They may have cleaned up their act some. But this is what their "donation" boxes used to look like: https://www.alamy.com/book-and-clothing-donation-bins-in-a-s

They may have cleaned up their act some. But this is what their "donation" boxes used to look like: https://www.alamy.com/book-and-clothing-donation-bins-in-a-sarasota-shopping-plaza-image61362024.html https://www.alamy.com/book-and-clothing-donation-bins-in-a-s... Notice they say, "Donate books here". But you aren't donating. That's a total lie. Any more than giving free merchandise to Walmart is "donating it" because walmart gives to charity every year. No one goes directly to their website. They sell primarily on 3rd party sites, so they probably decided to clean up the site a bit. I remember it being much more misleading in the past. I'm sure you could look on the wayback machine. As for the large number of books given away, that is simply a cheap way for them to get rid of the books that are worthless. Otherwise, they would have to pay to have them hauled off. And you'll also notice that they don't say they have "donated" $26m to charity. They say they have raised $26m for charity. Not sure what that means, but it sounds more like they are soliciting donations from others. Maybe they are providing matching funds in some cases or maybe they are just organizing donation programs. Also, that number is the amount raised since 15+ years ago. They have annual sales estimated around $75m a year. So $26m lifetime is rather small.