Selling Your Books

Discussion in 'Senior Employment' started by Diane Lane, Sep 12, 2016.

  1. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    I have lugged many heavy books from one place to another throughout my life. Movers charge by weight, so I know that has cost me a pretty penny, but I really valued my books, and so I held onto them. I haven't been able to work for the most part since I moved here about 7 years ago, so I finally decided to part with my professional books. I've already gone the route of carrying them to Half Price Books, and they really don't offer much for them. I decided to look around and see if I could sell them online.

    I found a site called SellBackYourBook.com, and plugged in some ISBN numbers to see what I would get. As I suspected, they wouldn't even buy back most of what I had, but there were some they were interested in. I packed up a box of books from up here in the office earlier, and they will be picked up tomorrow. Assuming they give me what they quoted, and they should, because those books are in almost pristine condition, I will make about $30. There is no shipping fee. I got excited, so I started going through the books downstairs. I should get back another almost $10 from the few they wanted from that bunch, and so both boxes will be picked up tomorrow. The USPS picks them up for free, so all I have to do is stick them outside my door. The site will pay either via a check or PayPal, and as usual, I opted for PayPal payment. Hopefully soon, I will have $40 or thereabouts from them, and that will really come in handy.

    There's a companion app to the site, and you can use it to either scan your ISBN numbers (it will give you a link to click to download a scanner app), or you can manually type them in. I used a combination of both methods, since some of the labels were easier to scan than others, and some of the older books didn't have the ISBNs on the back. The site has very high ratings in review sites, and so I feel pretty comfortable dealing with them.
     
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  2. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Glad to hear you found a place that is decent, Diane. Only books I remember selling and my kids did that were college textbooks. Think they even bought some that were used, saved a lot of money because those books are expensive.
     
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  3. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    Yes, the college textbooks are the big ones, although these days, a lot of those are online only :eek:. That's why I rushed to get rid of the ones I had. I am going to keep some of my personal books, but am getting rid of the rest of those, as well, even if I have to donate them. I'm tired of lugging things around, and want to downsize as much as possible, in the event that I'm able to someday get out of here. I doubt anyplace I move would be larger than this place, so I might as well get rid of what I can while I can.
     
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  4. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I agree and I have the same goal. I'm sick of all my stuff and it just ties me down. I'll always need a storage unit I think but a small one.

    I just want to kind of travel from place to place and really have no home except maybe a room at my daughter's house for address purposes and drs and stuff like that.
     
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  5. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    It's really different there when it comes to marketing. I can imagine the convenience when you sell your books that they pick up from your place. In the olden times when people are needing cash in small amounts, selling books is one way to have clean money. However, we have to bring the books to the buyer. And after the checking of the books, all we would get is lunch money in exchange for the heavy books that we had brought.

    PS. In this digital age, the paperback is surely losing the competition to those digital stories that are all over the internet. There is this site called Wattpad which carries shorts and even novels that are free for consumption by the public. That's according to our housemaid who is fond of romance stories.
     
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  6. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    You can also sell books on Amazon.com and on eBay. My wife sells on both, and is doing pretty well with it. We scour the second-hand stores, library sales, etc. To be worth selling, they generally have to be in reasonably good shape but I know she sold five books just today, because they are lined up waiting for the mailman tomorrow. I think she said that she does better on Amazon.com for books, but that they will sell on eBay as well.
     
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  7. K E Gordon

    K E Gordon Veteran Member
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    Another site that is good for selling books is Bookscouter.com. They will tell you who is paying the best price for your books from a list of providers. I tried to sell on Amazon it seemed really over saturated. Usually I get the message from book buyers, that they are no buying what I have..This is most of the sites where I have tried to sell books. Some of the books technically belong to my son...I need to check with him before i sell them. I am impressed you were able to make 30 dollars @Diane Lane, usually if I am offered anything it is a small amount. I do have an older version of Pinocchio which might be of interest to a book collector, and some quite old Peter Rabbit books. I have a little bit of everything. Most are reference type but not the newest material.
     
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  8. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    I actually found this site through bookscouter. They were the ones paying the highest price. I have plenty of books left over that are in good to great shape, and I might consider listing some of them on ebay or half.com (which is an ebay company), at least for a short period, before I give them away or donate them, assuming they don't sell. I had some listed on both ebay and half.com before, and I believe I did sell a few of the smaller text books, but the majority of what I've sold was fantasy fiction books such as Twilight series and others like them.
     
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  9. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    The Twilight series has been selling very well, as do other books for teens and young adults. Unless the books are thrashed, my wife always buys any books from that series and makes a small profit from them. It seems that these books are often given as gifts to people who don't read them, because she finds them like new at the Goodwill store all the time.
     
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  10. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    I don't get to Goodwill that often, but I'll have to see if there are any books next time. I think I'd have to hit the locations southeast of here or up in Houston for books. The pickings in the city north of me, which is the closest one, seem to be less desirable. I also did well with Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries (the books True Blood was based on), as well as some of her others, and some little romantic quick reads by Janet Evanovich.
     
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  11. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    At Goodwill, she mostly only buys the ones that are on half-price. Goodwill uses differently colored tags, and one color will be on sale at half price. Unless the book is in like-new condition or one that is likely to sell for quite a lot of money, she doesn't think she gets enough of a profit from it at full price.
     
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  12. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    @Ken Anderson She could actually scan the barcodes in the store via a smart phone or tablet, to see how much companies would be willing to pay, and that could help her assess the marketability of the books, especially for ones she's unfamiliar with. I might do that in the future. I mainly buy books for my own pleasure, but if I stumble upon one or more that seem as if they might be profitable, it might be worth taking a chance.
     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I don't think she does any selling to companies. She sells them directly to the consumer, either through Amazon.com or through eBay. That might give her an idea of what they are worth, but I think she has a pretty good handle on that, though. The nice thing about eBay is that, while many of the books that are put up won't sell at all, some of them will get caught up in a bidding war, and sell for as high as a hundred dollars or more. Since she is a power seller on eBay, she can list hundred of items per month without a listing fee, and she tries to stay under that, so it doesn't cost her anything to list something that doesn't sell. Then she can simply re-list it or sell it on Amazon.com.
     
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  14. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    No listing fees would definitely be a boon on eBay, because those can certainly add up. Their fees are really outrageous, so I tend to avoid listing anything there unless I have no other option. I have sold a few books and sets of books in my Bonanza shop, but only the really popular ones. I haven't decided what I want to do with the book I won't be selling to the site/app, and I don't have the energy to tackle them right now. I still have more to go through downstairs. There may be a market for some of the crafts and cooking books.

    Incidentally, I was looking around for an app/site that buys CDs and DVDs and came across a couple of them. This one is related to the site/app that bought my books, so I might try them first, but I also found this one, which also seems to have a good reputation.
     
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  15. Krissttina Isobe

    Krissttina Isobe Veteran Member
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    Selling on amazon and other sites seem good to do. We are sizing down too and the information here helps a lot. I don't have a car, so selling is not that easy for me. We live in Hawaii and American Pickers might not come to Hawaii. I found some people who are dealers of vintage and antiques, but you got to go to them and without a car it's impossible to sell like at the Wiki Wiki Antique Sale at the Blaisdell Arena. Got to keep on trying though.
     
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