Here’s some information for students that want to sell textbooks. If you want to be selling your used college textbooks, I’m going to assume that you have already made sure you’re not going to be needing the information contained in those texts, any more. Right? Otherwise, if you are confident that some of the educational information in those books might be useful to you in the future (i.e. you might need to refer to some of your used textbooks again), then it may behoove you to reconsider keeping the books that are important to you handy! But, if any of the following apply, I might have some important information:
- You’ll definitely not need your textbooks any more.
- Every bit of information from the books’ chapters is memorized by you.
- You are totally not interested in the books you want to sell, and you’ll never be.
- The thought of reading anything from the textbooks will never enter your mind, again.
- You have more than one copy of your college textbook, and you only need one copy.
So, if you are really sure you don’t need the books you want to sell, then the information I have for you is that it is possible to try and sell them. If you’ve been a college student for a long time (years and years), you may remember some of the ways to sell used textbooks included visiting your on-campus college bookstore, finding out if and when they were offering “textbook buyback,” and then showing up during the buyback period to see if the book buyback person will buy your books. Also, there was the possibility that you could post a notice on one of the notice-boards at your university, college, or school listing the textbook for sale. The listing may have looked something like “College textbook title: (whatever the title is), Selling price: (the dollar amount), and then your contact details.” Students walking by that bulletin board may see your posted book notice and then think, “Do I need that book for my class?” and, “Would I be interested in buying or purchasing that used book from the seller?” And then finally, there were other methods like checking with your friends, family, or other students you know to see if they wanted to buy textbooks from you. In fact, years ago (just like today), there’s always that possible chance you may want to give your book away. That must usually be fun for the recipient. A conversation might have gone like this:
You: “Hi, how are you doing?”
Friend: “Fine, what’s up? What’s going on?”
You: “Well, I have this used college textbook I don’t want any more. Would you like to have it?
Friend: “Um, well, sure I could really use that book for my class. I’m not sure how much money or cash I have, and out of the money that I currently have, I’m not sure how much I can afford to spend on that book right now. How much do you want for it?”
You: “It is not necessary for you to pay me for this textbook; I was considering giving it to you for free, as a donation or gift.”
Friend: “Oh wow, really? You mean you don’t want that text any more and you want to simply give it to me?”
You: “Yes! I am feeling like doing my part in recycling college textbooks and am totally sure I’d like to see you have this book for your own use.”
Friend: “Thank you very, very much. I am so very appreciative, and would like to say thank you.”
Today, in regards to selling new or used college textbooks, things are kinda’ the same, except for some really neat “modern” ways of selling merchandise. One of the modern ways of selling stuff is via the online web! Lots of merchandise is now bought and sold on the internet. And, college textbooks are frequently purchased online, and sold online as well. A popular example of how to sell used books is by finding a company like Booksintocash.Com where many students sell textbooks when the textbooks they have are ones they would like to sell. When a college student visits a site like that, there may be a college textbook input window (where individuals type in the ISBN numbers to the textbooks they want to sell) and then they click a button that might say something like “SELL TEXTBOOKS” or “SELL BOOKS,” or something like that. Another page might appear that some people might call a “price quote page.” On that page, it could say something like:
a.) We are purchasing this book.
b.) We don’t recognize that ISBN number
c.) We recognize that EAN number, but we don’t want it.
Of course, the wording may be different on many sites. It’s important to note that when wanting to sell textbooks via an online textbook buying company (“online textbook buyback”), it’s usually required that you understand and abide by the buying/selling policies listed on that site. For example, if everything’s okay, the book is fine, the textbook buyer wants to buy the book, you like the price, etc., but it says you must ship it within 2 weeks, then, obviously, you shouldn’t wait longer than that (e.g. 3 weeks, etc.) to sell it, for various reasons, like supply and demand changing. Also, there may be rules about the condition of the textbook you want to sell: no defective books, pages missing, chapters torn out, damage to the book’s binding, etc. However, when following all the rules, policies, and instructions, if you have a textbook you don’t want any more, and an online textbook buyer wants to buy that book, then it could be a simple process for a college textbook sale to take place.
So, there you have it; the information about selling textbooks may include the long-standing methods of trying to sell your books via the college bookstore (or educational institution’s book shop), via other students, friends, relatives who want to buy your book, and nowadays since the advent of the online textbook buying places, selling textbooks online. I always remember that every student has different thoughts about keeping, selling, or giving away their books because recently I saw one student (a “grad student”) with this huge library. He loved being able to get a hold of any textbook he needed to refer to. Therefore, some may wish to keep their books, some may wish to sell them, while others do other things with their used college textbooks.