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College Students - Where should I sell my textbooks?

T

TheBoyBlunder

Diamond Member
Ebay? Amazon? Half.com? The local bookstores?

The whole problem is I'm a history major and I'm not sure where to sell 'em to get "top dollar," so to speak.

Edit: It sounds like the local bookstores and half.com are the way to go.

I'd put up fliers, but I'm a history major at a relatively tiny university that rotates classes. It could be a year or more before some of the classes I just took are offered again. Yes, this place sucks, but I'm out of here next May so I'm going to see it through to the end.

If anyone has any tips for me as far as selling on half.com or amazon, I'd appreciate them...I've never actually sold anything online.
 
I use half.com or textbookx.com. They're not too shabby. If you sell your book at the right time to the bookstore, you might get a decent price. If you sell it much later and they don't have much demand for it, it's gonna be low.

Good luck.
 
i usually keep em till the next semester and sell em back to the students that are taking the course.

Flyer right outside the respective classroom works best.

I usually get like close to the full amount I paid minus 5-10 bucks. 🙂

Beats getting like 30% back by selling it to the bookstore.
 
I use half.com and amazon. I disagree with Modeps- sure it's more of a hassle since you have to package the books and send them off, but you'll get a ton more money in return if you sell online. I've sold books online for twice as much as what the school bookstore was offering. All you have to do is create a account, list all the books you have (isbn and a description), and if and when someone purchases your book(s) you pack it up nicely and ship it via usps media mail. Not hard at all imo.
 
if you want more money, then half.com or amazon.

if you want to get rid of it for some money, then back to your school.
 
Amazon or half.com. NEVER at the school. After they buying back my barely used $120 physics books for $20 I swore I would never deal with them again. Also, you can ship the books via Media mail (cheap)
 
Originally posted by: bolido2000
Amazon or half.com. NEVER at the school. After they buying back my barely used $120 physics books for $20 I swore I would never deal with them again. Also, you can ship the books via Media mail (cheap)
Click to expand...

exactly.

this is what I did

1) First, like isekii mentioned, I would go to the classrooms and try to sell the book to the student directly.
This method is extremely tedious and sometimes furtile.

2) If that didn't work, then I would have flyers stapled to the board next to the class and wait for them to call me

3) if that still didn't sell the book, i'd goto Half.com first, then amazon. Half.com has a slightly better price than amazon

4) campus bookstore is always my last resort. otherwise I rather i keep the book.
 
Originally posted by: andylawcc
Originally posted by: bolido2000
Amazon or half.com. NEVER at the school. After they buying back my barely used $120 physics books for $20 I swore I would never deal with them again. Also, you can ship the books via Media mail (cheap)
Click to expand...

exactly.

this is what I did

1) First, like isekii mentioned, I would go to the classrooms and try to sell the book to the student directly.
This method is extremely tedious and sometimes furtile.

2) If that didn't work, then I would have flyers stapled to the board next to the class and wait for them to call me

3) if that still didn't sell the book, i'd goto Half.com first, then amazon. Half.com has a slightly better price than amazon

4) campus bookstore is always my last resort. otherwise I rather i keep the book.
Click to expand...

what do you mean it's tedious ?
How hard is putting up a fliers right at the classroom doors and bulletin boards ? You dont' carry the books with you, if you did or thought about it you're an idiot.
If they want to purchase the book, you can either meet up with them or have them pick it up.
I had no trouble selling most of my books this way, and I got close to everything I put into it.
 
I've sold most of my books through Amazon, and I've gotten a lot more than what the bookstores on campus offer. I expect I'd get even more if I posted a flyer, but the hassle and timing isn't worth it to me. If your school has like a "forsale" newsgroup or forum, then you might try that.

Watch out on the heavy textbooks if you're going with Amazon, though. They give you some set amount for shipping 2lbs via media mail, and big books can really set you back and cut into your "profit".
 
Well, thanks for your advice...I think I'm going to see what my local bookstores will offer me for my textbooks before I put 'em on half.com. I would appreciate some help selling them though, I've never sold anything through ebay or half.com...if someone could give me a basic walkthrough, it'd be great.
 
Originally posted by: isekii
Originally posted by: andylawcc


1) First, like isekii mentioned, I would go to the classrooms and try to sell the book to the student directly.
This method is extremely tedious and sometimes furtile.


what do you mean it's tedious ?
How hard is putting up a fliers right at the classroom doors and bulletin boards ? You dont' carry the books with you, if you did or thought about it you're an idiot.
If they want to purchase the book, you can either meet up with them or have them pick it up.
I had no trouble selling most of my books this way, and I got close to everything I put into it.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

yes, putting up flier is a no-brainer. but not nearly as effective as bringing the books with you to the classroom and sell them (the 'idoit' way)
Put yourself in their shoes; you are a student who need a textbook, you saw the flier, you copy down the number somewhere on your arm or one of those schedule of class or some piece of random paper, and let's say you actually remember where you copy down and number AND decidedly would call up the seller. You would want to check the quality of the book right? okay, so you decided to meet up with the seller, but on the way to meeting point, you found out another flier that dude is selling the same book cheaper, so would you ditch the first seller and goto the second one and pretend nothing happened? Yes. and what can the seller do? Nothing.
see, my whole point is, going directly to the potential buyer is an effective way to sell a book, nevertheless much painful and time consuming. If the student is interested but not doesn't carry enough cash, just give him/her the flier or get his/her contact number.
maybe ppl in your school are less concerned with pricing and more easy-going. In my school, ppl will pricecheck everywhere before buying a pencil from you.
 
Originally posted by: TheBoyBlunder
Well, thanks for your advice...I think I'm going to see what my local bookstores will offer me for my textbooks before I put 'em on half.com. I would appreciate some help selling them though, I've never sold anything through ebay or half.com...if someone could give me a basic walkthrough, it'd be great.
Click to expand...

if you think selling on line is too much hassle, just do the "flier" way, it is the least painful and generate more revenue. you can go ahead and try selling back to the bookstore, but I guarantee you will be disappointed if not enraged.
 
I sold my books to one of those online places back in 2000 and got credit of $120 (instead of $90 cash) and they paid for the USPS shipping label too. Let it sit there for 6mos or so and then realized I wanted a few books, visited the site to discover they had declared bankruptcy. So I filed some paperwork and sent it off to the court in CA and of course didn't get jack as a result.

Sell your books today for cash!!! Nothing else is worth it.
 
Originally posted by: andylawcc
Originally posted by: TheBoyBlunder
Well, thanks for your advice...I think I'm going to see what my local bookstores will offer me for my textbooks before I put 'em on half.com. I would appreciate some help selling them though, I've never sold anything through ebay or half.com...if someone could give me a basic walkthrough, it'd be great.
Click to expand...

if you think selling on line is too much hassle, just do the "flier" way, it is the least painful and generate more revenue. you can go ahead and try selling back to the bookstore, but I guarantee you will be disappointed if not enraged.
Click to expand...

I don't think selling online is too much hassle, I've never done it! I just wanted a few pointers from people who actually have done it. I just want to know what my local bookstore will give me before I put 'em online, that's all. If you have any pointers, please share them.
 
Originally posted by: andylawcc
Originally posted by: isekii
Originally posted by: andylawcc


1) First, like isekii mentioned, I would go to the classrooms and try to sell the book to the student directly.
This method is extremely tedious and sometimes furtile.


what do you mean it's tedious ?
How hard is putting up a fliers right at the classroom doors and bulletin boards ? You dont' carry the books with you, if you did or thought about it you're an idiot.
If they want to purchase the book, you can either meet up with them or have them pick it up.
I had no trouble selling most of my books this way, and I got close to everything I put into it.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

yes, putting up flier is a no-brainer. but not nearly as effective as bringing the books with you to the classroom and sell them (the 'idoit' way)
Put yourself in their shoes; you are a student who need a textbook, you saw the flier, you copy down the number somewhere on your arm or one of those schedule of class or some piece of random paper, and let's say you actually remember where you copy down and number AND decidedly would call up the seller. You would want to check the quality of the book right? okay, so you decided to meet up with the seller, but on the way to meeting point, you found out another flier that dude is selling the same book cheaper, so would you ditch the first seller and goto the second one and pretend nothing happened? Yes. and what can the seller do? Nothing.
see, my whole point is, going directly to the potential buyer is an effective way to sell a book, nevertheless much painful and time consuming. If the student is interested but not doesn't carry enough cash, just give him/her the flier or get his/her contact number.
maybe ppl in your school are less concerned with pricing and more easy-going. In my school, ppl will pricecheck everywhere before buying a pencil from you.
Click to expand...


I don't know about you, but when I list my books I decribe the general condition of the book.
Plus when I buy used books this way, I usually don't even care waht the book condition is as long as it has all the pages and such.
Why do you need a book that you'll only use for a semester or two ?
It's not like you carry the books around anyhow.
Plus most students carry around a lot of cash anyhow to purchase books like the first 2-3 weeks of the semester.
 
oh, Amazon.com and Half.com registeration is quite simple. It may intimidating at first but just work it along and you will be done with it. Now the second part is to "post" the item on line for sell, there you set your price, add description, and maybe upload a picture. You MAY want to do this by taking a picture of your book so buyer can see the current condition of the books. Then all you can do next is to wait. If a buyer wants the book, amazon/half will alert you via email. The "most" trouble part is to then wrap up the book and ship it. This is the only procedure that requires you to step foot outside of you room 🙂
 
Originally posted by: andylawcc
Originally posted by: TheBoyBlunder
Well, thanks for your advice...I think I'm going to see what my local bookstores will offer me for my textbooks before I put 'em on half.com. I would appreciate some help selling them though, I've never sold anything through ebay or half.com...if someone could give me a basic walkthrough, it'd be great.
Click to expand...

if you think selling on line is too much hassle, just do the "flier" way, it is the least painful and generate more revenue. you can go ahead and try selling back to the bookstore, but I guarantee you will be disappointed if not enraged.
Click to expand...
I think selling books via the flier is the BEST way since you'll get the most out of your money. Make sure you put how much the book store is selling it for (new and used) and set your price below the used book price. I sold my biology book this way and received more than I would have through Half.com or any other service. Of course, this only works for textbooks that are new and used in another class next quarter/semester.
 
Originally posted by: isekii


I don't know about you, but when I list my books I decribe the general condition of the book.
Plus when I buy used books this way, I usually don't even care waht the book condition is as long as it has all the pages and such.
Why do you need a book that you'll only use for a semester or two ?
It's not like you carry the books around anyhow.
Plus most students carry around a lot of cash anyhow to purchase books like the first 2-3 weeks of the semester.
Click to expand...


well, I am like you too, I don't care much about the condition of the book and just buy the cheapest used one avaible on campus or on line.
however, with my so-called 2 years of experience. I never sell all my books thru the posting fliers method. They would call, ask for updated price, (sometime arrange a meeting) and never return call or reply.
I just believe if I can present the product(book) upfront to my customers it would make it easier for both parties.
 
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