This is a great way of making extra money online. You don’t even need to go and buy stock, if you are a book hoarder, just go to your shelves. This method of making money is particularly useful if you have recently finished college, or have old textbooks lying around which you used for college some time ago, since the books which have the biggest market, and highest resale value are course books. This makes sense when you think of how much they cost initially. Some set texts can be sixty dollars or more. Now you have qualified, or moved on in your life, you have no need for a guide to 16th Century Literature, or Engineering Today. Some people are very attached to their textbooks, whilst others can’t wait to get rid of them. If you fall into the latter camp then you could be on to a money-spinner. It’s not exactly going to provide income protection, but it’s a useful extra if you haven’t considered the cash value you may have sitting on your bookshelf.
Amazon vs eBay
Whilst textbooks are a finite resource at your disposal, don’t forget to look around in second hand book sales, or garage sales for old text books. If you get to know the market you can find some real bargains here. When it comes to selling you have to choose between eBay and Amazon for your marketplace. I prefer Amazon for selling textbooks, simply because you can get a better idea on what price the market will take. If you have a book on Chemistry, which is selling on Amazon for $40, you can easily just undercut this by a few cents and be sure of a quick sale. On eBay you have to trust that buyers know the current market value and are prepared to pay it. Having tried both routes, I found I got more money selling textbooks through Amazon than eBay, and quicker turnaround too.
Listing
Be honest in your listings for text books, or it can be really annoying for buyers and you risk low feedback scores which will hamper future sales. If you didn’t heed your mom, and scribbled all over your text books in pen, you might find it hard to sell on. It’s a terrible habit, and very distracting for the next reader. If you marked you book up in pencil you could remove the marks, or comment in your listing ‘some pencil underlining’. This means you are covering yourself against any suggestion of misrepresentation.
When listing on Amazon, or eBay, be aware of the categories applied to second hand book sales. There are specific definitions of what constitutes ‘good condition’ ‘excellent condition’ ‘mint condition’ and ‘good, used condition’. Whilst these definitions are not set in stone, be careful of describing your book as in ‘excellent’, ‘perfect’ or ‘pristine’ condition if it is scuffed, has a broken spine, is dog eared, as coffee stains or pencil/pen marks in it. If in doubt give a more fulsome description of the condition. If the book is sound, usable and relatively clean I would describe it as ‘good, used condition. Some light pencil marks’ or ‘pencil marks removed’. Better to be honest than risk bad feedback.
A good tip is to clean the cover of your book with furniture polish or glass cleaner. A quick squirt will bring up a shiny cover as good as new, and freshen it up. It’s a technique used in book shops to smarten up their stock. If your book is in poor condition it is still worth listing. Some students will be less fussy about text books and have less money than others. As long as they are warned about the condition you should still be able to make a reasonable sale.
Expected Earnings
It depends wholly on the subject, rarity and original price of your textbook. Some more obscure research type books fetch more because fewer of them were printed. Likewise, if something is out of print now it can fetch a higher price. Sometimes more common basic text books will command a lower price, since they will be mass produced for all medical students/chemists/architects etc. It’s just a question of looking on Amazon for the most recent market price and taking it from there. Amazon will contribute towards your postage costs, which is a great advantage, since heavier text books can cost a fair amount to post. This is another advantage of Amazon over eBay for this particular product. I made over $600 in two months selling my text books online and I have looked out for obscure reference and research works ever since in thrift shops and garage sales. You never know, they could be $60 winners.
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