The State of New Mexico’s Books

Five findings

1. New Mexico’s books are read everywhere. Marketplace orders shipped to buyers in all 50 states plus DC — 42,605 distinct ZIP codes across 55,695 orders (2020–mid-2026). A donated Albuquerque book is more likely to end up in California (6,828 orders) or Texas (3,998) than to stay on a shelf.
2. Donated books are in better shape than people think. Of 9,293 books individually accepted by Powell’s Books under professional grading, 90% graded “Standard” condition. The overall acceptance rate across 528 itemized shipments was 90.7%.
3. Resale is a ladder, not a gate. A book that isn’t worth listing individually is not worthless: it moves down a seven-channel ladder — individual marketplace listings, per-book wholesale, and finally pallet-scale freight (30 bulk shipments since 2020). Recycling is the rare last resort, not the default.
4. Donation season peaks in late summer. August is the single biggest intake month (66,263 items scanned) and June–September accounts for roughly half of annual volume — move-out, estate, and shelf-clearing season. March is the quietest.
5. The record is verifiable. 5,383 distinct ISBNs appear in two independent, timestamped systems — the intake scan archive and Powell’s itemized payment records. This study cites its own paper trail.

2 · Where the books go: a national demand map

From marketplace transaction reports (2020–mid-2026, fulfilled both from warehouses and direct): 55,695 orders, 54,990 distinct listings, buyers in 42,605 distinct ZIP codes covering all 50 states and DC. Top destinations:

Buyer geography aggregated to state level; states with fewer than 3 orders would be suppressed (none were — every state cleared the threshold).

4 · The local machine: pickups on the ground

Behind the intake numbers is a van: 2,371 GPS-logged business drives covering 19,516 miles (detailed logs for 2022 and 2025). Pickup and stop density by ZIP, k-anonymized (areas with fewer than 3 visits suppressed):