So last semester I decided to sell my textbooks on eBay, because the bookstore at the university pays you next to nothing for your textbooks. It wasn't a great idea though, because I didn't get much money for my textbooks on eBay. This semester I wanted to try selling them on Amazon, but I looked how much amazon took from your profit. Amazon takes a $0.99 fee + $1.35 fee + 15% of what you make. I think it's a ridiculous charge.
I have heard that half.com is pretty good but I have never tried it myself. I would think your best bet would be to sell your old textbooks to other students early in the fall.
I sold mine on Half.com. It's owned by Ebay, but I got a better price for the books because everybody who goes there is specifically looking for books...not every possible product under the sun. The downside, though, is that you don't set a specific auction ending time, so some of my books didn't sell for several months. If you need cash -now,- then it's not as helpful, but if you're willing to wait for a better price, then it's great.
I tried this a few years back. There are other sites as well where you can sell your textbooks, but in general no site is going to pay an exorbitant amount of money, or really anywhere near what you paid for the textbook.
I also sold my textbooks on half.com and got quite a large chunk of change for them. I also use the website to buy my textbooks since it seems to be more affordable than Amazon.
I do not sell my book back to the book store. They will give you next to nothing for them, yet when you go looking to buy books from them they charge you an arm & a leg. Ridiculous! Last semester, I sold back all my books through eBay. I got close to $50 or so per book, so for me...that was really good! It just depends on what books you have, and what the demand for them is. If you have international versions of books...they will not go for nearly as much. If you are looking to sell your books, I would suggest trying to following website: bookscouter.com All you have to do is enter your ISBN of the book; and a list of 20 or so websites will come up that are wanting to buy that book, along with their prices. Most of these companies will pay for the shipping as well.
I've had luck with both Amazon and Ebay. It really just depends on the book and the price others are selling it for. I've also had luck posting info around campus or on Craigslist.
Couldn't you just sell them to some new students at the university? I gave my textbooks to my cousin and he is still using them. He did pay me 60$ each though.
The thing is, you have to have some way of connecting with those new students. Craigslist is definitely a possibility. There were a couple times where I put my books on half.com and had someone on campus contact me to do a direct exchange instead going through the website, so that worked well, too.
How easy was it to set this up through their page? My Husband has a few books he barely used from his nursing classes and wants to get rid of them. They cost a pretty penny but he doesn't know where to sell them to make the highest profit. We heard of half.com but to buy books , I never thought you could sell them on there too.
Google some other textbook sites - I remember selling mine to one online (I don't remember the name) - shipping was free, and they would often take books that the school wouldn't! You aren't going to get back what you paid, but I was surprised by how much they offered (you print out the bar code after entering your book info. and tape that to the box with the books packed inside - drop it off to UPS, and voila, you get a check in the mail!)
If nothing else works for you, sell them to another student. or better yet exchange them. Find a student who needs them and can't afford to get them and exchange them for something. For example, if they have a website you can host an add, or if they are science masters they can help you out in something. Good Luck
Don't buy textbooks. If you can, purchase/rent the online version unless you truly feel as if you will need to reference the book 5-10 years in the future.
I never thought of selling a textbook online, I wish I would have kept mine so I can make a little money. After all those fees did you even have any money left?
I think this is a good idea to sell text books online so that the other students can get a break on their books for college. So many students can't afford the price of college now a day so that is a big help to both of you to farther your education. Parents have a hard time these day trying to keep it together, so they can help you so you can kind of help yourself and that's great.
I purchased many of my textbooks online for decent prices. They are so expensive at the university to purchase. I am also considering selling my textbooks on half.com. It seems like it would be a good way to recover some of the funds for future book purchases.
This is what I usually did when I was in college. During the first few weeks of classes you'll find plenty students asking for 2nd hand books because they're much cheaper. I think this is your best bet.
I've sold a lot of used textbooks through half.com. I like that you can set your own price. I've made much more than the $10 they always want to give you at book buyback. Half does take fees but I'm not sure how much. Another good thing about using that service is you can ship via media mail which is usually less than $3 to ship even for the really heavy textbooks.
I never really bothered to sell back most of my books to the university store or online. Then again I never paid all that much for them either. I mean I generally paid 70% less for my books then most others in my class. Of course, I usually bought the paperback International Edition, but it was new and it included all the various bits.
