Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with usedbooks

To erase or not to erase, that is the bookworm's question.

zardoz — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:00:32 -0800

Before taking my used books to a used bookstore for sale or trade, should I erase the penciled-in prices inside the cover? No reason: if a book has a good price on it, maybe higher than you'd expect from a used book (i.e. I was ripped off when I bought it in the first place), then I can hope for a good trade in/sell price.

Yes reason: the bookstore worker will, at the very least, be a teensy weensy bit glad they don't have to do the erasing themselves, therefore giving them a teensy weensy boost, and perhaps giving me a better deal. What do you think?

Used books in central NY state?

scratch — Sun, 31 May 2009 15:23:22 -0800

Any good used bookstores in central NY between Binghamton and Utica? I'll be traveling mostly in Chenango, Oneida, and Madison Counties along Rt. 12. Just ordinary, comfy places, somewhere in between crappy-paperback swap shops and collectible/antiquarian snobbynoses. Thank you, hive.

Help me sell my used academic books for a good price.

anotherpanacea — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:28:30 -0800

Where can I find a used bookstore that will buy gently used academic books in the DC-Baltimore-Northern Virginia area? I am generally a bibliophile happy to amass books and more books, but my partner has issued an ultimatum. Thus, I have about six boxes of academic books that I can do without to preserve domestic tranquility. They are generally the very thing that fashionable young grad students in the humanities would snatch up. Also, I have a box of graphic novels that I can no longer defend as remaining in touch with my inner child. Assuming I want to avoid piecemeal sales on Ebay, where can I/should I sell them?

Amazon and eBay best practices?

cosmic osmo — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:05:06 -0800

I need advice for selling my used stuff online via eBay and Amazon--more specifically, the shipping and order management part of it. I've been selling on eBay for a while and feel pretty comfortable with most of the process (taking pictures of the item, creating an auction template, when to list, etc.) In a flash of brilliance early this a.m., I signed up for an Amazon seller's account and listed a bunch of CDs I had been planning to sell and much to my surprise, I have already sold some! So far, so good.

All of this is very low-volume: I have at most 5 eBay auctions a week, and right now I only have about 30 things listed on Amazon. I'm using GarageSale to create and manage my eBay auctions, and Delicious Library to organize my Amazon sales. For eBay, I ordered a bunch of USPS Priority Mail boxes, quote a flat rate for shipping within the U.S., pack the items as the auction ends its nearing date and then once I get paid via PayPal (and the money is immediately whisked away into my checking account) I hand-address the packages and bring them down to the local P.O. to ship (always with delivery confirmation, and sometimes the buyer will pay for insurance). So far I've been pretty good at 'guestimating' shipping costs and haven't had any complaints from buyers.

This has been going well so far--all of my auctions end Sunday nights and by the time I go to the P.O. on Tuesday mornings, usually all of the buyers have paid. Sometimes I have to make a second trip to the P.O. later in the week, but I live less than 5 minutes walking distance and rarely wait in line for more than 10 minutes if I go on a weekday morning, so I don't really mind.

My question(s): What's the best way to ship books and CDs, given that Amazon gives you around $3 to do so? Should I start using some kind of online postage payment system (Endicia? Stamps.com? Whatever PayPal offers?) for either eBay or Amazon, or both? Is it worth it to buy things like scales or special printers? I have an HP Ink Jet printer, use Macs (Leopard) exclusively, and use PayPal (at least for eBay). As mentioned above I also use GarageSale and Delicious Library, and would love anything that integrates well with what I already have. How do I make my life easier, especially given that I have also just started selling on Amazon?

I've looked up previous questions about selling on eBay and Amazon, but if you have additional tips for using either (especially Amazon!), mostly with regards to shipping and order management, I'd love to hear them. I've also waded through the seller forums at both sites, but they seem geared toward people who do this for a living, and I'm just trying to clear out some storage space while also potentially making a few bucks.

Most generous book buyer in Seattle?

tristeza — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 17:54:14 -0800

Is there a used book buyer in Seattle you've found to be more generous than another? I want to get the best deal on my 6 bags of various and sundry books. Thanks.

Favorite used book sites online?

willie11 — Thu, 03 May 2007 20:38:49 -0800

What are your favorite resources for buying dirt-cheap used books online? I ask because I'm beginning research on a new book and have to purchase a number of standard and genre-classic books that I see advertised on sites like Amazon for $0.01 - $1.00.

But I don't want to get gouged on shipping seeing as how I will have to pay $3.00 - $5.00 per book. Any suggestions about how to avoid this? Or, any suggestions on great sites for used books in general?

A script to find a bargain?

Ambrosia Voyeur — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:33:38 -0800

Is there a script that can help me optimize used book and dvd shipping expenditures on half.com, or can this be accomplished elsewhere? I would like to run something that will tell me if a seller has more than one item out of my wish list, so I can enjoy combined or discounted shipping savings.

Alternately, is there some other used book and dvd resource out there with combinable shipping as well as good selection?

I'm running Firefox.

I buy a lot of used paperbacks and dvds, some priced lower than the usual shipping fee. Amazon's private sellers don't offer a break on multiple item shipping.

Good places to sell used books in Ann Arbor, MI

take me to the river — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:10:33 -0800

Where's the best place to sell used books in Ann Arbor, MI? Who pays the most? My books are a mix of fiction and non-fiction and a few textbooks, and they're in great shape (and yes, I've already sold a bunch of them online).

Help me find a gift-worthy copy of Finnegans Wake?

desuetude — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 10:08:27 -0800

For his birthday, my SO confessed that he would like a "really nice" version of Finnegans Wake. This proves to be harder to find than I would've thought. Googling gets me everything I ever wanted to know about Joyce, and Amazon gives me a zillion paperbacks and study guides.

I'd like a hardback edition. I don't want a "Great Classics of Literature" type edition (i.e. one of a series.)

I know that he would not be interested in an annotated version. Is there an edition including the Exagmination?

The $200 mass-market paperback

calhound — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:44:15 -0800

What's with some of the absurd prices I'm seeing with Amazon Marketplace sellers? Over the past few years I have seen used book titles posted at absurdly high prices. One of them was my own book, which is in print and sells at $25, but starting in 2001 I saw a few marketplace sellers posting $200 for a used copy. It's ridiculous as my books are nowhere near rare, they're in-print, and are easily accessible. Curious about this, I emailed a couple of these sellers and never got a reply.

Lately it seems I've been seeing more of this kind of thing. For example, for a recently out of print paperback published in 1999, this listing shows 20 books ranging from $59 to $336.

The simple explanation is that people are getting or think they can get such huge sums. Still, something has never smelled right about all this.

For example, the above title is not particularly rare; it's plain that the book has 125 reviews, which means a huge number are in circulation. So why aren't one of these sellers trying to sell for less than $59 to guarantee themselves a sale, and at the same time precipitating a collapse in these jacked up prices? Or is there an unwritten agreement among Marketplace sellers to not bust the lowest price point?

It's occurred to me that since a lot of paperbacks run $1-2, a ring of merchants could make good money by buying out all available copies of a certain title, then re-introducing them at absurd prices.

Thoughts on this?

How best to unload used books in Toronto

PaulieK — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 09:35:37 -0800

What's the best way to divest yourself of a bunch of used books in Toronto? My parents are preparing to "downsize" which means selling their house in Toronto. This means they won't have nearly as much space for their, oh say, 1000-ish books. No paticular rhyme or reason as to genre; there's fiction, non-, a fair bit of judaica, scientific textbooks.

I think they'd be just as happy to donate them as to make some money by selling them. Mainly they're looking for a way to get rid of a bunch of them with minimal effort... which suggests looking for a local solution. Any Toronto-centred ideas?

Bag of books...

eatdonuts — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 07:50:21 -0800

Does anyone know of a used book store in Suffock, NY (Long Island - preferably near Babylon) where I can unload a large amount of books I appear to have unintentionally horded? I'm an avid reader and those that don't get filed for rereading have started to take over a corner of my kitchen. I'd donate them, but would much rather trade them in for cash or credit for more reading materials.

Used book buying guide

bove — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 14:55:39 -0800

What is the cheapest and easiest way to buy a specific group of used books? I currently maintain a list of books that I would like to read. (Yes, my wife does tease me about it) There are over 100 books on the list and most of those are in series. I recently got a job and I will have a real income for the first time in my life. I would rather own books than just use the library so I want to start buying books off of my list. There are too many to just buy them all new, but I thought that I could buy them used, but in groups (say 5-20 at a time). I know about half.com and Amazon, but for each of those sites I have to search for a single book and then it shows me a list of sellers. Potentially for each book I would have to use a different individual seller. Is there a way to search multiple books across multiple sellers? If not, are there particularly good used bookstores with great selections?

In an ideal world I could have something like my Amazon wishlist, but it would also show me items grouped by seller, so I could know which outlet carries the most books and that way I could save on shipping costs by grouping things together.

Any ideas or help would be useful. Thanks in advance.

Tips for running a used book store?

brundlefly — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 20:01:12 -0800

Any advice on opening and running a used book store? I'm kind of at the end of my rope as far as the whole "being an employee" thing, and I'm looking into the viability of opening a used book store –– something I've wanted to do since I was a teenager.

Is anyone here in this line of work? Any advice on starting up? Finding books to sell? Organizational tips? Any help would be appreciated. Save me from being a barrista forever!

What's the best way to sell used literary fiction books in one go (in Los Angeles)?

symbebekos — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 10:40:36 -0800

What's the best way to sell used literary fiction books in one go in Los Angeles? I have ten cubic feet of used paperbacks ("word value only," as they say) that I'd like to dispense with, but with a minimal time investment. Any ideas? Some used bookstores are flat out not buying new books or offering trade credit only, and before I call every place in a twenty-mile radius, I thought MeFites out there in LA or elsewhere may have already tred the path. Is there something like WeBuyComics.com for books? My Google-fu turns up mostly pages about textbooks and rare books.

Selling autographed books

u.n. owen — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 13:45:42 -0800

I have several rare/autographed books that I'm interested in selling due to financial issues. I don't want to be ripped off. Help! I have several rare and autographed editions of Gwendolyn Brooks works. Online, they don't sell for less than $100 ever from what I've seen (and several sell for considerably more). But when I took them to a local book store in Madison last year, they offered me $5 apiece.

Problem is, online they can take quite a while to sell. Is there a happy medium? Is there any store that will buy books online for a reasonable price?

I'm figuring this is a long shot of a question, but if such a place existed, I figured y'all would be the ones to know about it.