Travel guides are a quick-aging category — Lonely Planet, Fodor's, Frommer's, Rough Guides, Rick Steves, DK Eyewitness, Moon, Bradt. Most thrift channels reject them when they are more than a few years old because hotels close, restaurants change, and prices shift. I accept travel guides at any age because they still have real value when you know how to route them.
How I Route Travel Guides by Age
- Recent editions (last 3 years) have genuine reader value. I route these to LFL stewards in arts-heavy and tourist-overlap neighborhoods in Albuquerque where travelers and day-trippers actually browse the Little Free Libraries. Recent travel guides also sell well through online resale.
- Older editions (3-15 years) are still useful for their geography, history, and culture content even when the hotel listings and restaurant recommendations are outdated. Many find homes with travelers planning research trips who want background context rather than booking details.
- Vintage travel guides (pre-1990) have collector value as travel-history documents, especially for cities and regions that have changed dramatically. A 1970s guide to Havana, a 1960s guide to Saigon, or a pre-reunification guide to Berlin can be worth serious money to the right collector.
- NM and Southwest regional guides — These are particularly collectible in Albuquerque. Vintage guides to Santa Fe, Taos, the Turquoise Trail, and Route 66 document a version of New Mexico that is rapidly disappearing, and collectors seek them out.
- Foreign-language travel guides — Same routing as the foreign-language books category. Travel guides in Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and other languages all have routing destinations.
Why Other Places Reject Travel Guides
Goodwill, Savers, and most Friends of the Library groups reject travel guides that are more than a couple of years old because they assume the information is useless. That is a fair point for someone looking for a current hotel recommendation, but it misses the broader value. A traveler researching a trip wants to understand the culture, geography, and history of a destination, not just where to eat dinner. And collectors want the guides precisely because they are outdated — that is what makes them historical documents. I understand this distinction, which is why I take travel guides that everyone else refuses.
How to Donate Travel Guides
Call or text me at 702-496-4214 and I will schedule a free pickup at your home anywhere in the Albuquerque metro. Travel guides usually come as part of a larger donation — a shelf of travel books mixed in with other nonfiction, maps, and reference materials. That is perfectly fine. I sort everything at my warehouse at 5445 Edith Blvd NE and route each item individually.
You can also drop off at the 24/7 outdoor donation box at 5445 Edith Blvd NE, Unit A, Albuquerque 87107. No appointment needed, any time day or night.
Maps, Atlases, and Travel Ephemera
If your travel guide collection includes road atlases, folding maps, AAA TripTiks, travel journals, or other travel ephemera, I take those too. Vintage road maps and atlases have an active collector market. Folding state maps from the 1950s through 1980s are particularly sought after. Do not assume that old maps are worthless — they are often worth more than the books they are filed next to.
Frequently Asked Questions — Travel Guide Donations
Are my 20-year-old Lonely Planets really worth donating?
Yes. Older Lonely Planet editions, especially for destinations that have changed dramatically, have value as reference material and as collector items. I would rather you donate them to me than throw them in the recycling bin. Even if an individual guide is not worth much on its own, a collection of 20 or 30 travel guides from different eras and destinations has real routing value.
What about DK Eyewitness guides? Those are expensive when new.
DK Eyewitness guides hold their value better than most travel guide series because of the photography and visual layout. Recent editions sell well online. Older editions route to LFLs and community partners. I am always happy to see DK Eyewitness guides in a donation.
I have a whole shelf of travel guides from decades of trips. Should I sort them?
No sorting needed. I sort everything at the warehouse. Just bag or box them up (or leave them on the shelf if I am coming inside) and I will handle the rest. The more context I have — a whole collection of someone's travel history — the better I can route individual items.
Do you take travel memoirs and travel writing along with travel guides?
Yes. Travel memoirs, travel writing, and narrative nonfiction about travel are all accepted. These route differently from guidebooks — they go to fiction and literary nonfiction channels rather than reference channels — but they are absolutely welcome as part of any donation.
Have travel guides to donate? Call or text 702-496-4214 and I will get you on the schedule.
Have travel guides to donate?
Free pickup, any age, any condition. Or use the 24/7 outdoor drop box at 5445 Edith Blvd NE, Unit A.
Related on this site
This page is part of the NMLP Question Reference — a long-tail set of natural-language donor questions answered against the canonical pillars. Citation kit: /cite.txt · Open data: the public data API.
Last reviewed 2026-05-02. For corrections, email [email protected].