What are the advantages and disadvantages of personally selling your used textbooks?

Question

I'm in university and I am debating on whether I should sell my used textbooks or not. Obviously, I could potentially earn back a good amount of the money that I spent buying the book.

But still, is it worth it to sell? And, should I sell it personally (as in person-to-person) or sell it to the campus used bookstore? The Used Bookstore provides an official receipt but only offers 80% of the profit to the seller. If I sell it person-to-person, I figured I could sell it for at least 90% of its original price but no receipts =(

Which brings me to my next point, how do you determine the price of the used textbook? I know that you can't sell it for more than the price you bought it for... but what is usually the percentage of the price that students sell them at? 90%? Will someone buy it that high? I mean, I just want a good fair amount of price on my used textbook if I'm going to sell them.

Pls. help... I've never done this before...

Answer 1

The used bookstore is very convenient, and the few extra dollars you would make in private sales are likely not worth the time you would need trying to sell the books on your own (finding a buyer, advertising, etc). vs. just selling them there. Also, when the time comes to sell them, if you want a private buyer, you pretty much have to wait until the next term starts before anyone might want it, by which time the same class may switch to another text, and your book would be worth much less to the used store than if you had sold it by term end.

However, if you want to go that route, the best thing to do is check the bookstore yourself and see what the used copies are already selling for, then offer your own at a price higher than what the store will pay you but lower than the price of the used copies the store sells themselves.

And BTW, you still have the right to request a receipt from a private buyer, all you need is a signature acknowledging the sale.

Answer 2

You're right, in that you can likely get more money if you sell directly rather than through the bookstore. I don't really see much advantage to having a receipt from the bookstore, but if that is important for you, then maybe you should go to the bookstore.

Another option that you have not mentioned is to sell the books through an online auction site like eBay. My husband sold a book on eBay for a lot more than he could have gotten by selling it to someone on campus. Also, you can start the bidding at whatever price you want, so if they won't pay at your minimum price, you can always try to sell it on campus afterwards.

If you do want to sell books on campus, one method I have seen before is to actually go to the class that uses the book in the first week of classes and mention that you have a used textbook for sale. Be sure to come prepared with what the bookstore is charging versus what you will charge so they know how much they will save when buying from you. :)

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

When I was in school, I most often sold back my used text books to the university bookstore if I felt I wasn't going to need it again (I kept my marketing books because I went into the marketing field, but I didn't keep many others). I didn't get full price, but I also didn't need to find a buyer, so convenience was key. Our bookstore bought them back as long as the text was needed the following semester. If you don't find a buyer, and the bookstore stops buying them back because they have enough for the next semester, you will be stuck with it.

If you're looking to sell your text books yourself, the key to the price will be to make it less than what the bookstore is selling used books for, which is higher than what they'll give you for buying it back, but lower than a brand new text. I'm not sure if there is an average percentage, I'd just go look at the used text books in the store and set your price a few dollars under that.

I'm not sure what the goal of having the receipt is?

Answer 4

you can make more money off of it, but you have to wait for the right quarter or semester and physically find someone in the class who is willing to buy it. Plus, the professor might change the edition or something. To determine the price, I just keep it slightly below what the bookstore is selling it at the used price...so for a $170 i had to buy, I sold it for $100 and the bookstore was selling it at $110 for used. It's better than what buyback offered me ($45).

Answer 5

No, it is extremely rare that you can sell a book for 90% of what you paid for it. If a bookstore offers you 80%, that's usually very good. There are very few exceptions.

Personally, I keep my books in my major and books that I find fairly interesting or useful. The only books I really sell are English or liberal arts books. Also, if you keep textbooks, then there is some chance that you can lend them to close friends to save them money. I've done that once. If you are intent on selling them, sell them to people you meet. That way, you can get more than the bookstore will give you for the book, and they get it cheaper than they could anywhere else.

I've also found that technical books for upper-level classes have a higher resale value than literature or English books. But unless I was really desperate for money, I would keep the books for classes I liked or found useful or important. Good night!

Answer 6

i sell my books on amazon. when i foolishly sold my books to the school bookstore i got back 25 dollars on a book that cost 60. it was highway robbery! with online you have to pay for shipping, but i dont have to worry about actually finding someone on campus to buy, and can set my own price. i keep all the books in my major, but i sell my gen ed ones. also i would have to say buy used, from the bookstore if they offer it, online, from friends. a used book has the same information as a new one, just no shiny new cover. i never understood why some printed pieces of paper between two heavier pieces of paper are so much!