Once your classes are over and your finals turned in, the question arises of what to do with your old books. There are tons of online buyback services that provide you a shipping label so you can just send them in for free and get paid. There are even more options where you can list your old textbooks for sale yourself and ship them individually to your buyers. Finally, there are traditional, in-person options. How you choose to sell your books depends on how much time you have to put into the process, how much money you can get from each option and who is offering to buy them. Here are the ten best places to sell textbooks for the most money.
- Amazon
Amazon is one of the first places anyone thinks of when considering where to sell books online. To sell on Amazon, you will need to open a seller account and list the books you have available on their individual product pages. As a seller, you will need to agree to Amazon’s terms and conditions and adhere to their policies, including their return policy. Amazon’s selling process is more automated which makes it a convenient option for sellers.
- eBay
Online auction giant eBay also remains a highly viable option for selling your used books. eBay offers a little more flexibility than Amazon does, which makes it a good alternative for students who have books that don’t easily match an existing Amazon listing or need to charge more for shipping. Be sure to take detailed photos of your books and write compelling listing descriptions.
- BooksRun
On BooksRun, you enter the ISBN, title or author of your book to get offers. From there, you can finalize the sale where you will be provided with a free shipping label. Send the books within five days and be paid upon receipt. Be sure you are familiar with their condition guidelines when agreeing to sell your books to them.
- Bookscouter
Bookscouter is a site that compares textbook buyback prices across dozens of sources. They don’t just take price into account when displaying vendors but also speed, shipping options, payment options, user ratings and Bookscouter’s own experience with those vendors. If they aren’t working with a service you’ve found, they provide an easy link for you to tell them about it. Bookscouter also has mobile apps for iOS and Android for the convenience of college students.
- Barnes and Noble
Barnes and Noble allows you to sell textbooks as well, particularly on their marketplace where you can post your books for sale. Because Barnes and Noble is a major retailer of books for students, you should be able to get top dollar for your books. If you don’t want to buy your books but rent them next semester instead, Barnes and Noble offers rental options where you can simply send the book back at the end of the semester and not have to deal with it anymore.
- BookByte
BookByte has been around for decades now and is an excellent option to not only sell textbooks but also for picking up books for your new classes. BookByte pays via check or PayPal, which you can select at checkout. BookByte also runs a blog that provides tons of useful information about college, books and more.
- Craigslist
Craigslist is a great option for selling your used textbooks locally. By selling on Craigslist, you won’t have to worry about packing up books to ship them to individual buyers or buyback services. Perhaps someone else on your campus is interested, or someone else in your city will be interested in meeting up with you at a local coffee shop to buy the book off you.
- BookFinder. com
BookFinder. com is one of the best sites for finding and comparing book prices. It serves as a database and price comparison site for books of all varieties. Not only is it good for doing research on pricing for various editions of books, but they also offer their own textbook buyback program as well.
- Abebooks
Abebooks is another option where you can list your books yourself. It has more of a reputation for selling out of print or rarer books, making it a good place to sell any books that may be unusual, don’t have an ISBN or might have some value on the collector’s market. Abebooks is also a good place to go if you are looking to sell an international edition. If there is something strange or unusual about your book, Abebooks might be worth checking out.
- On Campus
A final option is to sell your books in person on campus. This can be an especially good strategy if you advertise that you have them for sale right at the start of a new semester. You can sell them for less than the going price at your campus’ bookstore and students who need those books quickly for classes will be willing to pay for them. Doing so will likely net you more money than if you sold them online. You can advertise by posting flyers in common areas and spreading the word.
When selling your used textbooks, be sure to provide accurate information about the book’s condition and exact edition in order to get the most money possible for it and speed up the process. You can sell your books through just one platform or several. Do some comparison shopping and you will be able to get the most money for your used books.
