Looking to sell used textbooks for cash?
If you’re a voracious reader with stacks of books available at home or if you’re a college student who bought textbooks for last semester’s classes and you no longer have a use for them, then perhaps you’re wondering about how to sell your books online to make some extra cash for even more books.
In this article, we’ll be going over some important questions you might have about selling used books, including why you should sell them online, how to do it, and where to sell textbooks for the most money.
Where to Sell Your Used Textbooks Online
1. Book Scouter
BookScouter is one of the best places to sell textbooks online.
It does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. You simply enter the ISBN of the book, and BookScouter looks for buyers from dozens of online bookstores before giving you the best available prices. Essentially, it’s a bookselling search engine.
BookScouter pays you through the following methods:
- Paypal
- Check
- Bank Account
It actually depends on the preferred method you list down in your account settings.
2. Cash4Books
On the other hand, we also have sites such as Cash4Books, where buyers buy books directly from you.
Once a buyer creates an offer for your book, they’ll send you a prepaid shipping label that you can use to ship the book to them, so they can inspect the book’s condition and send you the payment via PayPal or check if they approve it.
3. Sell Back Your Book
Sell Back Your Book works similarly to Cash4Books except that this time, you can input as many ISBN books as you can instead of having to input the ISBN of the books one by one. This way, you get an instant quote for each book.
Additionally, they also have apps available for download where you can simply scan a book with the app, which will immensely speed up the process.
4. Sell Books on Amazon
Of course, no buy-and-sell article would be complete without the largest online marketplace in the world, Amazon.
While it may be a trusted platform with thousands of potential buyers, reviews do show that you get much less for your textbooks compared to some other sites.
The thing is, you may have a much better chance of selling your book faster on Amazon than in any other place.
5. Barnes and Noble
People forget that Barnes and Noble also has an online store with a great textbook reselling program.
While the process of selling a textbook is pretty much the same as other textbook websites, having the name Barnes and Noble just adds an extra level of security to it.
The only drawback is that the books you sell must be at least $10.
6. CKY Books
CKY Books allows you to buy and sell all kinds of books ranging from fictional to non-fictional, religious books to textbooks, and many more. The great thing about it is that they also cover shipping costs.
CKY also sells the following items:
- Movies
- Games
- DVDs
It’s reminiscent of the type of bookstores you could find in the early 2000s. As an added bonus, you can also get paid through PayPal or Bank Transfer.
7. BookFinder.com
Another great resource is BookFinder.com.
A lot of people do find it extremely similar to BookScouter and opt to use it to compare the offers that BookFinder can find to BookScouter.
8. Craigslist
While there are tons of sites similar to Craigslist out there, Craigslist is still one of the best sites to sell your stuff locally or in your area.
9. eBay
If you have textbooks to sell, perhaps another great site with lots of oncoming traffic would be eBay. eBay is the place you first think of when you consider selling an item.
When pricing your books, take note that there may be other fees, including a commission or shipping fees, so when you price your book, make sure to take that into account
10. BookByte
BookByte has been one of the oldest platforms to buy, sell and rent textbooks at lower prices. After inputting the title of the textbook or its ISBN, you could find the title and get an instant offer.
11. Textbook Buyer
This is a great marketplace where you can buy textbooks, as it had specifically resold textbooks for the past ten years.
Textbook Buyer offers the following things that a lot of other platforms don’t have:
- A fair pricing policy
- Free shipping
- Fast payment
If you’re looking to sell on a reputable website, Textbook Buyer may be the way to go.
12. Sell Used Books on Chegg
Chegg is more than just a tutoring or education platform; it also allows you to buy and sell your books.
After you visit the website, you can easily enter a book’s ISBN, and you’ll get an instant quote for the price of your textbooks.
Chegg pays you through the following methods:
- Paypal
- Check
- Credits
13. Textbook Rush
Another website where you can sell unwanted textbooks for cash online is textbook rush.
They deal specifically in college textbooks where you can input an ISBN and get a quote of how much it sells
TextbookRush allows you to get paid through multiple methods:
- PayPal
- Check
- Store Credit
14. FirstClassBooks.com
FirstClassBooks allows you to enter the ISBN of the textbooks and gives you a quote for the current price the book sells.
You can receive these payments within two business days.
15. CampusBooks
CampusBooks works similarly to BookScouter in that you can compare prices from different vendors. However, CampusBooks focuses solely on textbook buybacks for the website.
How To Sell Used Books Online
Selling books online requires you to look for a platform to post them on, compare buyback prices, and place the book’s information.
Essentially the process of reselling books involves entering the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) and then receiving a price based on the conditions of the book. Now obviously, the prices differ based on the niche that the book is in.
Make sure to do adequate research before creating a listing to maximize your earning potential. There are a lot of sites out there that stand to benefit from ripping you off, so make sure to stay educated and ahead of the game.
Why Should I Sell My Textbooks Online
Selling your books online does two things for you: 1.) allows you to sell at a higher price and 2.) sells your books quicker.
As online places tend to have lower overheads than their brick-and-mortar counterparts, they can offer you more money, and it’s pretty intuitive to say that selling to a place with higher profit margins is always the better option.
Secondly, the number of people who see your book is limited to the incoming traffic of the platform you sell it in. The higher the amount of incoming traffic, the higher the probability of your book selling fast.
As a result, it would be ideal to post your used book listings on large platforms such as Amazon and eBay, where the thousands of people scouring the website daily would increase the chances of someone actually purchasing your book.
Conclusion
For anyone looking to resell their textbooks, there are many places where you can sell your used books.
The whole process of doing it is pretty simple you simply enter the ISBN, get a quote, and ship your products for free.
When doing this, however, ensure you exhaust all possible resources to maximize the profits from selling your used books.
FAQs
Where can I sell my textbooks for the most money?
There are a lot of great options out there. As each site would most probably offer different quotes for the same book, expanding your resources and checking out the prices on the different platforms would ensure that you get paid the most.
Where is the best place to sell old books?
If you want to sell it quickly, choose a site with a lot of incoming traffic, such as Amazon or eBay. However, if you wanted to sell it at the highest price, you’d have to go on multiple sites to find that out. Do take note that this may take longer than the first option.
Is Selling Books on Amazon profitable?
Yes, they are! Despite being a world where the hot commodities mostly revolve around the tech industry, books are profitable items that have a high ROI. As the old saying goes, “In the niches are the riches.” If you were to start a journey in book reselling, perhaps Amazon is your best bet to dip your toes in the water.
Who pays the most for used books?
The answer to this question is simple: College students. Think about it, a single college textbook can go for as much as $300, which means that even if you purchase a used textbook for around $50, you could still make good money reselling it at a higher price. This is exactly why there are so many individuals who talk about flipping college textbooks and earning a profit from them.
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