do you have any old textbooks laying around the house?

Discussion in Seasonal & Holidays started by S.O. Price • Aug 9, 2012.

  1. S.O. Price

    S.O. PriceActive Member

    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2012
    Threads:
    45
    Messages:
    226
    Likes Received:
    38
    Hi,

    Right now is prime time for book buybacks. I just sent in 4 college text books and will be getting a check for over $100 from

    Log In

    . There are lots of other sites out there. As to which site will give you the best price, it just depends on the books you have. From the reviews I've seen, Amazon.com has 'not so great' service.

    You can just enter in the ISBN number from any of your books into a search engine and you should be able to find several sites that buy books back. Hope this idea puts money in your pocket!
     
  2. tosaytheleast

    tosaytheleastActive Member

    Joined:
    May 2, 2012
    Threads:
    20
    Messages:
    473
    Likes Received:
    4
    I think this is a good idea. I have lots of textbooks now that I think will not be useful after I graduate college so I might as well find a website that buys used books. I have more than 10 medical books here that I do not open already since I bought a tablet.
     
  3. youtubedomination

    youtubedominationMember

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2012
    Threads:
    3
    Messages:
    75
    Likes Received:
    0
    This sounds like a great idea, Amazon Student doesn't really pay much for textbooks. I've got a couple laying around that I would be glad to get rid of for some cash.
     
  4. Sugarhill

    SugarhillActive Member

    Joined:
    May 14, 2012
    Threads:
    27
    Messages:
    700
    Likes Received:
    9
    I do have some old textbooks, but there was a reason as to why I kept them, so I would never sell them. In fact, I remember when there was one that I sold for the money at the time, but had to go back to get because I knew I wanted that particular textbook.
     
  5. Zapped

    ZappedMember

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2012
    Threads:
    19
    Messages:
    27
    Likes Received:
    0
    I have 5 or 6 old text books. I keep them because they are still relevant to what I am doing. The rest of my books I sold back, to use to pay for other things. Renting textbooks, or checking them out from the library, are other ways you can save some money when it comes to text books.
     
  6. pk86

    pk86New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 31, 2012
    Threads:
    4
    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    0
    I have quite a few that I've been meaning to sell. Last time I stored them in the closet and forgot about them for a few years so they ended up being too outdated for anyone to buy. Thanks, I'll check out the site you posted, a lot of place I've checked didn't seem worth the price. I found that selling them directly to other students on campus gave me the most money back but my school has yet to reopen the "book buy back" forum on their site so I'm stuck.
     
  7. S.O. Price

    S.O. PriceActive Member

    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2012
    Threads:
    45
    Messages:
    226
    Likes Received:
    38
    If you haven't even opened them, you should be able to get quite a good price for them. Do some searching on line and don't let any of the textbook sites cheat you out of a good return. :)
     
  8. Terri

    TerriMember

    Joined:
    Aug 10, 2012
    Threads:
    5
    Messages:
    26
    Likes Received:
    1
    I have a few books from school that I kept. I always forget that I can easily go to the student library on campus and sell the books to them. They don't buy them for the amount they were originally paid for, but some extra cash in your pocket from a book you'll never read again is AWESOME!! Also, I love to go to these same student bookstores when I need to buy new books for the upcoming school semesters. Because people bring back the books for cash they can be sold cheaper because they're used. This allows lots of students (like myself) to get those same academic books for a lot cheaper, and give me a glimmer of hope that I can get higher education without needed to be financially set first. Mmhm... *nods*
     
  9. melbel

    melbelNew Member

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2012
    Threads:
    2
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    You know, I should really start doing this again. I did this when I was younger -- I would buy hardcover books from rummage shops and sell them on Half.com for more. Now that I'm in college, I have a bunch of text books completely unrelated to my major that I will probably never read again. I think I should start selling on Half.com again. Thanks for the idea! :)
     
  10. mrpotatohead

    mrpotatoheadNew Member

    Joined:
    Aug 16, 2012
    Threads:
    2
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    You're usually better off buying them directly off of other students if you can, which saves the middleman costs. You're both usually better off than going through a store. Obviously, this is not always an option.
     
  11. etc

    etcActive Member

    Joined:
    May 11, 2012
    Threads:
    11
    Messages:
    338
    Likes Received:
    3
    My father is a engineer and has lots of textbooks. these text books are published almost a century ago, will these have a good value? I'm thinking of publishing them online and have ads on the site. :D but if they'd buy these for a good price, i'd probably sell it to them.
     
  12. Jessi

    Jessi<a href="http://www.quirkycookery.com">QuirkyCooke

    Joined:
    Mar 31, 2012
    Threads:
    126
    Messages:
    2,256
    Likes Received:
    78
    Very true. I preferred doing it this way when I lived on campus because the middleman took such a huge chunk from both sides. I actually ended up keeping some of my books simply because I couldn't justify selling them back for only 10 or 15 bucks when I'd previously spent $150 on them. :S
     
  13. sergiu23

    sergiu23Active Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2012
    Threads:
    7
    Messages:
    124
    Likes Received:
    2
    I have an alternative idea: I got about 200 books about electonics, physics, math (some were 100 years old) from someone. I built a regular website in which i put a table with the books names, authors, year, pages and prices along with my contact details. Until now I think I got about 1500$ from it. It's not much cause I'm talking 3-4 years, but it's still something. I shipped them via regular post mail, the clients usually want this method (cause it's cheaper and they have to pay for it :)).
     
  14. Sandra Piddock

    Sandra PiddockExpert

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2012
    Threads:
    24
    Messages:
    757
    Likes Received:
    3
    I did this when I finished my degree courses. I advertised the books on the college noticeboard, which was free, and I sold the books for half the cover price, which was the convention at the time. Since I bought some of my books the same way, but took great care of them, it meant I got back what I'd paid for them.

    I either met people in college to pass on the books, or they called to my home to collect them, so I didn't even have shipping costs. It's a great way to go, as colleges run the same courses each year, so the students have the same reading lists. Unless it's law textbooks, which quickly go out of date, you can usually clear out most of your textbooks in this way.
     
  15. clewand550

    clewand550Active Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2012
    Threads:
    22
    Messages:
    179
    Likes Received:
    0
    Thanks for this post. I will have to remember this one. Textbooks are so expensive. I just got done paying $900.00 for my son's books. I will keep this place in mind. I have used chegg.com which has helped but most of them were purchased at my son's college bookstore which is so expensive. Chegg didn't have most of my son's books that he needed. Thank you again for posting this site. It will certainly come in handy for both selling and purchasing.
     
  16. NopGuy

    NopGuyActive Member

    Joined:
    May 1, 2012
    Threads:
    11
    Messages:
    253
    Likes Received:
    0
    I think this a great idea to get rid of your old and unwanted textbooks. I have a couple of textbooks that I were given to me for free all the way back in Elementary school that I know I'll never use!
     
  17. Jessi

    Jessi<a href="http://www.quirkycookery.com">QuirkyCooke

    Joined:
    Mar 31, 2012
    Threads:
    126
    Messages:
    2,256
    Likes Received:
    78
    Where are you from? Using media mail for books would make the shipping cost even cheaper and it rarely adds much more time to the shipping, if any at all.

    Half.com lets you list them there without taking any fees until the book sells, too, so you can have them up for years without it costing you anything.
     
  18. Mrs. Pirz

    Mrs. PirzExpert

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2012
    Threads:
    22
    Messages:
    463
    Likes Received:
    3
    I posted mine for sale on Amazon but I will definitely give this page a try. I have some books that are just not selling
     
  19. sergiu23

    sergiu23Active Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2012
    Threads:
    7
    Messages:
    124
    Likes Received:
    2
    I am from Romania. But the idea might work everywhere, especially if you have a large amount of books. Just create a free hosted, simple website and then post classified ads like "Books for sale from the following domains: bla bla bla" and at the end "The complete list of titles and prices on www.blababla.com" :) That's how I got most of my shoppers, and I also never paid for shipping via postal services. Books are usually not very urgent, people don't need special shipping.

     
  20. nash22

    nash22Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2012
    Threads:
    1
    Messages:
    393
    Likes Received:
    3
    This a great idea! I have brand new books that I barely opened my first year in college,that I really need to get rid of. I am tired of looking at them and could also use the money.