About

Bay State Books was founded with a simple belief: books deserve a second life.
 
What began at home in a small apartment—as a personal curiosity about reselling used books online—quickly grew into something much larger. After making connections with local libraries, a single opportunity changed everything: a call from someone looking to discard 12 book donation bins. Instead of letting them go to waste, those bins became the foundation of a new model centered on reuse, access, and sustainability.
 
The early days were humble. The operation outgrew the apartment and moved into a storage unit in Roslindale, but the mission stayed the same. When the very first donation bin filled with over 1,000 books in just two weeks, it confirmed what we believed—people wanted a better alternative to throwing books away.
 
Bay State Books was built to turn a love of books into a mission-driven business—one that delivers real environmental impact alongside economic sustainability. By keeping books in circulation, we reduce waste, extend the life of printed materials, and make reading more accessible to communities everywhere.
 
Today, Bay State Books has re-homed more than 20 million books and kept over 50 million books out of landfills. Our mission remains unchanged: to build a scalable, sustainable system where books are valued, communities benefit, and environmental responsibility is built into everything we do.