As a book-lover, it's very hard for me to let go of my old books, except for maybe that 100 pound, 1,000 page Physics book, but as a rule I like to keep them. But when you start lifting a 70 pound box into a moving truck and realize that this is only about one-twentieth of your collection, it's probably time to get rid of a few.
Many students elect to sell their used textbooks on Amazon instead of at the campus bookstore.
For one thing, the campus stores often won't buy back certain books or they will only buy a certain number of them. And they definitely don't give you anywhere near the price you paid for them. I've also had good luck selling trade books and novels I probably won't read again, especially hardbacks that are fairly new.
And, of course, when you post them, the best way to sell them fast is to make the price a little, even one cent, cheaper than the other posters so that it comes up as the cheapest on the page. One difficulty with this is there are also all these companies that sell on Amazon for super-cheap prices, which is great for buyers but not for individual sellers. When you sell something for $.01 or even $1, it's not even enough to cover your shipping costs. Therefore you end up losing money. The big companies must ship so many a day that individual shipping costs are negligible. Thankfully, this tends to happen less with textbooks as I've had pretty good luck selling them for a decent price.
So where do you sell your books? Are there better sites to use? Have you been undercut like this by a big company?
Comments (24)
Half.com is a really good one. They charge the person you sell to a little extra for shipping, which sometimes covers the whole cost if you buy a big bunch of packaging material to use for all your books, and ship heavy textbooks Media Mail. They only charge you 10% commission, and only if your book sells.
My husband and I sold my old college textbooks to Half Price a second-hand/new bookstore, and they don't give you nearly enough for it, but at least you don't spend 10 years carrying around textbooks you don't need. I spent 3 years doing that before we sold them.
Ebay
I went to a local used bookstore that worked with our school. Their books were so much more reasonable than getting them from school. I went there.
The thing I dont like & people dont know about with textbooks is the school almost never tells students when they change books. I've known students who spent HUNDREDS of dollars on brand new books & when they tried to sell them back at the end of the semester, they were refused because the school got "new editions" (in my opinion, they just got prettier covers. WTF?!). This is why I try to get all used whenever possible so I dont lose all my money. I'm not one that cares if the book is sparkling new, I just want all the pages in it & the accessories (if applicable).
If the book is still being used, sometimes selling them to other students for a reasonable price is fair. Just make sure they have the right one for their class.
i sell my textbooks to people a grade younger who are going to take the class.
that's how i buy my books too lmao. :]
Amazon! Much better than ebay
The best way is to find out if the teacher is using the same book next session and to go into class and try and sell it. I did it with my sociology book.
Half.com always was the best for me. I was also able to post "for sale" items on the campus bulletin board. I got a good price there, too!
Keep them or sell them back, depending on the book.
I do all of my textbook buying and selling at CampusBooks.com because it shows all of the deals from across the Internet in one place. I find the best prices and I only have to go to one site. And I always get better prices than my friends who use the bookstore on campus.
ecampus is a good one. Oh and if you are still in school you can actually RENT your textbooks for a fraction of the cost of buying them outright. I do it and have for years, go to
www.chegg.com
I use DealOz and just type in my ISBN numbers. It'll go through all of the sites like Amazon, Cheggs, Abe, etc. Then I pick who offers the most and send it out to them.
@Shinbi_Belldandy@xanga - I totally agree that it's ridiculous. I was an English major and they always made us buy the newest edition of all the novels we read so that we would all be on the same page in class. I mean, how much does Shakespeare change from year to year? Anyway, thanks for the advice and awesome blog!
@Kat - Thanks! Yeah that's nuts! The text hasnt changed in hundreds of years, why do you need new books? In high school during my senior year, we read Othello but they got a line called "Shakespeare made easy" & they worked out a deal with Barnes & Noble to get us the book for $5 & we could sell it back to the teacher at the end of the year. I love to read so I kept mine.
If I cant afford a book, I usually share with someone. Unlike high school, you dont really use the book all the time in class. Or I look up the info online.
half.com = ebay.com but for books.
half.com is the easiest, i feel
ebay
I haven't sold any of my textbooks yet, but I know that some people sell on Facebook. Some colleges (like mine) have a group where people post up books they're selling, and you just contact that person and meet up on campus. I bought a textbook from another student that way.
half.com is good. textbooks.com too if the book you have is one they need. but there's always uloop. they post books (among other things) within your school network and people can search through and look for what they need instead of going to the bookstore and buying books at ridiculous costs.
I sell my books at www.chegg.com and I currently rent as many textbooks as I can from there now instead of buying them.
Use this promotional code if you guys ever feel like trying Chegg out: CC105024 It saves like 11% off your rental order, and it gives you 5 bucks extra when you sell a book to them if you use it.
You could always sell your textbooks online to eCampus.com, they will pay you a decent amount for your used books. They also have a marketplace that allows you to sell your textbooks to other students and vice versa.
Check them out here:
Sell Textbooks - Sell Your Textbooks at eCampus - Textbook Buyback - Sell College Books with eCampus Textbook Buyback
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try using http://www.cheapesttextbooks.com i use them to sell and buy my books. when you sell your books to them they pay for the shipping which i think is awesome!! :)
try using cheapest textbooks.com they have <a
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use them to sell and buy my books. when you sell your books to them they
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