Author Topic: selling books??  (Read 4914 times)

albireo13

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selling books??
« on: September 27, 2018, 05:20:12 AM »
I have quite a few books, including old text books from college.

Is there a good online resource for selling books to recommend?

Google search brings up various options but who knows which are best.


Thx

ROF Expat

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Re: selling books??
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2018, 11:49:04 AM »
Do you have any reason to believe that any of your books have any significant value to anyone?  Old college textbooks are usually worth next to nothing, especially once a new edition comes out.  Boxes of old paperback bestsellers will similarly have little value.  On the other hand, a collection of hardback first editions (not book club editions) of highly collectible authors could be worth quite a bit.  If your town has a used book store, I'd start by talking to the staff there about what you have and whether it has any value.  Sometimes used bookstores will trade books with you if there's any demand for what you have.   

Dave1442397

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Re: selling books??
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2018, 06:54:25 PM »
As stated above, old textbooks are basically doorstops at this point. Just recycle them.

For other books, you can set yourself up as an Amazon seller, or try www,abebooks.com, www.alibris.com, or www.biblio.com

I'm in a similar situation. I have at least 5,000 books that I'd like to get rid of. Right now, they're mostly on shelves in the attic, so they don't get in the way, but I'll never reread them at this point.

Freedomin5

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Re: selling books??
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2018, 10:40:44 PM »
When I was trying to sell my old textbooks at the end of grad school, I went on all of the websites and put in the ISBN number of each textbook. The site will then tell you whether or not they are accepting that particular edition of that particular textbook. I did this for every single textbook on each of those textbook buyback sites, because each site may give you a slightly different buyback price, and some sites will take books that other sites will not take.

Once I figured out which sites were taking which books for the highest prices, I printed out the free shipping label and sent the appropriate books to the appropriate sites, then waited to collect the cheque. It was a lot of work, but I think I got back at least 50% (if not more) of what I paid for the textbooks.

Blueberries

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Re: selling books??
« Reply #4 on: October 12, 2018, 02:57:41 PM »
Look for a main site that will give you pricing for several different websites.  You typically need at least $20 worth of books to get the free shipping label so you'll want to keep track of which website is paying you for which books.  From there, you'll get a free shipping label to use.  It takes 4-6ish weeks and then you'll be mailed a check or sent a PayPal deposit.  I used Powell's and another company; both were fine.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how much my old books were worth.  The process was easy and I am only disappointed I donated hundreds of books without trying to sell them first.

HamsterStache

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Re: selling books??
« Reply #5 on: October 15, 2018, 09:43:44 AM »
https://bookscouter.com/ - an aggregater service that searches most/all book buyback websites for an ISBN and lets you know how much they will pay for them. I sold an old textbook I found for free for $50+ by scanning it with their app.  I ended up selling through textbook maniac. Textbooks that have frequent new editions will be basically worthless if you have an older version, but depending on the book, you can make a pretty penny.

You can, of course, try selling yourself though ebay or amazon, which involves more work for potentially more reward (I think my textbook was listed for around $120 used on Amazon, but no guarantee when/if it would sell at that price if I listed it.

rivendale

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Re: selling books??
« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2018, 09:08:02 PM »
I have had success using https://www.bookfinder.com/buyback/ as an aggregate site. The easiest transactions were through sellbackyourbooks and abebooks. Ecampus.com took far too long to complete a transaction and I wouldn't sell to them again.

seattlecyclone

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Re: selling books??
« Reply #7 on: October 16, 2018, 06:48:28 PM »
I've had some success selling books on Amazon. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it, but be aware that most books aren't worth selling on there. When the price is below about $5, the amount you get after Amazon takes their cut won't even cover shipping. Relatively recent textbooks are an example of something that can be worth selling.

If you itemize deductions, donating books to a place like Goodwill can in many cases be the most economically advantageous way to dispose of them, even better than trying to sell to a used book store.

adventurestache

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Re: selling books??
« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2018, 06:54:55 PM »
Not online, but I've always had good luck with Half Price Books. You probably won't get as much money as some other methods like Amazon, but it will likely take you the least amount of time. They also give you cash, not store credit. Not sure how little you'd settle for, but in my experience I've gotten between 50 cents and a dollar per fiction book on average. You can always decline their offer if you think its too low. It probably depends on the demand of the book, and most of mine were old books from childhood (including books I had to read in high school).

I've never sold textbooks there, so not sure how much you'd get for those. I hope this helps!