Making Money Selling Books
I was in an organizing mood for a while. During this organization, I decided to go through our old books from college. My WORD, did we ever have enough college books! I don't even want to think of how much we spent on those!!!
I know there are several services online that will buy back books. I mean, you can sell anything on eBay, but I didn't want to take the time to list and ship each one individually. So, I decided on Cash4Books.net.
I heard about Cash4Books.net a long time ago. I actually looked into them when I was going back to school many years ago. They sell textbooks at a reduced rate too. I know the college bookstore will buy back your books, but you may actually make more selling them to an online site so just weigh all the choices.
The site was super easy to use. There is a spot to enter the ISBN's. You can enter several at a time. I just stacked up a pile and started entering!
You can see the price they are paying for your book if they are buying it back. If they aren't buying one, it will say that too. If you want to accept the price, simply keep the book for sale in your cart. Once you are finished, you go to your sale cart and see every book that you have agreed to sell.
One of the things that can eat into profits when you sell on Ebay or other auction sites is the shipping cost. Well, Cash4Books.net offers FREE shipping from you to them! If you sell at least 5 books, you can get a FedEx shipping e-label to get tracking, faster shipping (makes for faster payment) and insurance on your books. I sold 5 books so I got the FedEx upgrade!!
Before I decided to go with Cash4Books.net, I also looked at eCampus. I used them to purchase college books many years ago too. I found that they weren't accepting many of the books I had to sell. I guess it has been a looooong time since I was in school :) I know Amazon also has a seconds seller area, but I didn't want to mess with the shipping, tracking, selling, etc (just like with Ebay).
After I finished my order, I noticed Cash4Books.net has an affiliate program. You receive $5 for each person that sells back books. I'm only sharing that part because it may be valuable to you. I was just excited to get $20 for some old books and have a de-cluttered shelf!!
So, now I have a clean (er) basement with fewer books that are no longer collecting dust. It really only took me about 10 minutes to go through about 20 books. Since I was in the process of organizing anyway so it was no time out for me. And, it's a nice surprise to actually get money for something that we haven't used in forever!
Do you know of any other good sites that will purchase old books?
What do you do with books you no longer use?
Andrea, what a great idea! Thanks… I still have TONS of college books on Special Education (I’m sure they are out of date now, though!), and I will see what I can get from ’em.
I recently started using paperbackswap.com. You list the books you would like to get rid of and they put them in the database. When someone requests one, you receive an email and confirm that you still have the book and can ship it within 2 days. They make it very easy to send. You can print out a wrapper to wrap the book, and they estimate postage from you. For a small fee, you can pay for postage online and avoid a trip to the post office for heavier books. Every time you ship a book, you receive a credit that you can use to request a book. There is no charge to receive a book–only shipping when you mail one of your own.
Thanks Andrea! We have a pile of college books I need to get rid of. I also LOVE half price books. I take old novels, kids books they’ve outgrown, etc..to the store. They go through them and then give you a price per book. If there are books you don’t want anymore and sometimes even the library won’t take, half price will. They donate their overstock books and outdated books to non-profits all over the world.
Kandi – good suggestion! I will be going to Half Price books, then!!! At least they can donate them for me.
I believe that cash4books.net will price match other online book buyback sites. I being using cash4books.net for several years and they have always price matched a textbook that I found higher at another web site. All you have to do is email them the price and web site and then they will email you back to let you know whether they will or won’t price match. I really enjoy using cash4books.net and textbooks.com to buy and sell textbooks. I also think both of these web sites give you a returning customer bonus when you sell back your textbooks.
I’m a paperback swapper (paperbackswap.com) too. I love the program! I’ve gotten a ton of books on my to-read list and in the process gotten rid of books I don’t want anymore!
I also LOVE paperbackswap.com and was so excited to tell anyone else about it. I’m surprised that the few who commented before me didn’t say anything, so I will, but if you list me (by e-mail [email protected]) as the one who told you about it, I also get credit for a free book. And, just for listing your first 10 books that you’re willing to send to others, you get one free credit. Terri’s comment (above) explains the program well. I’ve only been a member for about a year and I’ve already received over 30 books and saved $100’s of dollars and cleared out my shelves!
Thanks everyone so much!! I’m getting some great ideas here!
There is also swaptree.com
Another alternative to cash4books is http://www.MyBookBuyer.com
They do free shipping too, but they let you choose whether you want to use UPS or the post office, which I think is pretty cool
Overall, a great experience with them.
MyBookBuyer.com is not worth it. They don’t offer prices for very many books. Also, they are not accredited by the BBB which makes me personally feel like they are not a trustworthy company because almost all other buyback sites are BBB accredited. Such as Cash4books.net, they have an A+ rating and if you read their about us page, you will also notice that they were the very first online book buyback company. In my opinion, Cash4Books.net is by far the best and most trustworthy.
FYI- the comment about Half Price Books donating unwanted/unsold books to non profits is not true. My husband used to work there years ago, and they threw away books that they did not want or did not sell. They would sometimes throw away hundreds of books per day, but NEVER donated a thing to anyone.
If you want to buy books. i would advise you to go online and search the prices for these books using services like http://www.thecollegetextbooks.net. It is better than going for standalone stores. As you can save on lot of money using them.
I love this site and a few others, especially the ones that compare you book amongst other companies that do the same. I sold my graduate program books to them plus older undergrad books. There is also a site that is great to work with to sell cds, movies and other like media. They give way more than stores like Half Priced Books.