Emmaus Village Carlton was selling donated books for £50 a pallet. After switching to Sell Your Books Pro, they generated over £28,000 in one year, funding mental health support, counselling, and community activities for residents.
The Opportunity
Emmaus Village Carlton offers a stable home, meaningful work, and support for 42 companions who have experienced homelessness. To provide accommodation, food, and a small weekly allowance for their companions, they run social enterprises, including an on-site charity shop.
120-140 cars drop off donations at their site every day, which are then sold by Emmaus Village Carlton. This constant stream of donations is great for raising revenue, but puts pressure on storage space and human resource, and used to mean that many items, like books, weren’t always assessed for their true value.
How We Helped
The team at Emmaus Village Carlton started using Sell Your Books Pro to generate more revenue from their donations than they were getting from pallet collections.
“Before we were using Sell Your Books Pro, we were palletising books for a small, fixed fee. It wasn't until we invested that time and had a look properly at scanning through Sell Your Books Pro that we realised just how much revenue was to be made.”
Steven Scott
Reuse and Recycle Manager at Emmaus Village Carlton
Books that would normally be put on a pallet often proved lucrative. One day, Steve scanned a small foldout bicycle map of Cambridge, which he assumed was worth nothing. He found Sell Your Books Pro would buy it for £5.10.
Steve and his team now scan every book they receive with Sell Your Books Pro. They fill around 24 boxes every week, which World of Books collect for free each Friday.
The Impact
In the last financial year, Emmaus scanned over 50,000 accepted books and generated over £28,000 in revenue. They use this money to provide mental health support, counselling and recreational activities for companions.
“These things cost money, but they’re things that are important for our guys to do. Using Sell Your Books Pro allows us to do just those things.”
Steven Scott
Reuse and Recycle Manager at Emmaus Village Carlton
Another key benefit was how little resource Sell Your Books Pro requires. One volunteer can scan around 1,000 items in 3 hours. That’s 5 books in 1 minute, 28 books in 5 minutes and over 300 books in 1 hour. Jane, a volunteer who scans books three times a week, appreciates how simple the system is:
“Using the system is fantastic. It’s very quick and easy. You see straight away whether a book is wanted and how much it’s worth.”
"The £28k+ in revenue that's been generated, has not only supported the community, but has helped the companions gain transferable skills to transition back into work. The value added can be measured not only in the money raised, but it the confidence and support built within the Emmaus community.”
Melissa Cave
Senior New Business Manager at World of Books