sustained demand makes hornbooks some of the best-value law book donations I receive.

If you have hornbooks from your law school years, especially in Constitutional Law, Property, Torts, Contracts, Civil Procedure, or Evidence, they’re worth flagging separately from your casebooks when you schedule a pickup. The edition matters less than it does for casebooks, and even older editions find buyers among practitioners who want a thorough reference on a specific area of law.

Supplements, outlines, and study aid series

The supplement market for law students is its own ecosystem, and UNM students use the same series that law students use nationwide. The most common series I see come through as donations are the Examples and Explanations series, Emanuel Law Outlines, the Nutshell series, and Gilbert Law Summaries. Each serves a slightly different purpose. Examples and Explanations are problem-based supplements that walk through hypotheticals and model answers. Emanuel outlines provide condensed course summaries. Nutshells are pocket-sized overviews of entire subject areas. Gilberts offer detailed outlines with charts, diagrams, and practice questions.

The resale value of supplements follows the same edition-based logic as casebooks, but with a twist: because supplements are less expensive to begin with (typically twenty to forty-five dollars new), the resale margins are thinner. A current-edition Examples and Explanations for a core 1L subject has moderate resale value. An older edition has minimal value. But the volume matters — a typical law student accumulates six to twelve supplement titles over three years, and a donation of that collection has aggregate value even when individual titles are modest.

Study aids beyond the formal series also come through regularly: flashcard sets for bar subjects, practice exam collections, MBE question banks in book form, and the various commercial outlines that students buy during bar prep. These all follow the same freshness-based value curve. Current materials are worth something; older materials are donation-tier regardless.

I take all of it — written-in, highlighted, dog-eared, tabbed, coffee-stained, or pristine. Law students are notoriously hard on their study materials, and that’s fine. A highlighted Emanuel outline still has its text intact, and the next student who uses it might even benefit from seeing where a previous reader focused their attention.

Bar prep materials — Barbri, Themis, Kaplan, and the resale reality

Bar prep is the single most expensive textbook-related expenditure in a law student’s career. A full Barbri course runs in the range of several thousand dollars. Themis and Kaplan are less expensive but still substantial investments. The physical materials — the outlines, the lecture handbooks, the practice essay sets, the MBE question books, the flashcards, the condensed review sheets — fill multiple binders and boxes. After the bar exam, these materials represent one of the most dramatic value drops in the entire textbook market.

Here’s the reality: bar prep materials are edition-specific to the bar exam year. The outlines are updated to reflect recent legislative changes and court decisions. The practice questions are calibrated to the current exam format. The MBE prep materials track the NCBE’s evolving question patterns. A set from the current exam year has meaningful resale value because an incoming bar prepper can use it as a supplement to their own course or, in some cases, as a primary resource if they can’t afford the full course price. A set from one year ago still has moderate demand. Two years out, value drops sharply. Three or more years old, and the materials are essentially at donation level.

The timing matters enormously for bar prep donations. The July bar exam is the big one. Within two weeks after the exam, I see a surge of bar prep material donations from Albuquerque-area test takers. If you’re among them and your materials are current, it’s worth considering a quick sale before donating — the window for maximum resale value is narrow, roughly from when you finish the exam until the next cohort starts their prep cycle. After that, the value declines with each passing month. The February bar exam produces a smaller but similar pattern.

Whether you sell or donate, the key is getting the materials out of your closet while they still have some utility. Bar prep binders sitting in storage for three years help no one. If you want to sell, try it quickly. If you want them gone without the hassle, text me at 702-496-4214 and I’ll pick them up.

Just finished the bar? Text a photo of your prep materials — I’ll tell you honestly what’s worth selling vs. donating.

Call 702-496-4214 Text photos for evaluation

NCBE practice materials and MBE prep

Beyond the commercial bar prep courses, many students purchase additional NCBE (National Conference of Bar Examiners) practice materials directly — released MBE questions, practice MEE (Multistate Essay Exam) sets, and MPT (Multistate Performance Test) practice problems. These official released materials have a different value profile than the commercial prep courses. They’re less expensive to begin with, but they’re also specifically sought after because they represent the actual exam format and difficulty level rather than a commercial approximation of it.

MBE prep books — both the NCBE’s official releases and the commercial practice question banks from providers like Adaptibar, UWorld, and the various bar prep courses — follow a similar freshness curve. Current materials have value because the MBE evolves over time. The NCBE periodically adjusts subject weights, introduces new question formats, and updates the substantive law being tested. But the core skills being assessed don’t change dramatically year to year, so even older MBE practice materials find users among students who want additional question volume for drilling.

I accept all NCBE and MBE materials regardless of edition or condition. If you have a box of mixed bar prep and practice materials and don’t want to sort through what’s current versus what’s older, don’t worry about it. I sort everything by hand and route each item to the appropriate channel based on its current value.

Law review journals — when they matter and when they don’t

I need to be direct about this category because expectations often don’t match reality. Individual issues of law reviews — even from prestigious journals — generally have no meaningful resale value. Law reviews are published in enormous print runs, distributed to law libraries and subscribers nationwide, and archived digitally on Westlaw, LexisNexis, and HeinOnline. The physical issues are redundant to most potential users. A single issue of the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, or any other top-tier journal is available for pennies used, when it sells at all.

The exception — and it’s a genuine exception — is complete or near-complete runs of New Mexico-specific law journals. The New Mexico Law Review (published by UNM law students since 1970) and the Natural Resources Journal (published by UNM School of Law since 1961, focusing on natural resources, energy, and environmental law) both have regional research significance. A complete or substantially complete run of either journal has value to libraries, legal historians, and practitioners focused on New Mexico law. If you have shelves of these, they’re worth mentioning when you schedule a pickup.

For everything else — scattered issues from various journals, the law review volumes that accumulate in faculty offices and firm libraries over decades — I’ll still take them. But honestly, most individual law review issues will end up recycled rather than resold. The paper gets a second life, but the content is already preserved digitally. That’s just the reality of the format in the digital age.

If you’re cleaning out a faculty office or a firm library and have substantial law review holdings, text me photos. I can usually tell quickly whether there’s a complete run of anything NM-specific worth preserving versus a general assortment headed for recycling.

Legal research and writing materials

Legal research and writing is a required 1L course at UNM and at every ABA-accredited law school. The materials for LRW courses typically include a citation manual (the Bluebook or the ALWD Guide to Legal Citation), a textbook on legal analysis and writing, and often a course-specific supplement or problem set compiled by the professor. These materials generate a small but consistent donation stream each year as 1Ls finish the course.

Citation manuals are the most interesting items in this category from a resale perspective. The Bluebook and the ALWD Guide are used throughout law school and into practice. Current editions hold moderate resale value. Even older editions find buyers among practitioners who want a desk reference or students who need a copy for a writing competition. The physical Bluebook is a small, distinctive book that’s easy to spot in a donation pile, and it’s consistently one of the better-value items in the legal materials category relative to its size.

LRW coursebooks themselves follow the standard edition-cycle depreciation. The various legal writing textbooks — from authors like Edwards, Garner, Neumann, and Oates — have moderate demand when current and minimal demand when outdated. Custom course materials and professor-compiled problem sets have no resale value outside the specific course they were designed for but still get recycled responsibly rather than landfilled.

Casebooks, supplements, bar prep, and law review volumes? One pickup handles all of it.

Call 702-496-4214 Text to schedule pickup

The 3L graduation problem — three years of law books and no plan

This is the scenario I see most often from UNM law graduates, and it’s remarkably consistent. A student finishes three years of law school with a bookshelf — or a closet, or a stack of boxes — containing somewhere between two thousand and five thousand dollars worth of legal materials at original retail. Casebooks from every semester. Hornbooks for the hard courses. A full supplement series. The Bluebook. Course readers from clinics and seminars. And often the bar prep materials on top of everything else if they’ve already taken the exam.

The problem: almost none of these materials will ever be opened again. Practitioners don’t use casebooks. Bar prep materials are single-use by design. Supplements have served their purpose. The few items a new attorney might reference occasionally — a hornbook or treatise in their practice area, the Bluebook, maybe a practice manual — represent a tiny fraction of the total collection. The rest is dead weight, literally and figuratively.

Most 3Ls I talk to have no plan for their books at graduation. They’ve been focused on the bar exam, job searching, and transitioning out of student life. The books are an afterthought. Some get shoved into the back of a closet at a new apartment. Some ride around in the trunk of a car for months. Some get abandoned in the law school building or left for the next tenant. A surprising number end up in dumpsters.

The efficient solution: text 702-496-4214 with photos and your address. I’ll pick up the entire collection in one trip — casebooks, supplements, hornbooks, bar prep, all of it. No sorting required on your end. I do the sorting. If some of your current-edition casebooks have enough resale value that you should try selling them first, I’ll tell you that honestly. For the rest, donation gets them out of your life and into circulation where they can still be useful.

Post-bar-exam cleanout — July and February timing

The bar exam creates its own donation cycle, separate from the law school graduation cycle. The July bar exam is the larger event — most UNM law graduates take the July exam after spring graduation. The February bar exam is smaller, typically taken by people who didn’t pass in July, graduates from other schools who moved to New Mexico, or attorneys seeking admission to the New Mexico bar from another jurisdiction.

In both cases, the pattern is the same: within a week or two after the exam, bar takers want their prep materials gone. The emotional arc of bar prep is intense — months of concentrated study, constant anxiety, and then sudden release. The physical materials become a symbol of that period, and most people want them out of sight. This is when I see the biggest volume of bar prep donations.

For July bar takers, the cleanout window typically runs from late July through mid-August. For February bar takers, it’s late February through mid-March. During these windows, I increase pickup frequency in the Albuquerque area. If you’re fresh off the bar exam and ready to reclaim your living space, text 702-496-4214. Same-day or next-day pickup is often possible during these peak periods.

One note on timing and value: if you finished the bar exam in the last few weeks and your materials are from the current exam cycle, they’re at their peak resale value right now. The next cohort of bar preppers is either already looking for materials or will be soon. If getting the best possible return matters to you, consider a quick sale through Amazon or eBay before donating. If convenience matters more, donate. I’ll sell the valuable ones on your behalf, and the revenue funds the pickup operation. Either way, the materials end up in someone’s hands rather than in a landfill. For more on the selling option, there’s a dedicated page.

Done with the bar exam? Don’t let those materials collect dust. Free pickup today.

Call 702-496-4214 Text to schedule pickup

Law firm library deaccessions — firms going paperless, attorneys retiring

Law firm libraries are a different animal than student collections. A firm library built up over decades might include full reporter sets (Federal Reporter, Pacific Reporter, New Mexico Reports), treatise series, practice manuals, CLE (Continuing Legal Education) materials, looseleaf services, annotated statutes, and reference works that span the history of the firm. When a firm decides to go paperless, relocates to a smaller office, or when a senior partner retires, these libraries need to go somewhere.

I handle firm library deaccessions regularly. The volume can be significant — a mid-sized firm library might fill a pickup truck, and a larger firm library can take multiple trips. For these larger projects, I coordinate with the firm’s office manager on timing, access, and logistics. The books don’t need to be boxed in advance — I can work directly from shelves if that’s more convenient for the firm.

The value breakdown for firm libraries is different from student collections. Reporter sets and annotated statutes have mostly been supplanted by Westlaw and Lexis, and the physical volumes have limited resale value unless they include historically significant early volumes. Practice manuals and CLE materials vary — current editions of New Mexico-specific practice guides have moderate value, while older editions and generic CLE materials are at donation level. Treatise series hold value best, especially the multi-volume sets from established legal publishers.

Solo practitioners and small firms generate the same kinds of donations on a smaller scale. An attorney closing a practice, transitioning to a different area of law, or simply clearing shelf space that’s been accumulating for years can schedule a pickup the same way anyone else does. Text 702-496-4214 with photos and the address. For larger firm deaccessions, calling works better so I can discuss logistics.

The edition problem — why law textbooks depreciate faster than you think

Law casebooks typically release new editions every two to three years. This is faster than many other academic disciplines and it’s driven by a genuine need: the law changes. New court decisions get handed down. Statutes get amended. Regulations get updated. A constitutional law casebook needs to include recent Supreme Court decisions to be pedagogically current. A contracts casebook needs to reflect developments in the UCC and Restatement. This isn’t arbitrary edition churn — the content genuinely evolves.

The practical consequence for law students and donors: a casebook purchased three years ago for two hundred dollars might be two editions behind and worth very little on the resale market. This is a steeper depreciation curve than most students expect, especially coming from undergraduate programs where a five-year-old chemistry textbook might still be perfectly usable. In law, the edition matters because the professor assigns specific pages, the case citations need to match the syllabus, and class discussion follows the edited opinions in the assigned edition.

Hornbooks and treatises depreciate more slowly because the underlying doctrine they explain changes less frequently than the curated case selections in casebooks. A hornbook on property law from five years ago explains the same legal principles as the current edition — the new edition might add a section on recent developments, but the foundational content is still sound. This is why I recommend trying to sell current casebooks but accepting that older casebooks are donation-tier, while hornbooks retain value across a longer window.

Supplements fall somewhere in between. The Examples and Explanations series updates regularly, and the value tracks edition currency. Emanuel outlines and Gilbert summaries follow a similar pattern. Nutshells update less frequently and hold value somewhat longer because they’re broader overviews rather than course-specific companions.

Which law subjects hold value best

Not all law textbooks are equal on the used market. Here’s an honest breakdown by subject area, using tier language rather than dollar amounts because market prices shift with editions and semesters. The general principle: foundational subjects with national demand hold value best; specialized and elective subjects hold value least.

Constitutional Law

Constitutional law casebooks are among the highest-value law textbooks because ConLaw is a required course at every ABA-accredited law school. The demand is truly national. Chemerinsky’s casebook and treatise are the dominant texts in this space, and current editions consistently hold top-tier resale value. Even one-edition-old ConLaw casebooks retain moderate value because the core constitutional doctrines and landmark cases don’t change — though new Supreme Court decisions get added with each edition.

The ConLaw hornbook market is equally strong. Constitutional law treatises serve as reference works for practitioners, judges, and academics beyond their use as student supplements, which broadens the demand base and sustains value across editions.

Property

Property law casebooks hold value well, again because Property is a universal 1L requirement. Dukeminier, Krier, Alexander, and Schill is the leading casebook in this space, and it commands strong resale demand. Property law changes more slowly than most other legal subjects — the Rule Against Perpetuities is still the Rule Against Perpetuities — which means older editions retain utility longer than in subjects with more rapid doctrinal development.

Property hornbooks benefit from the same dynamic. The foundational concepts of estates, future interests, servitudes, and takings are stable across decades, making older treatise editions more useful and more marketable than their equivalents in faster-moving subjects.

Torts

Torts casebooks round out the top tier of law textbook value. Prosser, Wade, and Schwartz is the standard text, and its resale market benefits from the same nationwide 1L demand that supports ConLaw and Property. Tort law is primarily common law, which means it evolves through judicial decisions rather than legislative action — slowly and incrementally. This keeps older casebook editions more relevant than they’d be in statutory subjects.

Prosser on Torts as a treatise has been a foundational reference work in American law for decades. Current and recent editions hold strong value. Even significantly older editions retain meaningful demand because of the treatise’s historical importance and its continued citation in court opinions.

Contracts, Civil Procedure & Evidence

Contracts, Civil Procedure, and Evidence casebooks occupy the next tier — strong resale value for current editions but with slightly faster depreciation than ConLaw, Property, or Torts. Contracts materials (Crandall and Whaley, among others) hold value as long as the UCC provisions they cover remain current. Civil Procedure casebooks track the Federal Rules, which get amended periodically. Evidence casebooks follow the Federal Rules of Evidence, with similar amendment-driven edition cycles.

Sullivan and Cromwell on Evidence and the various Contracts treatises maintain steady demand. These are core bar exam subjects, which supports year-round interest from both students and bar preppers.

Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure

Criminal Law is a 1L requirement, so the casebooks have broad demand. Criminal Procedure is commonly taken in the upper-division curriculum and is a bar-tested subject. Both hold moderate-to-strong resale value for current editions. The Model Penal Code content in Criminal Law casebooks is stable, while Criminal Procedure casebooks need to track Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment developments from the Supreme Court, driving more frequent edition updates.

Electives and Specialized Practice Areas

Upper-division elective casebooks — Intellectual Property, Tax, Employment Law, Immigration, Environmental Law, Family Law, Bankruptcy, International Law, and the various clinic and seminar materials — have narrower audiences and less consistent resale value. Current editions can find buyers, but the market is thinner. These books are perfectly good donations, and many of them still reach readers, but they’re not the titles we’d recommend trying to sell through other channels first. The time spent listing and shipping a specialized casebook often isn’t justified by the return.

Not sure which tier your law books fall into? Text photos and I’ll give you an honest assessment.

Call 702-496-4214 Text photos for evaluation

Honest advice — when to sell first, when to donate

NMLP is a donation operation, but I also believe in being straight with people about the value of what they’re giving away. Some of your law books are worth more than you might assume, and it would be wrong not to say so. Here’s an honest framework for deciding what to sell versus what to donate.

Try selling first: Current-edition 1L casebooks in the core subjects (ConLaw, Property, Torts, Contracts, Civ Pro, Criminal Law). Current-year bar prep sets from Barbri, Themis, or Kaplan. Current-edition hornbooks in foundational subjects. The Bluebook if it’s the current edition. These items have enough resale value that the effort of listing them on Amazon or eBay — or selling them directly to incoming UNM law students — can produce a meaningful return. See the selling guide or the buyback comparison for channel-by-channel advice.

Donate: Prior-edition casebooks. Supplements you’ve written in extensively. Bar prep materials more than two years old. Elective casebooks. Law review issues (unless you have a complete NM-specific run). CLE materials. Course readers. Practice manuals from closed firms. Study aids and flashcards. Legal writing textbooks from older editions. Older reporter volumes and annotated statutes. For these materials, the time and effort of trying to sell exceeds the likely return. Donating gets them out of your life quickly and into a system that sorts for value and distributes to readers.

If you’re not sure where your specific collection falls, text 702-496-4214 with photos. I’ll tell you which books are worth trying to sell and which are better donated. No pressure either way — I’m happy to pick up whatever you decide to donate, and I respect the choice to sell first. The library valuation tool can also help you get a preliminary sense of what you’re working with.

Study aids — flashcards, practice exams, and everything else

Beyond the formal casebook-hornbook-supplement ecosystem, law students accumulate a range of additional study materials: commercially produced flashcard sets for bar subjects and law school courses, practice exam compilations, course-specific practice problems, and the various physical and digital study tools marketed to law students. By the time a student finishes law school and the bar exam, the accumulated stack of study aids can fill a box on its own.

The resale value on most study aids is modest. Flashcard sets have limited appeal because they’re often written in, reorganized, or otherwise personalized by the original user. Practice exam books have more consistent value when current because students preparing for similar exams want practice questions. Commercial MBE flashcard sets from bar prep providers follow the same freshness curve as the rest of the bar prep materials.

None of these items need to be separated from the rest of your law book donation. When you donate a box of law school materials, study aids can go right in with the casebooks, supplements, and everything else. I sort everything by hand and route each item appropriately. The materials with resale value get resold. The rest reach readers or go to recycling. No sorting required on your end.

Three years of law school materials and zero plan for them? One text message fixes that.

Call 702-496-4214 Text photos for free pickup

About the New Mexico Literacy Project

NMLP is a for-profit book donation and resale operation based in Albuquerque, run by one person, Josh Eldred. To be clear: I am not a nonprofit, and donations to me are not tax-deductible. The trade-off is that I accept everything in any condition, provide free pickup with no minimum, and my 24/7 drop box is always open. No restrictions on what I take, no business-hours-only access, no rejection.

The business model is straightforward. Books with resale value get sold through Amazon, eBay, and specialty platforms. That revenue funds the free pickup service, the warehouse, and the sorting operation. Books with distribution value — children’s books, teacher resources, reading-level-appropriate materials — go to APS Title I schools, UNM Children’s Hospital, Little Free Libraries, and community partners like La Vida Llena. Only genuinely destroyed books go to the recycler.

NMLP holds 5.0 stars across its Google reviews. La Vida Llena retirement community is a regular partner. The operation has been running since 2024 and has handled thousands of donations ranging from a single bag of paperbacks to multi-room estate libraries and, yes, more than a few law firm library deaccessions.

To learn more about how the operation works, read the About page. If you need a tax-deductible donation, the Albuquerque Public Library and Goodwill both provide receipts — though both have condition restrictions I don’t have.

Frequently asked questions about law textbook donations

Do you accept law textbooks from UNM School of Law?
Yes. I accept all law textbooks from UNM School of Law — casebooks, hornbooks, supplements, bar prep materials, study aids, law review journals, and legal research and writing materials. Any condition, any edition, any quantity. Free pickup from anywhere in the Albuquerque metro or 24/7 drop-off at my box at 5445 Edith Blvd NE. Current-edition casebooks and recent bar prep sets have meaningful resale value; older materials still find readers through my distribution channels.
Are law textbook donations to NMLP tax-deductible?
No. NMLP is a for-profit business, not a nonprofit. Donations to me are not tax-deductible. The trade-off: I accept everything in any condition, offer free pickup with no minimum, and my 24/7 drop box is always open. No sorting, no appointment, no rejection. If you need a tax deduction for your law books, the Albuquerque Public Library system and Goodwill both accept books and can provide receipts — though both have condition restrictions I don’t.
Should I try to sell my law casebooks before donating them?
For current-edition casebooks in the core 1L subjects — contracts, torts, civil procedure, constitutional law, property, criminal law — yes, it’s worth trying other channels first. These hold enough resale value that you may get a meaningful return through Amazon, eBay, or direct sale to incoming students. For older editions, elective casebooks, supplements you’ve written in, and bar prep materials more than two years old, the resale market drops off sharply and donation is the practical path. I’ll be honest with you about what has value — text 702-496-4214 with photos and I’ll tell you which books are worth trying to sell.
What happens to the law textbooks I donate?
Every donation gets sorted by hand. Law textbooks with current resale value — recent casebooks, current hornbooks, recent bar prep sets — go on Amazon or eBay. That revenue funds the free pickup operation. Older law books that still have educational value go through distribution channels to reach students and practitioners who need affordable materials. Law review journals with regional significance route to libraries and collectors. Only genuinely destroyed books go to my recycler. Nothing usable gets thrown away.
Do you take bar prep materials from Barbri, Themis, and Kaplan?
Yes. I accept bar prep materials from all providers — Barbri, Themis, Kaplan, and others. Current-year and one-year-old sets have meaningful resale value because bar prep is expensive and students actively seek used alternatives. Sets that are two or three years old still find some buyers. Older than that, value drops significantly because the outlines, practice questions, and MBE prep materials are tied to specific exam years. Regardless of age, I accept them all.
Are law review journals worth donating?
Individual issues of law reviews generally have no resale value — there are too many in circulation. The exception: complete or near-complete runs of New Mexico-specific law journals, particularly the New Mexico Law Review and the Natural Resources Journal. These have regional research value and can find homes with libraries, collectors, and practitioners. If you have a box of assorted law review issues from various journals, I’ll still take them, but most will end up recycled rather than resold.
When is the best time to donate law textbooks in Albuquerque?
Two peak periods: May graduation (when 3Ls finish law school) and late July through early August (when bar exam takers dump their prep materials after the exam). December produces a smaller wave when 1Ls and 2Ls finish fall semester. February bar exam takers generate another small wave afterward. I accept donations year-round — the 24/7 drop box is always available, and pickups can be scheduled any time by texting 702-496-4214.
Can you pick up law books from the UNM Law School area?
Yes. Free pickup from anywhere in the Albuquerque metro, including the UNM North Campus area where the School of Law is located, off-campus apartments in the nearby neighborhoods, and anywhere else law students and attorneys live and work. During May graduation and post-bar-exam periods, I increase pickup frequency. Text 702-496-4214 with your address and photos of the books.
Do you handle law firm library cleanouts?
Yes. Law firm library deaccessions are a regular part of what I handle. Firms going paperless, older attorneys downsizing, solo practitioners retiring, and firms relocating to smaller offices all generate significant volumes of legal material — reporters, treatise sets, practice manuals, CLE materials, and sometimes decades of accumulated reference works. I handle the entire library. For large firm deaccessions, I can coordinate with your office manager on timing and logistics.
What condition do law textbooks need to be in for donation?
Any condition. Highlighted, margin-noted, tabbed, spine-cracked, coffee-stained, brief-annotated, post-it-flagged — all accepted. Law students are famously hard on their casebooks, and I know what well-used law books look like after a semester. The UNM Bookstore and Amazon trade-in both have condition thresholds. I don’t. Readable books go to readers. Books beyond use go to my recycler. Either way, they stay out of the landfill.
Which law subjects hold resale value best?
The foundational 1L subjects hold value best because every law student in the country needs them: constitutional law, property, torts, contracts, civil procedure, and criminal law. These casebooks have the broadest demand. Upper-division electives and specialized practice-area texts have narrower audiences. Hornbooks and treatises in foundational subjects hold value longer than casebooks because practitioners and academics use them as ongoing reference works.
How does the edition cycle affect law textbook value?
Law casebooks typically release new editions every two to three years to incorporate new court decisions and statutory changes. When a new edition drops, the previous edition’s resale value drops sharply — often by half or more — within a semester. Two editions back, the value is minimal. Hornbooks depreciate more slowly because the underlying legal principles change less frequently than the case selections in casebooks.
Do you accept NCBE practice materials and MBE prep books?
Yes. NCBE practice exams, released MBE questions, MEE and MPT prep materials, and any other bar-exam-adjacent study aids are accepted. Like bar prep course materials, their value is highest when current and declines with each exam cycle. Even older NCBE materials have some demand from students who want additional practice questions. I accept them in any condition.
What about legal research and writing textbooks?
Legal research and writing texts — including the ALWD Guide to Legal Citation, the Bluebook, and LRW course textbooks — have moderate resale value when current. Citation manuals hold value better than general LRW texts because they’re used throughout law school and into practice. Older editions of citation manuals still find buyers among practitioners who need a reference copy.
I just passed the bar — what should I do with all my prep materials?
Congratulations. If your materials are from the current exam cycle, they have meaningful resale value — incoming bar preppers actively seek recent used sets. It’s worth trying to sell them quickly because value drops with each passing exam cycle. If you’d rather just have them gone without the hassle, donate them to NMLP. I’ll route the valuable ones to market. Text 702-496-4214 with photos and I’ll give you an honest read on whether selling or donating makes more sense for your specific set.
How do I schedule a free law textbook pickup?
Text 702-496-4214 with photos of your books and your address. That’s it. I’ll confirm a pickup window, usually within a day or two. During May graduation and post-bar-exam periods, turnaround is often same-day or next-day for the UNM area and central Albuquerque. You can also call the same number. No forms, no online scheduling portal, no minimum quantity. One casebook or an entire law library — same process.

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Ready to clear the law library?

Text 702-496-4214 with photos of your law textbooks. Free pickup anywhere in the Albuquerque metro, or use the 24/7 drop box at 5445 Edith Blvd NE. Casebooks, hornbooks, supplements, bar prep, law review volumes — all of it. No minimum, no sorting, no condition requirements.

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