UPSC Aspirant Sells Years of Books for Rs 464 After Three Mains Attempts
A 26-year-old UPSC aspirant sold years of books for Rs 464 after three Mains attempts, a failed Prelims attempt, and major personal sacrifices.
AC Team
For years, his UPSC books were part of his daily life. They held his plans, doubts, test scores and handwritten notes. Then, after three attempts at the Civil Services Mains examination and a failed Prelims attempt, a 26-year-old aspirant sold the entire collection to a kabadiwala for Rs 464.
The books included the NCERT textbooks he began with, M. Laxmikanth’s Indian Polity, mock tests, answer sheets and pages of notes. To anyone else, it may have looked like a pile of old paper. To him, it carried years of work and hope.
Three Mains attempts and one final setback
The aspirant appeared for UPSC Mains in 2023, 2024 and 2025. He did not clear the exam in any of those years. In 2026, he failed to clear Prelims for the first time.
He shared his experience in a post on Reddit’s UPSC community. He wrote that the journey was over after years of trying to reach the next stage. The post drew responses from many aspirants and former candidates who knew the pressure of the exam.
While describing the sale, he said each book placed on the weighing scale made him feel numb. The pile contained every mock test he had written, every answer he had checked at 4 AM and every note he had rewritten in the hope of gaining one more mark.
That is the part many readers found hard to ignore. The books had a scrap value, but they also held a personal history that no weighing scale could measure.
A job and a relationship were also left behind
The aspirant graduated in 2022. At the time, he turned down a high-paying job because he believed he could build his career through the civil services. He later said people either mocked that choice or felt sorry for him.
His UPSC preparation also affected a four-year relationship, which ended during those years. He described a pattern familiar to many exam candidates: each setback led to a fresh plan, a new timetable and the thought of trying one more time.
That phrase can keep an aspirant going. It can also make it hard to notice how much life has changed around the exam. Friends move ahead, jobs wait for no one and personal relationships can lose their space. A study plan may cover every hour of the day, but life does not always follow the timetable.
Why the books were sold for Rs 464
The scrap dealer paid him Rs 464 for the books and papers. Someone nearby suggested that he should have asked for Rs 600. He replied that the books had not given him what he needed, so a difference of Rs 100 or Rs 200 did not matter.
The line carried a dry kind of humour, but it also showed his state of mind. After years of preparation, the final price was not the main issue. Selling the books was a way to mark the end of a chapter.
He donated the Rs 464 at a temple. He made it clear that the money was not an offering made to gain merit, luck or another chance at the exam. He said there would be no next attempt.
The emotional cost of long exam preparation
The UPSC Civil Services Examination has a small number of seats compared with the number of candidates who apply. Aspirants often spend years preparing through Prelims, Mains and the interview stage. Many leave jobs, move to coaching hubs and put personal plans on hold.
Success stories often focus on rank holders, study hours and final results. Stories of candidates who stop trying show another side of the process. A person can work hard, improve, reach Mains more than once and still not get the final result.
That does not make the preparation worthless. It means the result cannot explain the full journey. The notes may go to a scrap dealer, but the skills gained during the process can remain: reading large amounts of material, writing under time limits, tracking current affairs and building an argument.
For this aspirant, though, the next step was not another strategy or another test series. It was a decision to stop. His books left in a scrap pile, the money went to a temple and his long UPSC journey ended with a sentence that carried years of effort: he had received what he needed from the books, but not what he had hoped for.
