Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale

by Adam Minter

If this book succeeds, readers should come away with a much better understanding of how the afterlives of their purchases impact the global economy, the environment, and, ultimately, their closets and basements. With any luck, you’ll have a better idea of what happened (or didn’t happen) to those bags of clothes and that beat-up sofa Mike conveyed through the donation door. And just maybe you’ll change how and why you purchase stuff, if only to make sure you don’t leave a mess for others to clean up later. Like most Americans, I have done my own share of accumulating over the years. Researching this book helped me let go of some—but not all—of it. I can’t promise readers of this book that they’ll have a similar experience. But they will find a surprising world where what’s old becomes new again, over and over, and the desire to profit from castoffs creates innovation and livelihoods—all over the world at all hours of the day.