Originally posted by: DrPizza
For me, the way to go was our fraternity at college ran a book sale every semester during the first week...
It was all done on a commission basis. You brought your used textbooks to us, you set the price for the books, we put them out for sale. We collected books for 4 days (usually sat, sun, mon, tues if school started on a monday) then sold them wed, thur and fri. We received a $1 for every book that we sold. If we didn't sell your book, then you just got your book back. We made thousands of dollars at the sale. It was a win-win situation for everyone... used books for cheaper than you'd get at the bookstore, and you got back far more money for your books by selling them, rather than getting money for them from the bookstore. The sale was pretty well organized - we never had any problems. And, as a frat member, I'd be able to buy the books that had the cheapest prices on them. For instance, we'd have a stack of 40 chemistry books... the bookstore price would be $75 for used - the prices people were asking would range from 20 to 70 usually. I'd grab the one for 20. Then, if I knew that the demand was high enough that all of the chemistry books would sell, the next semester I'd have it listed for $65 or 70. I made money every semester on books - read that again - every semester, I got back way more money than I paid for books.
