What Media Can You Donate in Minneapolis?

DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, VHS tapes, vinyl records, audiobooks on disc, video games, and the players' worth of discs that came with them. Give My Books Network accepts physical media alongside books, in the same box, unsorted.

• DVDs and Blu-rays, including box sets and season collections
• CDs, both music and audiobook
• VHS tapes, which more people want than you would think
• Vinyl records, LPs and 45s alike
• Video games and their cases

Does Anyone Still Want DVDs and CDs?

Yes, steadily. Libraries, senior centers, shelters, and tutoring programs request discs through the Give ME Books program, and the resale market for physical media in this city has never actually gone away.

A DVD shelf that stopped getting used in 2015 is not a dead shelf. It is a shelf that has been waiting for someone else to find it.

What About Vinyl Records?

Vinyl is welcome, and it is worth packing properly. Minneapolis is a serious record city, and a crate of LPs from a Northeast apartment is one of the more valuable things a Local Pick-Up Partner will collect all week.

• Stand records upright, never stacked flat. Weight on a flat stack warps the ones at the bottom.
• Use a box that fits. A tight crate stops records sliding and leaning.
• Do not leave vinyl out overnight in deep cold. Records go brittle, and a cold record that gets bumped can crack.
• Set the crate out the morning of pickup, under the porch roof, with a bag over the top if snow is in the forecast.

How Should You Pack Media for a Minneapolis Pickup?

Pack discs flat in small boxes and keep every container light enough to carry alone. Media is denser than books, so a box that looks half-empty may already be heavy enough.

Cases can stay on. Loose discs are fine too, though a paper sleeve or a rubber band around a stack saves a few of them from scratches. Local Pick-Up Partners sort everything offsite after collection, so no separating is required at your end.

Can You Mix Media and Books in the Same Box?

Yes, and most donors do. Hardcovers, paperbacks, DVDs, CDs, and audiobooks all ride together perfectly well, and no sorting is needed before a Local Pick-Up Partner arrives.

Vinyl is the one thing worth keeping separate, purely so nothing heavy lands on top of it. Everything else can go in the same container. The American Library Association's guide on donating books and media explains why library branches take so little of this, which is exactly why a doorstep collection makes sense for it.

Where Donated Media Goes After a Northeast Pickup

Local Pick-Up Partners sort every collection offsite. Many items are redistributed through the Give ME Books program to libraries, senior centers, shelters, community centers, and literacy programs that have requested them. Some items are resold by the partner.

Resale funds the vehicle, the fuel, and the sorting hours, which is why none of this costs a donor anything. Items that cannot be reused may eventually be recycled as a last resort. Not every disc finds a second life, and Give My Books Network says so rather than promising otherwise.

What Media Donation Pickup Costs in Minneapolis

Nothing. No fee, no per-box charge, no minimum, and no difference in price between a single DVD box set and a crate of records from an apartment off Central Avenue.

Give My Books Network and its Local Pick-Up Partners are family businesses, not 501(c)(3) nonprofits, so no tax-deduction receipt is issued. Donors in Uptown and Northeast tend to care more that the boxes leave the entryway on a Tuesday morning without anyone taking a day off work.