Tag Archives: Best Places to Sell Online

Making Selling Books Online Easier with the SP2100 Laser Barcode Scanner

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Recently, I got to field test the BarcodeGuy UnionNet SP2100 Laser/Bluetooth Barcode Scanner developed by BarcodeGuy.com to see how it measured against my Socket Mobile 7Ci CX2870-1409 Bluetooth Scanner

I’ve used this scanner for a month now, and I have to say – I’m very impressed! The SP2100 has saved me a considerable amount of time and has made selling books online much easier and more enjoyable.

The following is my review of the scanner and what I feel are its biggest benefits for online booksellers who find books to sell online with Bookscouter.

Full disclosure – I was given a demo SP2100 by BarcodeGuy.com to test for this review.

What You Get

BarcodeGuy.com offers barcode scanners for iPad, iPhone, and iPods, as well as Android, Windows, Mac, and Blackberry tablets, phones, and PCs. I field tested the SP2100 for Android devices.

My SP2100 Laser Barcode Scanner package came with the SP2100 scanner, an AC wall charger, a portable charger that can be plugged into your car’s cigarette lighter, a User’s Guide (on resource CD), and a lanyard to tether the scanner to your belt or jacket.

Setting Up the SP2100 and Establishing a Bluetooth Connection

Before using the SP2100, you need to give it a charge with the AC wall charger. Mine only needed 2 hours to get a full charge.

Now you can link the SP2100 to whatever device you want to pair it with. I linked my scanner with my Samsung Galaxy 4 Tablet in less than two minutes. (You should refer to the instructions provided in the User’s Guide in the CD to make sure your scanner has the proper settings when you connect it to your tablet or phone.)

Once you pair your SP2100 with your tablet or phone, they should connect when you turn them on. If you run into any problems, go to “Settings” on your device, click on “Bluetooth,” and press SP2100. It should link up instantly.

How the SP2100 Saves You Time and Effort When Finding Books to Sell Online

Now you’re ready to use the SP2100 to look for books to sell for extra money. Just go to Bookscouter.com on your tablet or smart phone, and login to your free online account.

When you find a book you want to check, aim your SP2100 at the book’s barcode and press the scanning button to read an ISBN barcode. The ISBN number will appear in Bookscouter’s search bar so Bookscouter  can look up any online bids for the book from buyback companies and show you the best places to sell that book online.

One fantastic feature I discovered when I first used my SP2100 is that when you scan an ISBN barcode with this scanner, Bookscouter automatically looks up the ISBN number and brings up bids from buyback companies instantly. This lets me see how much a book is worth often less than a second after I scan it.

By contrast, when I use my Socket Mobile Bluetooth Scanner, I need to wait for the ISBN to appear, press the “Scan” button on the Bookscouter search bar, and wait for the online bids to appear. It’s a slower (compared to the SP2100) and less efficient process since I need to press multiple buttons on my scanner and tablet.

By streamlining the entire process of comparing buyback bids to pressing one button on your barcode scanner, the SP2100 saves you a considerable amount of time and effort when you’re looking for books to sell online.

How much time can the SP2100 save? In the one month I’ve used the SP2100, I’ve shaved 20 minutes off every visit to a thrift shop – and since I visit 4-6 thrift shops a day, I can now shorten my workday by up to 2 hours, increasing my hourly wage.

Beyond that, I’ve discovered I can find more books in a shorter span of time thanks to the SP2100’s greater efficiency – which makes it easier to sell more books for more cash.

Other Benefits of a SP2100 Barcode Scanner

The SP2100 Laser Barcode Scanner saves me time in two other ways.

First, the SP2100 comes with a laser scanner. Other barcode scanners come with an image scanner which, while good, doesn’t always read all the barcodes you aim it at.

The SP2100’s laser, by contrast, has a very fine edge that can scan the tips of most ISBN barcodes even when the majority of the barcode is covered by a price sticker. This saves me the time and hassle of having to enter lots of ISBNs by hand.

Second, I want to pay a special compliment to the SP2100’s long battery life.

Since I charged this barcode scanner a month ago, I’ve had it on for over 40 hours, and still haven’t had to recharge it.

Granted this is a new scanner so I don’t know if the rechargeable battery (1450mAh Lithium Polymer according to the website) will weaken over time – still for a 2 hour charge, 40+ hours of battery life is pretty impressive!

Drawbacks of a SP2100 Barcode Scanner

Right now, the only reason I can think of that would keep people from immediately snapping up the SP2100 Barcode Laser Scanner is its price.

At $349 per scanner package (which includes charger, lanyard, and portable charger), the SP2100 is more expensive than the Socket Mobile Bluetooth Barcode Scanner, which usually costs $200 or less.

And yet, when you consider all the benefits offered by the SP2100 Barcode Scanner, the higher price is justifiable. Frankly, the amount of time you save using this scanner is worth well over $349.

Final Assessment

My advice? If you’re serious about making extra money selling books online and can spend two or three days a week searching through thrift stores, buy the SP2100. Within a couple weeks – a month at the most – it will have paid for itself and you’ll continue to make more extra cash selling books than you would otherwise.

On the other hand, if you’re unsure about making money by selling books for cash, stick to using your phone or tablet. If and when you find this kind of work profitable and fun – and you want to make it easier and faster – invest in a SP2100. You’ll be glad you did.

I hope you enjoyed this review and found a product that can help you make more extra cash selling books online. If you’d like to ask me any more questions, feel free to contact me at SellBooksFastOnline@gmail.com.

And as always, don’t forget to subscribe!

How to Earn Money When You Can’t Sell Many Books to Buyback Companies

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Hey guys! It’s been a while since I’ve posted an article, and I wanted to share something that’s allowed my book dealing business to generate a constant cash flow even when I can’t find many books to sell to buyback companies to earn fast extra cash.

The strategies I describe here are especially relevant if you want to make online book dealing a part time (or even full time) business – but “casual” booksellers can benefit from the tips I share as well.

As those of you who have been following my tips to earn extra money by flipping books may have realized, summer is a very busy time for buyback companies since they need to purchase a lot of books to sell to students when the school year begins.

For online book dealers, this is both good and bad. On the plus side, if you can find a lot of untapped thrift stores, library bookstores, and garage sales and buy hundreds of popular books cheaply, you can make a lot of money fast by going to Bookscouter and re-selling those books to buyback companies that offer the best prices for them.

Unfortunately, summer is also the time when finding good books to sell is difficult since a lot of people who don’t normally sell books online (especially college students reselling their textbooks) are using Bookscouter to make extra money from books for their education and vacation funds. This means the pickings at your favorite thrift stores can get sparse as your competition rises.

For those of you who encounter this problem – take heart. Much of this competition is temporary and you’ll soon find you can buy tons of books again to resell to companies like Textbooks.com, Sell Back Your Book, Cash4Books, and Valore for quick cash.

In the meantime though, how can you still make money selling books online during these potentially “lean” times?

The answer lies in doing something very simple throughout the year.

Using Amazon.com to List Your Stockpile Valuable Books

Much like a squirrel stores nuts to prepare for the winter, the smart book dealer doesn’t sell all the books he or she finds for an immediate profit. Instead, he or she lists the really valuable books on Amazon, realizing that sometimes, it makes more sense to wait weeks, months, and yes – even years for the right book to sell for the right profit.

If you read my article Should You Sell Textbooks on Amazon or to a Book Buyback Company to Make Money? you’ll see I provide a detailed explanation for when you should sell your books to a buyback company like Valore, and when it makes much more sense to list your book on Amazon and wait for it to sell for a higher profit.

For now, however, you should realize that keeping a collection of highly profitable books listed on Amazon is the best way to ensure your books continue to make you money even when you can’t find a lot of books to sell to Bookscouter’s buyback companies.

I’ve personally sold several hundred books on Amazon during these “lean times” for several times the profit I would have realized if I’d sold them immediately through Bookscouter. (Most of the books I sell through Amazon give me a nice net profit of $20 – and I’ve sold several books for hundreds of dollars via Amazon that most buyback companies would have only bought for $15).

As an added bonus, packing and shipping one $200 book you sold on Amazon is a lot faster and easier than packing 20 or 30 books to ship to a buyback company (which is something you’ll appreciate when the summer heat picks up!).

To ensure you have this stockpile (and keep profiting from it) please follow these tips:

Make Listing Books on Amazon Part of Your Regular Routine

To ensure you find those valuable books (which I like to think of as rare “diamonds” or “golden nuggets” you find among the “gold dust” books you sell to buyback companies), make sure you get a free Bookscouter account.

This will ensure that you can see what that book is selling for on Amazon as well as to buyback companies (sometimes the price difference can be quite extreme). Be sure to buy these books even if they aren’t selling a lot on Bookscouter (just make sure they’re in at least good condition).

Then when you get ready to check your books on Bookscouter to sell them to buyback companies, make sure to set aside the books that command a high price on Amazon (you may want to double check these prices on the actual Amazon website as prices can fluctuate quickly).

Make sure to list these books on your Amazon Seller Account as quickly as possible. As long as you make this a regular part of your bookselling routine, you’ll soon have a substantial collection of books selling on Amazon for high prices that will keep your cash flow constant.

Check Periodically To See if Any Amazon Books Can Be Sold Through Bookscouter

Since prices can and do go up and down quickly on both Amazon and Bookscouter, you may want to compare the price of your Amazon books against the current bids for that book on Bookscouter.

This will enable you to still profit from your book if it starts to depreciate quickly on Amazon – and gives you another stockpile of books to sell to buyback companies during those lean periods where you can’t find a lot of books to sell through Bookscouter.

Want to receive more tips and tricks for how to sell books online for extra money? Subscribe to my blog!

Do you have a question or suggestion for a future blog article? Email me at sellbooksfastonline@gmail.com.

2 Great Book Buyback Companies to Sell Textbooks To

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Dollars in the Books RESIZED

With the school year just about to end, I thought I’d create another blog article promoting even more of the great book buyback companies I’ve sold books to. This list is geared particularly towards students since I know you guys are looking for good places to sell your textbooks to for extra cash over summer vacation.

These buyback companies tend to pay high for textbooks and have a long and reliable history of paying quickly for books, so they make a good choice to sell your end of the year textbooks to for extra money.

As always, you can find these buyback companies on Bookscouter!

Blue Rocket Books

Blue Rocket Books is located in update New York and pays very well for books – if you go to their website, you’ll see they’ve paid anywhere from $80 to $90 (and more) for textbook buyback packages of only 2 or 3 books.

Aside from textbooks, Blue Rocket Books will also buy books on religion, philosophy, computers, art, literature, travel, hobbies, gardening, and science (among other subjects) so students in a wide variety of majors can usually sell some or all of their books to this buyback company.

Minor highlighting, underlining, and written notes that appear in less than 20% of the book is considered acceptable (although workbooks should obviously be free of any writing). Make sure to include any CDs, DVDs, and/or computer codes that were in your book originally.

Blue Rocket Books does not accept ex-library books (if you have any ex-library books to sell consider sending them to Textbooks.com, Chegg, or Sell Back Books.)

As always, water damage, stains, strong odors, missing (or torn) pages, major wear to the binding, and smoke damage all make a book unacceptable to Blue Rocket Books (or any buyback company).

This company has a $15 minimum buyback order amount which is slightly higher than other buyback companies, but since Blue Rocket Books offers high price quotes for books, this generally isn’t a problem (some of the books I sold to them in the past sold for $10 or more a piece).

Blue Rocket offers free USPS or UPS shipping labels (with tracking numbers that let you know when your books have arrived at their warehouse). Make sure to ship your books as soon as you finish your buyback order so you can get paid faster!

Payment comes in the form of PayPal or mailed check – and I’ll just add that I’ve never had a problem with being paid by Blue Rocket Books.

K-12 Book Buyer

I’ve only sold a few book packages to K-12 Book Buyer – however when I do, my payments tend to be larger than most of my other buyback orders and payment always comes promptly.

As the name indicates, K-12 Book Buyer purchases textbooks. While most buyback companies tend to purchase mostly college textbooks, K-12 has bought grade school, middle school, and high school textbooks from me in the past, so if you’re a teacher and/or home school parent with a lot of extra textbooks and clean workbooks, it might be worth it to see if this company will buy your books.

Aside from textbooks, K-12 Book Buyer purchases fiction, literature, and art books, as well as books on religion, philosophy, computers, travel, science, technology, hobbies, crafting, and cooking.

K-12 Book Buyer does not buy ex-library books (again consider selling those to Textbooks.com, Chegg, or Sell Back Books) and you should make certain that any workbooks you send them are free of any writing, notes, underlining, or missing pages. Supplementary materials (like CDs or DVDs) should also be included in the books if you want to receive the full quoted price for those books.

K-12 Book Buyer has a minimum buyback order policy of $10 (which is pretty standard) and offers free USPS shipping for its packages. Payment comes via PayPal or mailed check (I recommend PayPal if you want to receive your money sooner).

Final Thoughts

I hope this gives you a few more options to sell your textbooks for cash once the school year ends. As always, you should become familiar with their policies before selling them your books, so be sure to visit their websites.

And if you’re interested in learning more about the best places to sell books online, be sure to read 8 Great Book Buyback Companies to Sell Books To and 2 More Great Book Buyback Companies to Sell Books To.

Want to get regular tips and tricks on how to sell books online fast and make more extra money? Subscribe to my blog!

Do you have a question or suggestion for a future blog article? Email me at sellbooksfastonline@gmail.com.

How To Make Sure You Get Paid for the Books You Sell Online

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Recently, I encountered a problem everyone who sells books online dreads. My payment for some of my buyback orders wasn’t sent to me.

This is something you’ll encounter every now and then if you sell books to buyback companies on a regular basis. While the companies you find on Bookscouter are usually reputable, even these companies encounter occasional glitches that delay your payment.

This is why it’s so important you keep good records of all of your buyback orders (something I cover in How to Record Your Sales When Selling Books Online) and keep track of which of your orders were paid and which are still unpaid.

To make sure you get paid for all of your books, please follow the following tips:

Learn How Buyback Companies Pay Before You Sell to Them

Most of the buyback companies you’ll find on Bookscouter are good businesses that pay quickly and efficiently.

That said, different buyback companies pay in different ways and on different time tables, and you should always make sure you know each company’s payment policies before you sell them any books.

Most buyback companies like Textbooks.com, Valore, Chegg, Cash4Books, and Sell Back Your Book pay via PayPal and deposit your money within 1-2 weeks into your PayPal account. (If you don’t have a PayPal account and/or don’t want to open one, most companies will mail your money via check – but this can take a month on average).

A few companies like Sell Back Books offer to deposit money directly into your bank account (which requires that you share your account numbers with them). Sell Back Books also offers the mailed check option.

And still other buyback programs, like Amazon.com’s Trade-In Program, pay in trade credit (not cash) and deposit your payment in your personal online trade credit account. While most people prefer to be paid in cash, trade credit does come with advantages that I cover in Should You Sell Your Books for Amazon Credit?

Make sure to review each buyback company’s website to learn their personal policies on payment. Many of these companies also have policies on the type of books they will buy that may affect which companies you can sell to. I cover many of these issues in my article 8 Great Book Buyback Companies To Sell Books To.

Bookscouter also offers a five-star rating system and a place where sellers can leave reviews of their experiences with different buyback companies. You can find these reviews by going to Bookscouter, clicking the “Vendors” link, and clicking on any buyback company you’d like to research. Read these reviews before selling your books to a new company – they might alert you to any unexpected polices regarding payment.

Email Buyback Companies That Haven’t Paid You

Okay, but what happens if you do all your research and a buyback company still doesn’t pay you?

First, double check your Buyback Order Records to see how much time has passed. If it’s been two weeks since you sent your order to this company, wait a few more days – sometimes a company can experience a slight delay as it processes your order.

If it’s been over a month and that company promises payment in two weeks, however, you need to contact the company. Go to the company’s website, find their email address under the “Contact Us” link and send them a message informing them of the situation.

Make sure to inform the company of when you sent your buyback order, the buyback order number, and the total price quote the company gave for your books. (You should have this information in your records – your online account on the buyback company’s website should have the information as well).

Politely inform the company of how long it’s been since you sent your order and ask them when you can expect to receive your payment.

Here’s a sample email that I use for these situations – feel free to modify it for your own use (I’ve marked the critical areas in bold).

Hello XYZ Books

Last March 21st, I sent a buyback order (Order #123456789) with the quoted price of $35.

It has been over a month since I sent that order, and I have still not received payment.

Could you please let me know when I can expect to be paid?

Thanks!

Usually, this is all it takes for a company to fix the problem – in the situation I described above, both buyback companies (Sell Back Books and CKY Books) responded politely to my emails in less than a day and sent my payments in full immediately.

By the way, if the company resolved your issues quickly and politely, please leave some positive feedback for them on Bookscouter. Just click the “Vendors” link on the top of the website, find the company, and click on “Leave Feedback.” (Both CKY and Sell Back Books got good reviews from me).

If The Company Refuses to Pay

Sometimes, a buyback company may refuse to pay for some or all of your books – claiming the books did not meet their criteria for books in good condition.

This doesn’t mean the buyback company is trying to cheat you – if you sent them a lot of books without checking them closely, it’s possible some were water damaged or had excessive markings inside, making them impossible for the company to resell. In these cases, you just need to be more careful about the books you sell.

In other situations, however, a buyback company will flat-out refuse to pay you with no explanation – and may even fail to respond to your emails at all.

Sadly, this happened to me with a new buyback company I tried to sell to – and I wound up losing several books I could have sold to other buyback companies.

Unfortunately in these cases, it’s virtually impossible for you to get paid – which is why you need to be careful about selling to new buyback companies that don’t have a proven track record of paying quickly for their books.

If this happens, you should leave a review on Bookscouter informing others of your bad experience – this will warn others against doing business with that company and can get Bookscouter to remove that company from their website if enough people give them low ratings.

Fortunately, such experiences are rare – after over six years in the business, I can honestly say that I’ve only encountered two companies like this. As long as you research good buyback companies, keep good records of your buyback orders, and communicate with your buyback companies, you’ll easily generate a steady stream of reliable income from your online book sales.

Want to receive more tips and tricks for how to sell books online for extra money? Subscribe to my blog!

Do you have a question or suggestion for a future blog article? Email me at sellbooksfastonline@gmail.com.

How to Record Your Sales When Selling Books Online

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If you sell a lot of books online to buyback companies you find on Bookscouter, you’ll soon find more money every day in your PayPal account and get checks mailed to you on a constant basis. It’s great – kind of like standing under a money tree that keeps showering you with payment after payment.

That said, keeping track of which of your buyback orders have been paid and unpaid can be a hassle. While most buyback companies are reliable, they do make mistakes – and you wouldn’t want to miss out on several hundred dollars just because you couldn’t keep track of all the money coming in, would you?

Fortunately, the solution to making sure you get all the money from your buyback orders is simple – you just need to keep a record of all of your buyback orders and adopt an easy way of showing paid and unpaid orders.

Here’s how I keep my records:

Step 1: Open a Blank Document on Your Computer

You can use any word processing software you like – Microsoft Word, Open Office etc. – or even write your records by hand in a spiral notebook (although updating records this way is difficult).

Label the document “Buyback Orders [This Year]” and save it to your hard drive (make sure you also copy it regularly to a flash drive to be safe).

Step 2: Record Your Buyback Orders as You Make Them

Once you start selling books to buyback companies through Bookscouter, you’ll want to open your Buyback Orders file and record all the vital information.

First, type the month and date you placed your order (for instance, if you sold your books on April 25th, you’d just type “4/25”.

Below that, make a record of each buyback order you made that day – one per line. At the very least, you’d want to record:

  • The buyback number assigned to your order (this is a line of numbers you’ll receive once you complete each order – you can copy and paste it from the website onto your Buyback Orders document). This is a very important number you’ll need if you have any issues with payment.
  • The buyback company you sold your books to (Textbooks.com, Powells, Sell Back Your Book etc.)
  • The number of books in your order.
  • The total price quote for all of your books.
  • The money you paid for the books you sold.
  • Your net profit from each order (just subtract what you paid for your books from the total price quote).

Here’s an example of how one of these records can look:

4/25
108727 Valore (3) $150.39        $20.25           $130.14

As you can see, this lists the day I made this order (4/25), the buyback order number (108727), the company I sold my books to (Valore), the number of books in the order (3), the total price quote ($150.39), the money I paid for the books ($20.25), and my net profit ($130.14).

Step 3: Mark Paid Orders

Once your payments start coming in, you’ll want to match them with the records in your Buyback Orders document so you can mark which ones have been paid.

Most of your orders will be paid via PayPal and you’ll receive an email when they come in. Just match the buyback order number on the email to the number in your records, and you’ll find the order.

Other payments will come via check – and will have the order numbers printed on the pay stubs. Make sure you match these numbers with the ones in your records before cashing in the checks and/or throwing away the pay stubs.

To mark your buyback orders as paid, just put the paid orders in bold face like so:

108727 Valore (3) $150.39        $20.25           $130.14

This will distinguish your paid orders from unpaid orders and let you know at a glance which orders still need to be paid.

Use Your Records to Make Sure You Get Paid for ALL of Your Books

Most buyback companies on Bookscouter (and all the ones I recommend on my blog) are very good about sending prompt, regular payments for all of your buyback orders – often in less than two weeks if you get paid by PayPal (mailed checks can take a month or more to reach you).

Occasionally, however, you’ll experience an issue with an order. Maybe one of your packages got lost in the mail or was incorrectly filed when it reached the company. Or maybe some of the books you sent were damaged, causing the company to issue you only a partial payment for your order.

When this happens, you’ll want to make a note of all this in your records – especially if you run into a situation where you don’t get paid for one of your buyback orders.

In my next article, How To Make Sure You Get Paid for the Books You Sell Online, I’ll show you step-by-step what you should do if you ever run into a situation where a buyback company doesn’t pay you for your order.

In the meantime though, if you’d like to receive more tips and tricks for how to sell books online for extra money, feel free to subscribe to my blog!

Do you have a question or suggestion for a future blog article? Email me at sellbooksfastonline@gmail.com.

Sell Textbooks Online with Bookscouter for Easy Vacation Money

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If you’re like a lot of college students, you probably have a lot of places you’d like to go over your summer or winter vacation.

The problem? The last two semesters of college life have tapped out a lot of your savings.

Hey, I’ve been there – and I know how rising textbook prices, increasing tuition rates, and other unexpected expenses can put a big dent in your vacation fund.

Fortunately, there’s an easy strategy I’ve personally used to fund my vacations – and as luck would have it, it’s something I cover in great detail on this blog!

It’s called selling books online fast – using Bookscouter.

Using Bookscouter to Turn Your Textbooks Into Cash

If you’ve read How Sell Books Fast Helps You Make Extra Money, you already know the basics of what I teach on this blog – basically I reveal how to find low-priced books in thrift stores, library bookshops, and garage sales and discover which of these books can be sold for a profit online via a free website called Bookscouter that shows you the best places to sell books online.

You can then sell these books online quickly to buyback companies that will send you a check or PayPal payment for your books – often in as little as two weeks.

This is a fast, easy method that can quickly generate a steady stream of income for anyone – working mothers, retirees, self-employed entrepreneurs – but is particularly effective for college students who need to raise money quickly.

Here’s why: Some of the most profitable books to sell online are college textbooks. These are the books professional online booksellers (like me) always look for when we search through thrift stores and garage sales for books to resell online for a profit.

An in-demand textbook can easily be sold for well over $100 online – more if you’re talking about a textbook in a specialized field like medicine or law. I’ve personally sold textbooks that gave me a net profit of over $300, and I know there are much more profitable textbooks out there.

That’s why college students are in a particularly good spot at the end of their fall or spring semester – you already have a stack of textbooks that can potentially sell for profitable prices and don’t have to go out looking for them like online booksellers.

The problem is that most textbooks depreciate very quickly. New editions come out, classes stop including books on their reading lists, and your college bookstore won’t pay you even half of what you paid for your textbook in the first place.

After a couple years – sometimes even a few months – some of the textbooks you may have spent hundreds of dollars on will drop dramatically in value as college students flood online markets like Amazon with their textbooks, offering increasingly lower prices in an attempt to get rid of their books.

That’s why it’s so great that free online resources like Bookscouter exist today. Because Bookscouter offers cash bids from dozens of different buyback companies, college students now have multiple places to sell their textbooks for cash before they depreciate.

Moreover, since these buyback companies are located in states all over the U.S., there’s an excellent chance that a textbook no one wants in your city is still in demand elsewhere – and can be sold for a lot more extra cash than what your college bookstore will offer.

Plus, the buyback companies on Bookscouter will pay you cash for your books immediately (often in two weeks or less) – there’s no need to wait for someone to buy your book on Amazon. Most buyback companies will even pay for shipping costs, allowing you to keep more money in your pocket.

Selling Books Using Bookscouter

Selling books online using Bookscouter is simple – all you need to do is enter the ISBN (the 10 or 13 digit number code located usually above the textbook’s barcode or on the publication information page) in the search bar.

Bookscouter will then bring up a list of buyback companies, along with the amount of money they will pay for your book. You can then visit the website of the buyback company you want to sell to and sell your books to them directly.

If you’d like to learn how to do a more detailed price comparison on Bookscouter (and potentially make even more extra cash) read my article How to Find the Best Books to Sell on Bookscouter with a Free Bookscouter Account.

Please note that you won’t be selling your books to Bookscouter but to the buyback companies you find on its website. As such, it’s a good idea to keep the following two tips in mind:

Tip 1: Make Sure Your Textbooks Are in Good Shape

I cover this subject in depth in my article Is the Book Condition of Your Textbook Good Enough to Make Extra Money?

To summarize – every buyback company has its own guidelines for the books it will or will not accept, and you should make sure to review these guidelines before you sell to a buyback company.

Some buyback companies – like Textbooks.com – will pay for a book if it has some minor highlighting, underlining, and/or notes in the margins. Textbooks.com will even purchase ex-library books as long as they are in good shape.

Other buyback companies – like Powells or Sell Back Your Book – want books with no markings, which may limit the number of books you can send to them.

As a rule, buyback companies will never purchase books with water damage, broken bindings, or missing supplementary materials (CDs, DVDs, computer codes etc.) so if your textbooks have these flaws, you won’t be paid.

(Incidentally, if you know you’ll be selling your textbooks via Bookscouter at the end of a semester, it’s a good idea to take good care of them – don’t eat or drink when you’re reading, keep any included CDs or DVDs in their plastic pouches when not in use, and copy any pages you want to take notes on so you don’t have to mark the book).

Tip 2: Make Sure Your Sell Your Textbooks to a Reputable Buyback Company

In general, most of the buyback companies you’ll find on Bookscouter are reputable companies that will pay you for your books – but you do want to do some research.

Bookscouter offers a rating system where past sellers can share their experiences with individual buyback companies and even grade these companies on a five-star scale. Feel free to use their system to decide which companies you’d like to sell to.

To throw my two cents in, I’ve had excellent experiences with the following buyback companies – Textbooks.com, Sell Back Your Books, Cash4Books, and Valore (Valore, in particular, offers very high prices for textbooks).

I offer more in-depth reviews of these buyback companies (and others) at 8 Great Book Buyback Companies to Sell Books To and 2 More Great Book Buyback Companies to Sell Books To, so feel free to read the articles in my blog to find a good buyback company to sell to.

And if you liked this article and would like to learn more tricks for earning extra cash by selling books online, feel free to subscribe and send me an email at SellBooksFastOnline@gmail.com with any questions!

How to Build Good Relationships with Your Book Suppliers

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Pop quiz – what is the most important resource that will allow you to sell more books online?

A free website like Bookscouter that lets you resell thousands of books for profit? Nope.

Barcode scanners like the Bluetooth Cordless Hand Scanner or the SP2100 that save you countless hours when you search for valuable books to sell online? Important, but not indispensable.

No, the most important resource an online bookseller can develop is something far more valuable than anything you can buy or find online.

It’s the relationships you develop with the thrift store employees and library volunteers by practicing good etiquette when you shop at their stores.

Think about it – thrift store and library managers, employees, and volunteers are the gatekeepers between you and all the books in their inventory. It only makes sense to develop a good relationship with these folks – one that you can both benefit from.

Yet, ironically, a lot of the book scouts I see shopping alongside me at thrift stores and book sales rarely get to know these people or treat them that well. A few even go out of their way to hide what they’re doing – as if they’re afraid that they’ll get thrown out if the employees discover they’re reselling books.

As someone who’s benefited from positive relationships with thrift stores and library bookstores, I can tell you – nothing could be further from the truth. While I have encountered a few exceptions, the majority of the people I’ve met at thrift stores and libraries have been very supportive and welcoming to online booksellers like me.

Quite a few have even offered me special discounts and privileges that have greatly increased my ability to sell books online for profit.

Here are three tips for how to develop good relationships with employees and volunteers – and how these relationships can help you out in the long run.

Introduce Yourself to All Employees and Volunteers

Do you know the names of the cashiers who ring up all your book purchases or the employees who restock the bookshelves? Do they know you by name?

You should – and so should they. Make a point of thanking your cashier by name (a lot of them wear name tags) and introducing yourself to a new manager. Once these people get to know and recognize you as a regular, they’ll be much more welcoming and friendly.

And don’t be shy about telling them you’re an online bookseller! A lot of thrift store managers are thrilled to know that they can expect to sell a lot of books to the same person week in and week out.

I once introduced myself to a manager and let him know that he could expect to see a lot of me (since his store offered a lot of good books at reasonable prices). Before I was even done telling him my name, he introduced me to all the cashiers in the store and told them to give me a 50% discount on any book I bought.

Another time, a manager at another store asked if I’d be interested in scanning through a large box of recently donated books since her shelves were overstocked. Not only did I end up finding over $500 worth of books, the manager was so happy that I wanted them, she sold me the whole box for $10.

Naturally you can’t expect these kinds of finds or VIP treatment at every store you shop at – but the fact is these stores need to sell their inventory. If you present yourself as someone who can buy a lot of their stock, they’ll view you as a valuable customer.

(Tip: If you’re comfortable with this, offer to give the manager your email address and/or phone number. I’ve gotten a lot of good tips about big book donations this way).

Practice Good Thrift Store Etiquette

A lot of book scouts I see shopping next to me follow a rather disturbing pattern (especially at big book sales). They grab books off the shelf, scan their barcodes, and leave them in large piles on the floor (yes this really happens).

I suppose they think that by rushing through the store like this, they can shop at more stores in a day, find more books, and earn greater profits.

But it sure doesn’t make them popular with employees or volunteers. These people have to reshelve these books and clean up these messes.

Be neat when you scan. If you have to take some books out of the shelf, put them back after you’re done scanning. Some book sales have large bins for customers to place their unwanted books so volunteers can re-shelve them in the right places. Use them.

Get to know each store’s policies. If you know a certain library bookstore only accepts cash, be sure to carry some when you shop there. If a store doesn’t always have enough bags for every shopper, bring your own.

A lot of store employees that offer me discounts and special deals often comment that they do this because they appreciate the fact that I’m neater and more careful with their books than other book scouts.

Ask to Visit the Storeroom and Buy Books in Bulk

A number of managers that I’ve gotten on good terms with have allowed me to visit their storeroom and scan their books before they end up on the store’s bookshelves.

Naturally, this has allowed me to find a lot of valuable books, since these are books that no other bookseller has had the opportunity to look over. Moreover the store benefits since they can sell these books quickly to me and prevent them from going into overstock.

Don’t be shy about asking to look at books in the storeroom – if the manager is open to it, you can even arrange to make this a regular visit.

Be aware, however, that visiting the storeroom is a privilege and that you should never barge into a storeroom without permission.

I once saw a book scout walk into a storeroom only to be politely stopped by an employee. The customer claimed he had permission from the manager (who wasn’t there), and when the employee said he didn’t know about this arrangement, the book scout cussed him out. He was later banned from the store.

Remember – receiving special privileges doesn’t mean you’re entitled to them. Be grateful when you get them and be polite if new policies or circumstances take them away.

Hope these tips help you build a better relationship with your book suppliers! Remember, if you’d like to receive more tips for how to sell books online for extra money, you can subscribe to my blog!

Do you have a question or suggestion for a future blog article? Email me at sellbooksfastonline@gmail.com.

Make More Money Selling Books Online with Bonus Codes

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These days, thanks to book buyback comparison sites like Bookscouter, more and more book buyback companies are competing for your business.

So it should come as no surprise that many of these buyback companies offer special incentives for you to sell them your books – including bonuses and entries in contests that can earn you cash prizes and/or cool giveaways like gift cards, iPads, and tablets.

As someone who’s taken advantage of these offers, I encourage you to keep your eyes open for such opportunities – especially when you have a lot of books to sell online. You can get more money for your books (particularly if you have over $200 of books to sell and the company is offering a 10-20% bonus) and it’s always fun to win a contest.

How do you get these cash bonuses and enter these contests? Most of the time, it’s a simple matter of requesting e-mail alerts for special offers from these book buyback companies when you create a free online account with them.

Each company will then email you special bonus codes that you can enter when creating a buyback order. Creating a buyback order with these codes also usually enters you in the company’s contest, giving you multiple chances to earn extra money.

Quick tip: These special bonuses do not show up on Bookscouter when you look up buyback bids online for your books, so you’ll want to keep that in mind when you choose a buyback company to sell your books to.

Here are three book buyback companies I’ve regularly received cash bonuses from.

Cash 4 Books

Cash 4 Books is one of my favorite book buyback companies to sell to since they offer a new bonus and/or contest practically every month. These bonus codes are often good for the entire month (although some are valid for only a few days) so you’ll want to keep your eyes open when one shows up.

What kind of bonuses and/or prizes can you expect from Cash 4 Books? In the past few months, I’ve received offers for 10%-15% cash bonuses on my buyback orders, entries for $300 gift cards, and chances to double my buyback cash order.

(Full disclosure: I’ve never won one of Cash 4 Books’ contests – although I have enjoyed frequent cash bonuses from them).

To get these Cash 4 Books bonus codes, all you need to do is send Cash 4 Books your email address. Just visit the Cash 4 Books website, enter your email address at the bottom of the main page where it says “Sign up for special offers,” and click “Subscribe.”

Now every time Cash 4 Books offers a bonus or contest, they’ll send you an email with a special bonus code in it. Enter this bonus code when you create your buyback order and you’ll increase your money and be automatically entered into one of their contests.

Tip 1: Before selling your books to Cash 4 Books, go into your email account and do a search for “Cash 4 Books” to see if you received any emails with bonus codes in them in the last few days or weeks. If the code is still valid, you can use it in your order.

Tip 2: These bonus codes can usually only be used once – so use them with a large order if you think you’ll be sending Cash 4 Books multiple orders in the same month. There’s also a limit on some of these bonuses (normally $50) so be sure to read the bonus code terms at the end of your emails.

Tip 3: Some of these special offers may require you to sell more books than usual (Cash 4 Books normally requires you to sell them only $5 worth of books per order, but you may need to send them bigger orders to get certain bonuses).

As with any book buyback company, you’ll want to make sure the books you send Cash 4 Books match their book condition requirements.

Valore Books

Valore Books cash bonus codes are typically best used by people who have a lot of books to sell and/or books that receive high buyback bids as you usually need to have high buyback orders (often about $100) to receive these bonuses.

This may actually work for students who sell back their textbooks, so be sure to keep Valore in mind when you’re looking through Bookscouter for any good buyback bids.

The bonuses can range from an additional $5 up to $100 bonus per order and you can receive the codes through emails you sign up to receive from the Valore Books website.

In addition to bonus codes, I’ve received emails offering to enter me in drawings for $1000 bonuses if I ship my buyback orders within 5 days (something I normally do anyway) as well as survey contests asking me to rate my experience with Valore Books (with an entry into a prize for a Visa Giftcard).

Students selling their textbooks to Valore Books may also be interested in contests asking them to review any of the books they sold to Valore. Such contests also come with an entry into a drawing for a Visa Giftcard.

(Full disclosure: I’ve never won one of Valore’s contests, although I have enjoyed some of their cash bonus codes).

If you’re interested in receiving cash bonus codes and/or contest offers from Valore, sign up to receive their emails when you create a free online account with them, and do a search for “Valore Books” in your email when you want to sell books to them to see if you can get a bonus code.

TextbookRush

One thing I like about TextbookRush’s bonuses is that you don’t need to enter any bonus codes – if they offer a bonus, it will be stated on their website and will be automatically added to your order if you fulfill their requirements.

In the past, most of the bonuses I’ve received from TextbookRush had to do with the quantity of the books I sent them (for instance, if I sent them more than 3 books, I’d receive an automatic $5 bonus on my order).

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen many such bonuses offered by TextbookRush lately – but keep your eyes open when you visit their website if this changes.

If you sign up to receive emails from TextbookRush, you may receive offers to complete a survey on your experience with them for an entry into a drawing (often for an iPad).

Final Tips

Once again, please let me reiterate that the books you sell to these companies (or any buyback company) should fulfill each company’s book condition requirements. It doesn’t do any good to use a bonus code and then send in a badly damaged book – you won’t receive any money for it.

Likewise, once you’ve created a book buyback order, send the books out ASAP! Most buyback companies give you a week to send your books to them, but if you want to get your money fast, you need to send your books out fast – in two days if possible. (And as you’ve seen with Valore Books, some buyback companies even offer greater incentives to send your books as quick as possible).

Hope these tips help you make more money from your buyback offers! As always, if you have any more questions, feel free to contact me at sellbooksfastonline@gmail.com.

And if you’d like to learn more about selling books online to make extra money, please subscribe to my blog for constant updates!

How to Make Money From Books You Can’t Sell Online

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It’s an annoying truth about selling books online – sooner or later, you’ll find some of the books you bought can’t be sold for a profit.

The reasons for this vary – maybe the books you listed on Amazon suddenly dropped in value, leaving you with a lot of worthless inventory. Maybe the buyback companies that offered good prices reduced or removed their bids. Or maybe you found some of the books you bought were damaged, preventing you from selling them for extra money.

When this happens, you’ll need to have some strategies in place that will let you sell or trade those books for a profit and institute some clutter control on your home.

Here is a simple 4-step plan you should follow on a regular basis to get rid of that excess stock as soon as possible.

Step 1: Keep the Books You Expect to Rise in Value

Sounds kind of counter intuitive, doesn’t it? After all, isn’t this article about how to declutter your home from excess books?

Well it is. But it’s also true that a lot of book buyback companies you find on Bookscouter tend to buy the same books over and over again – and even when a certain book doesn’t receive any bids one day, it will suddenly receive multiple cash offers the next day.

A lot of this has to do with when you sell the book – many textbooks and other educational materials become more valuable before a new college semester when the book buyback companies are building up their stock. So sometimes, it pays to wait for a while and see if your books rise in value.

As you become more familiar with selling books online, you’ll discover what books and titles you can expect to reliably sell over and over again. (Quick tip: many of the same classic American and English literature titles regularly receive attractive bids from many buyback companies, particularly Textbooks.com, eCampus, and Sell Back Books.)

Here’s what I suggest – keep an empty cardboard box by your desk as you look up buyback bids (preferably with a scanner if you want to make your job easier) for your books on Bookscouter. When you come across a book you think will be eventually profitable but isn’t currently receiving any bids, place it into the box.

Over the next few days, re-scan the ISBNs of these books through Bookscouter and see if any book buyback companies are offering any bids. Odds are, you’ll be able to still re-sell some of these books for a profit.

After a week, if you have any books left, you’ll want to get rid of them using some of the strategies below.

Step 2: Return Any Books to Thrift Stores with a Return Policy

Some thrift stores offer a return policy on the items you buy from them, allowing you to exchange some of your worthless stock for trade credit that you can use to buy more profitable books.

There’s often a time limit on how long you can keep the merchandise before returning it (usually about two weeks), so make sure you learn the store’s policy when you purchase books from them.

Most stores also require you to have your original receipt with you when you return items, and the price tag may need to still be on the book so the item can be re-scanned back into their inventory.

To ensure that you have all these materials with you, follow this simple strategy – whenever you find a book you know you can’t sell (i.e. one with water damage, torn pages etc.) stick the store receipt into the book like a bookmark. Then toss the book into a second cardboard box marked “Return.”

Once you’re done scanning all your books through Bookscouter, you can then take the box and return all the books back to the thrift stores and exchange them for trade credit.

This will go a long way in reducing your overhead costs (since you’re basically reusing your money to buy better books), which will help you keep more of your profit!

Step 3: Exchange Books at Used Bookstores for Trade Credit

If you find you can’t sell your books on Amazon or through buyback companies you find on Bookscouter – and if the stores you bought them from don’t offer a return policy – you can still profit from them.

Just load those books into a third box labeled “Trade.” Then, take them to all the used bookstores that offer a trade credit program. (You may have to do an online search for used bookstores and call them up to confirm they exchange books for trade credit).

One nice thing about this strategy is that a lot of the books you buy to sell to buyback companies tend to be very popular (bestselling fiction, recent textbooks, popular nonfiction etc.) so used bookstores should be interested in a lot of them.

Some used bookstores may even offer you a cash deal for your books – but I tend to favor exchanging them for trade credit since you get more this way.

And while selling your books for trade credit isn’t the same as selling them for cash, you can still profit from this method by buying profitable books from used bookstores with your trade credit and then re-selling those books through Bookscouter.

Step 4: Donate Books to the Library or Thrift Store for a Tax Deduction

If all else fails, you can donate the books to the library bookstore or thrift store you bought them from and receive a tax write-off.

While this isn’t the same as getting money for your books, it can save you a few dollars when tax season comes around – and more importantly, it helps reduce the clutter created by your excess book inventory.

Be sure to ask the store for a receipt that you can file away for your taxes (many thrift stores have a pre-made form that you can fill out on your own later).

Hope this helps you profit more from your books when you sell them online! As always, if you have any more questions, feel free to contact me at sellbooksfastonline@gmail.com.

And if you’d like to learn more about selling books online to make extra money, please subscribe to my blog for constant updates!

How to Sell Used Homeschool Books Online

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Recently, while shopping at a thrift store to find used books to sell for cash, I met a mother who home schools her kids.

It seemed she’d been buying a lot of homeschool books and other supplies – many of which were now lying around unused since her kids had graduated to higher levels.

She was eager to sell these homeschool books online for cash – but like a lot of inexperienced online sellers, thought her only options to sell books were Amazon.com and eBay.

I immediately referred her to my blog, which I hope can help not only her but also any parent seeking to declutter their house and turn their sell their homeschool books for cash by selling them to buyback companies – which can then be used to provide funds for their children’s education.

Homeschooling families are actually in a great position to make extra cash by selling books online since many of their textbooks are recent editions – which makes them easier to sell for higher prices (provided they sell them as soon as their kids are done using them so the books don’t have time to be replaced by later editions).

Families seeking to sell their used homeschool books and other curriculum materials online should follow these three steps:

Step 1: Visit Bookscouter.com

Once your kids are done using their textbooks, visit Bookscouter.com and enter the ISBNs of your books in the search bar to see if you can immediately sell your books for cash to buyback companies.

This is the fastest and simplest way to get money back for your books – but to make sure you get the best prices you need to sell these books immediately after your kids are done with them since textbooks depreciate rapidly as new editions replace the old ones.

(If your books are already a few years old, you might still be able to make a few dollars from them, but don’t expect them to sell for anywhere near what you bought them for).

Be sure to create a free Bookscouter account to ensure you receive offers from as many buyback companies as possible. If you’d like to know which buyback companies I feel pay the best and the fastest, read my articles 8 Great Book Buyback Companies to Sell Books To and 2 More Great Book Buyback Companies to Sell Books To.

(Incidentally if you’re looking for a great book buyback company to sell textbooks to, I recommend K-12 Book Buyer. This company specializes in buying grade school, middle, grade, and high school textbooks — as well as clean workbooks — so you should be able to sell quite a few books for extra cash to them).

Also, if you have a lot of books to sell, I suggest you invest in a barcode scanner — the wired versions are very affordable and will make selling your books a lot easier.

As you find buyback company bids from your books on Bookscouter, you may discover you can sell your books for higher prices by selling them yourself on Amazon.com. This is also a good option (especially if you want to turn selling books online into a side business) but please read my article Should You Sell Textbooks on Amazon or to a Book Buyback Company to Make Money? to learn how much Amazon takes in fees and commissions before you get paid.

As always, you’ll want to make sure that the textbooks and other educational materials you sell are still in good condition before you send them in. For instance, if your kids have filled out all their workbooks with answers, you won’t be able to resell them. (This is particularly true of buyback companies like Powells Books which will pay you well for your novels, textbooks, and nonfiction titles, but only if the books are in excellent condition).

For a more detailed list of book condition guidelines, read my article Is the Book Condition of Your Textbook Good Enough to Make Extra Money?

(After reading that article, I’m sure you’ll agree that it pays to keep your textbooks in good condition if you want to sell them!)

Step 2: Consider Re-Selling Textbooks for Trade Credit Instead of Cash

If you’ve read my articles, Should You Sell Your Books for Amazon Credit? and Advantages of Selling Books for Powell’s Trade In Credit, you know you can exchange your books for trade credit to companies like Amazon, Powells, and TextbookRush.

This can be a very attractive option for home schooling parents since many buyback companies offer more in trade credit than cash when they buy books online.

This trade credit can then be used to buy additional homeschooling books and materials as your child requires them. You can even keep exchanging these educational materials for trade credit to these companies over and over again (provided you keep them in good condition), saving you a lot of money in the long run.

You can find trade credit bids for your textbooks on Bookscouter.com as well (just be aware that your trade credit bids will often be higher than the amounts Bookscouter reports – Powells, for instance, offers a 50% bonus on all bids reported on Bookscouter if you accept payment in trade credit).

Step 3: Trade Books at Used Bookstores

If you find your used homeschool books are out-of-date and don’t receive very attractive bids on Bookscouter, don’t lose heart – you can still profit from them.

Just do an online search for used bookstores in your area. Then call them up and check to see if they buy books for cash or exchange them for trade credit.

Odds are most used bookstores have a trade credit program – and will accept many of your old textbooks. You can then use the trade credit to buy additional educational supplies at the bookstore.

If you find a lot of used bookstores in your area, be sure to check them out before you trade with them – you’ll want to make sure the bookstore actually has items you’ll want to use your trade credit on.

Final Thoughts

By the way, while I do believe in selling homeschooling books as fast as you can (given how quickly new textbook editions pop up), if you find you can sell your books for a significantly higher profit on Amazon than on Bookscouter, you may still want to try and sell your books on Amazon (while keeping buyback companies as an alternative).

If you’d like to learn some good tactics to sell your books faster and for better profits on Amazon, feel free to check out my new Sell Books Fast Online eBook series.

I hope these tips help homeschooling families save money. If you have any more questions about how selling books online can aid in your child’s education, feel free to contact me at sellbooksfastonline@gmail.com.

And if you’d like to learn more about selling books online to make extra money, please subscribe to my blog for constant updates!