Selling Used Textbooks Online

March 22, 2008 1:35 PM

What's the best way to sell used psychology textbooks online?

Where and/or what's a good method to sell used psychology textbooks online?

If you had a dozen used psychology books and textbooks, how and where would you sell them?

posted by cashman to computers & internet (7 answers total)

Half.com
posted by Asherah at 1:52 PM on March 22, 2008

You can check the value of the books on Half.com and Amazon.com (just search by ISBN). If a book is the most current edition, follow one of the "sell yours here" links after you search. Price your book slightly higher than the lowest price: undercutting the lowest price will start a chain reaction that drastically lowers the going price; pricing too high will all but guarantee that your book never sells. If you have a previous edition, it won't be worth much money at all.

Also take into consideration the cost to ship the book. In many cases, the shipping credit you receive will not cover shipping costs, so you'll need to price the book accordingly (don't list a heavy textbook for $5, because you'll eat it on fees and shipping).

The USPS has a Postage Calculator. Use Media Mail if your buyer chooses standard shipping. Only offer expedited shipping if you can afford to send it via Priority Mail.
posted by reeddavid at 2:17 PM on March 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

I've successfully sold a stack of textbooks through Amazon.
posted by puritycontrol at 2:29 PM on March 22, 2008

I've personally used the Textbook Buyback at Abebooks. Got about 25% or little more for 1 math book. They paid the shipping.
posted by ptm at 2:34 PM on March 22, 2008

I don't know how well any of these work, but there are sites that specialize in this, inlcuding Bookswap, the used textbook classifieds, Campus Book Swap and Swapbooks.com.
posted by jeri at 2:56 PM on March 22, 2008

If you are not married to the idea of selling online, I recommend exploring your nearby universities for "bookswaps". When I was in college, a club sponsored a university-wide bookswap at the beginning of every semester. They took only 10% of the sale price as commission, so the sellers got more than if they did "buyback" at the school bookstore, and the buyers got it for less than a used book at the school bookstore. (Our bookstore was run by Barnes & Noble. If I remember correctly, it bought used textbooks for about 25% the original price, and sold them for 60-75%.)

I don't know if you would need to be a current student at the school to participate in that sort of thing. But it, like selling directly to the consumer via half.com or amazon.com, will probably bring you a larger return than using a "buyback" service.
posted by inatizzy at 2:57 PM on March 22, 2008

amazon all the way. this is the only way i've ever sold textbooks and it generally works out quite well.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 7:40 PM on March 22, 2008