Author Archives: Michael J. Jung

About Michael J. Jung

Michael J. Jung is a professional freelance writer for hire. He loves learning about new side hustles and promoting nonprofit groups. When he's not writing or selling books, you can find him volunteering as Darth Vader or Spider-Man for children's events. Check out his Sell Books Fast eBook series on Amazon!

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How to Sell Your Gold Dust Books Online For the Best Prices

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WOMAN_COMPUTER_ARMS_RAISED_1_RESIZE_MARK 2

In my previous posts, I introduced you to gold dust books, or books you can easily find and sell by sending them to book buyback companies – companies that will immediately buy your books for an offered price.

The problem most people face at this point is figuring out which book buyback company will offer the best price for their gold dust books.

Fortunately, there’s a terrific free online resource that will solve this problem.

It’s called Bookscouter.com.

What is Bookscouter.com?

Founded in 2007 by Internet entrepreneur Brandon Checketts, Bookscouter.com is a website that allows you to look up books and see the price quotes different book buyback companies are offering for them.

Unlike a book buyback company website, you don’t sell books to Bookscouter – instead you compare price quotes from over forty different book buyback companies and then choose which company you want to sell your books to.

For a book scout, this offers a great advantage since you’ll be able to determine which book buyback companies offer the best prices for your book, allowing you to make the most money off of your gold dust books.

How to Use Bookscouter.com

Using Bookscouter.com is easy. Just go to the website’s homepage and type in the ISBN number of a book. Click Search for the Best Prices and the website will bring up a list of price quotes offered by book buyback companies for that book.

To speed up your search, I highly recommend buying an NEW!Wired handheld USB CCD Barcode Scanner Reader wired LED CCD reader (black)“>USB CCD Barcode Scanner. This is a barcode scanner with a USB cord that plugs into your laptop or computer, reads the ISBN number from the book’s barcode, and enters it onto Bookscouter’s search bar. It’s a great device that’s saved me a lot of time since I started selling books online.

Improve Your Search with a Free Bookscouter Account

To get the most out of Bookscouter.com, you’ll want to sign up for a free Bookscouter account. With this account, you’ll be able to see price quotes from all of the book buyback companies on Bookscouter. (Without an account, you’ll only see price quotes from Bookscouter’s top eighteen “Preferred Vendors”).

Having a free Bookscouter account also means you can see what your book is selling for on Amazon.com. That way, if you find you can list your book on Amazon for a better price than the price quotes you receive from book buyback companies, you’ll know not to send it to a buyback company by mistake.

To sign up for a free Bookscouter account:
1.    Go to Bookscouter.com
2.    Click on Register on the top right corner of the homepage
3.    Enter your email address and create a password
4.    Click Sign Up

Once you create your account, you can login at any time and be directed to the Bookscouter.com User Dashboard. This page shows you some of Bookscouter’s other services and allows you to manage your account.

One useful feature on the Dashboard is the Vendor Selection option. This lets you limit your price comparison search to only the buyback companies you want to sell to. This makes your price comparison searches faster since Bookscouter won’t have to search for prices from all forty-one buyback companies.

To limit your price comparison search:
1.    Go to Bookscouter.com
2.    Login to your account
3.    Click on Vendor Selection.
4.    Check or uncheck any of the boxes next to the book buyback companies listed to ensure they do or do not show up on your searches.
5.    Click Save Selection when you’re done.

Take Bookscouter on the Go with the Bookscouter App

Bookscouter also offers a free Bookscouter App that can be downloaded onto an Android or iPhone, and a Mobile Bookscouter Application that can be accessed through the Internet Browser on your phone. This allows you to use Bookscouter to scan for prices with your cell phone at thrift stores and garage sales.

If you’d like to try out the app, you can find and download it by visiting the Android Marketplace (for Android phones) or App Store (for iPhones and iPads) and typing “Bookscouter” in the search bar.

Read Reviews of Book Buyback Companies on Bookscouter

One common concern people have when they send books to a book buyback company is wondering whether or not the company will pay for their books.

As with any business, while there are many good and reliable book buyback companies out there, occasionally a seller will find a company that delays payment or even refuses to pay at all.

To make sure you don’t encounter these bad companies, I urge you to read the reviews other sellers have left about their experiences with book buyback companies.

To read these reviews, go to Bookscouter.com and click on the Vendors link located on the top tool bar. This will take you to the Vendors Feedback page where you can click on the View Info and Feedback link located to each book buyback company listing and read what other sellers have to say about the company.

Final Thoughts on Bookscouter

Overall, I think Bookscouter.com provides one of the easiest ways to find the best prices for your gold dust books.

That said, although Bookscouter shows you the price quotes offered by book buyback companies, you still need to study each book buyback company’s policies to make sure they will accept your copy of the book before you send them any books.

Remember, some book buyback companies will accept books with minimal underlining or highlighting while other companies will only pay for books in near-perfect condition. Thus, while you might receive several great price quotes for your book on Bookscouter, you may only be able to sell your book to some of those buyback companies!

In the future, I’ll provide posts that discuss how the condition of your books affects the type of book buyback companies you can sell them to. I’ll also share my personal experiences with book buyback companies and recommend some of the most reliable vendors.

I urge you to subscribe to my blog so you’ll be able to get this information and avoid accidentally sending a valuable book to a buyback company that will not pay for it.

For now, I highly recommend you visit Bookscouter.com and try out its free services for yourself. Sign up for a free Bookscouter account, enter the ISBN numbers of some books you’d like to sell, and see if you have some gold dust books in your house right now!

  

What Are Book Buyback Companies?

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Laptop and Books RESIZED

Wondering where to sell books online and make extra money fast?

Most people think if they list their books on Amazon.com or eBay, the money will come rolling in.

But while these markets are great places to sell books worth $20 or more, if your books are worth less than $10, you’re going to be disappointed.

Remember, both Amazon and eBay deduct fees and commissions from the sales you make on their websites – which will cut into your profit margin.

Plus, you’ll be competing with other online sellers – so if your books don’t sell fast, you may need to lower your prices to stay competitive, causing you to lose more money.

On top of that, it can take time – sometimes weeks or months – for some of your books to sell on Amazon or eBay, which can be a problem if you want to make extra money fast.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other places to sell books online – and one of the best places for people who want to make extra money fast is a book buyback company, like the ones you can find on Bookscouter.com.

What Are Book Buyback Companies?

Book buyback companies (also called textbook buyback companies) have their origins in pre-Internet days when college bookstores would “buy back” textbooks students had finished using and resell those used books to new students.

Most students didn’t like this since they could usually only sell their books back for a fraction of the original price. If a student wrote in his or her book, that price could be lowered. Worse, when a college stopped using a textbook, they stopped buying the book even if it was still in excellent condition.

With the coming of the Internet, however, students gained new options for selling books. If students weren’t happy with what their college bookstore was paying, they could go online and see if stores in different parts of the country were buying the book for a higher price. They could then mail their books to these bookstores and be paid by mail.

Today, this service has evolved into many online book buyback companies that operate year-round and can be found on online services like Bookscouter.com. Moreover, these companies don’t just buy textbooks but also novels, self-help books, religious texts, recent bestsellers, computer game guides and more.

Each book buyback company offers a website where people can check how much the company will pay for their books. People can then fill a box with those books, send them to the company, and receive payment in two to three weeks (by Pay Pal) or one month (by mailed check).

Most book buyback companies also provide free shipping labels customers can print out and use to ship their books. This is great since book buyback packages can get pretty heavy, which could eat up a seller’s profits if they had to pay for postage.

Are Book Buyback Companies the Best Place to Sell Books Online?

Sometimes. And sometimes not.

Some people don’t sell books to book buyback companies because they think they’ll always get a better price for their books if they sell them on Amazon.

While it is true that there are some books that sell better on Amazon than to a buyback company, the reverse is also often true.

That’s right – there are a lot of books you can buy very cheaply at thrift stores and garage sales that only sell for a penny on Amazon, but can be sold immediately for $2, $5, or even $10 to a book buyback company.

Moreover, since you ship books to buyback companies in bulk (most of your packages will contain five to ten books) the combined net profit of all those books will often match or exceed the profit you could make from a single package you sell on Amazon.

I call these books “gold dust books” and you can read more about them in my post, What Are Gold Dust Books – And How Can They Make Me Extra Money?

The trick is to see book buyback companies for what they are – another option in a large online market that you can sell books to and make substantial profits.

In future posts, I’ll go into more detail on how you can determine whether or not to sell your book on Amazon or to a book buyback company – so be sure to subscribe to my blog to get all the latest updates.

At this point, you’re probably wondering how you can find some of these book buyback companies — and which ones will pay the most for your books — so find some answers by reading my articles, How to Sell Your Gold Dust Books Online for the Best Prices and  8 Great Book Buyback Companies To Sell Books To.

8 Great Book Buyback Companies To Sell Books To

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Selling books online to book buyback companies can be a great way to make extra money – if you know which buyback companies to sell your books to.

The problem is new sellers don’t always know which book buyback companies are the most reputable, pay the fastest, or even pay at all.

Moreover, some don’t bother to learn what type of books a buyback company will and will not accept before they send them a box of books.

As a result, rookie book scouts can send books worth a lot of money to book buyback companies, only to receive an email telling them the book is not in “acceptable condition” and will not be paid for.

Fortunately this won’t be a problem for you, since I’ve created a list of the 8 best book buyback companies I’ve personally sold used books to – and what type of books they will and will not take.

Read this list carefully! It could mean the difference between a great payday and no payday at all!

(By the way, all of these book buyback companies appear on Bookscouter.com, making it easy for you to compare price quotes between them).

Textbooks.com

Located in Columbia, Montana, Textbooks.com is one of my favorite book buyback companies to sell books to. They buy a wide variety of books including textbooks (of course!), paperback novels, history books, recent bestsellers, science books, business books, classic fiction titles, self-help books, and even a few young adult novels.

Textbooks.com will accept ex-library books as well as books with minor highlighting, underlining, and handwritten notes in the pages.

That said, you should never send Textbooks.com (or any book buyback company for that matter) books with water damage, unpleasant odors, stains, missing pages, broken bindings, or torn covers. If you find a workbook or study manual, make sure the pages aren’t already filled in – no book buyback company will be able to sell that book.

One fantastic feature of the Textbooks.com book buyback program is that they guarantee their price quotes for 30 days – so the price quote you receive for any books you sell to them will not change for several weeks, unlike other book buyback companies whose price quotes can change every day.

You can also buy books from Textbooks.com and receive a 10% bonus if you re-sell books that you bought from Textbooks.com back to them. To get this bonus, you’ll need to log into the Textbooks.com account you used to buy the books in the first place so Textbooks.com can see you’re re-selling a past purchase.

If you sell books to Textbooks.com, be aware that you need to sell at least $10 worth of books before they’ll let you complete your order (not usually a problem since they buy so many books and offer very competitive price quotes).

I’ve never had a problem receiving payment from Textbooks.com which can come via Pay Pal (which usually takes two to three weeks) or by check (about a month).

By the way, Textbooks.com offers a free UPS label you can use to send your package that provides very fast shipping – just remember to drop your package off at a UPS store!

Want to learn more about Textbooks.com? Check out my interview with them!

Cash 4 Books

In recent years, I’ve sold many books to Cash 4 Books since not only do they offer nice competitive prices for books, but they also pay very fast (sometimes in as little as one or two weeks). The minimum order for this company is only $5.00 worth of books.

According to their FAQ page, Cash4Books will accept ex-library books, but only if they are marked as “withdrawn.” (I personally rarely send them ex-library books unless they offer me a really good price).

Cash 4 Books will accept books that have minimal (as in less than 50% of the book) highlighting, underlining, and/or writing.

Cash 4 Books also offers a free app that you can download onto your iPhone or Android and use to scan book barcodes and find Cash 4 Book’s buyback prices. Personally, I prefer using Bookscouter (since you can see prices from multiple buyback companies) but the Cash 4 Books app can be useful if you run into a situation where you can’t use Bookscouter.

Finally, Cash 4 Books regularly offers bonus codes that you can enter when placing your buyback orders, giving you some extra money on your buyback order. You can arrange to have these bonus codes emailed directly to you when you sign up for a Cash 4 Books account.

Powells Books

While many book buyback companies buy and sell only online, Powells Books actually has a giant bookstore located in Portland, Oregon. Book buybacks are sold through both this store and their website.

I’ve encountered advantages and disadvantages from selling to Powells.

First, Powells accepts more books than almost any other book buyback company I’ve dealt with. From recent bestsellers to children’s books to self-help books, if you can’t sell your books to other book buyback companies, odds are Powells will make you an offer.

Powells also offers a 50% bonus on all their books if sellers accept payment in trade credit. This trade credit is deposited in an online Powells account you can use to buy books or DVDs from the Powells store. If you’re a student looking to buy your textbooks for a better price or a movie buff, you can get great deals this way.

On the flipside, the books you sell to Powells must be in excellent condition. Where a few book buyback companies might accept books with a little underlining or bent pages, if you send a book like that to Powells, you won’t be paid for it.

Because of this, if you find a book that Powells offers a price quote on, make sure to flip through the book before you buy it for re-sale.

Powells will not accept ex-library books, books with underlining, highlighting, notes, weak bindings, or covers with any markings or excessive wear. Book Club editions of popular books will also be rejected.

To sell books to Powells, you’ll need to get a combined price quote of $5.00 or send them a minimum of three books.

Because of Powells high standards on book condition, some of the buyback packages I’ve sent to them have been reduced in value due to a book that did not meet their standards. Nevertheless, I continue to sell books to Powells since they accept so many books and because they always send me my payment fairly quickly via Pay Pal.

By the way, Powells offers a free Media Mail shipping label that you can slap onto your package and ship via the United States Postal Service.

Sell Back Your Book

Located in Aurora, Illinois, Sell Back Your Book also accepts a wide variety of popular fiction and nonfiction books. In the past, I’ve sold them parenting books, art history textbooks, books on the paranormal, and business books.

Like Powells Books, books sold to Sell Back Your Book must be in excellent condition. That means no ex-library books, texts with underlining/highlighting/notes, or any book covers with lots of wear.

Minimum buyback orders to Sell Back Your Book must be at least $5.00. Sellers also have the option of choosing a free Media Mail shipping label or a faster FedEx label that will deduct $3.00 from your payment if your total buyback order is less than $50.00. I recommend choosing the free Media Mail shipping label.

Like Powells Books, I’ve occasionally had some of my buyback packages lowered in value if some of my books do not meet Sell Back Your Book’s high standards. Because of this, I’m very careful to only send books in virtually new condition to this company.

Payment arrives very fast (usually in two to three weeks) by Pay Pal.

TextbookRush

Located in Grandview Heights, Ohio, TextbookRush (formerly TextbookRus) offers very high price quotes on the books it wants (I’ve sold books for as high as $70.00 to this company). Most of these high-price books tend to be textbooks, but I’ve also sold novels, business books, pop culture encyclopedias, and even gardening books for good prices.

TextbookRush will accept books with minor highlighting, underlining, and handwritten notes. They’ll also buy ex-library books, but only if the books have been stamped “Withdrawn.”

Unlike some textbook buyback companies, TextbookRush will buy (and sell) International editions of textbooks (which are textbooks that are sold overseas and priced cheaper). Instructor editions of textbooks (or textbooks meant for teachers with answers to the quiz questions inside) can also be sold. Just make sure to indicate this when you sell them the book.

Minimum buyback orders to TextbookRush must be $15.00 or more. All buyback orders also receive a free SmartPost shipping label – make sure to check if it needs to be dropped off at a USPS or Fed Ex location.

Like Powells Books, TextbookRush offers a bonus if sellers accept payment via trade credit that they can spend at TextbookRush’s online store. However, this bonus is very small, so unless you buy a lot of books from TextbookRush, take the money.

Sellers can choose to be paid via Pay Pal or check – I recommend Pay Pal as I’ve found TextbookRush pays extremely fast this way. Most of my Pay Pal payments arrive in less than two weeks and I’ve even had occasions where I was paid in less than a week.

By the way, TextbookRush often offers bonuses and special promotions that can substantially increase the value of your buyback package – so be sure to check their website for any special offers when you decide to sell books to them!

CKY Books

CKY Books is located in Nicholasville, Kentucky and purchases a wide selection of books including textbooks, medical, religious, political, history, art, parenting, and self help books.

Books with minor highlighting, underlining, and notes are acceptable. Ex-library books are also accepted, but CKY will deduct quoted prices by 30% for these books (so you’re probably better off selling ex-library books to Textbooks.com).

Minimum buyback orders to CKY Books must be worth at least $20.00. Pay Pal payments come fairly quickly (about two weeks after your buyback package arrives) and CKY provides your choice of free UPS, FedEx, or USPS shipping.

One cool thing about CKY is that they buy additional items like movies, music, and games, and you can earn even more extra cash by including these additional items with your book buyback orders.

For more information on CKY, be sure to check out the informative interview I recently published!

Valore

Valore is yet another textbook buyback company I’ve had a lot of success selling to. Many of my textbook buyback packages to them have been worth well over $50!

Valore currently has a minimum buyback order of $15, although once again, since their high textbook buyback price usually keeps this from being a problem. You can also print free UPS shipping labels for your buyback packages.

One cool thing about selling books online to Valore is that it frequently offers bonuses at different times of the year which you can learn about by signing up for email alerts when creating your Valore account. These bonuses come in the form of codes you enter when selling your books, and can give you a 5%, 10% or higher bonus on your buyback order.

Valore pays quickly – I’ve had most of my PayPal payments come in less than 2 weeks after shipping the books. If you request to be paid by check, you’ll probably have to wait an extra week.

Book it Buyback

Based in Alton, Illinois, Book it Buyback is a book buyback company I’ve sold to multiple times with success. They buy textbooks, science books, and also books on paranormal subjects. However, they typically don’t buy paperback fiction titles.

Books with minor underlining and highlighting will be accepted. You can also sell ex-library books to Book it Buyback – but according to their policies, you’ll only receive 50% of the price quote for these books.

Unlike most book buyback companies, Book it Buyback also buys Advance Reader Copies, which are uncorrected proofs of books sent to book reviewers before the book is actually published. However, Book it Buyback only pays 50% of the price quoted for these books.

(By the way, in the interest of full disclosure, I’ve never sold an Advance Reader Copy to this company, so I can’t really comment on how well this works).

Minimum buyback orders for Book it Buyback must be at least $10.00. They currently offer a Media Mail shipping label. Payment arrives fairly quickly via Pay Pal.

Final Thoughts

Depending on what type of books you find to sell online, you may find yourself selling most of your books to one or two of the book buyback companies above.

Visit some of the websites listed above. Learn more about their buyback policies and enter some of the ISBN numbers of your books into their buyback search to see if they’ll offer you a good price quote for your books.

It’s also possible that you may have better luck selling to some of the other book buyback companies offering price quotes on Bookscouter.com. If you’d like to learn more about these companies, check out 2 More Great Book Buyback Companies to Sell Books To and 2 Great Book Buyback Companies to Sell Textbooks To.

To learn more about how you can use this free online resource to make extra money, read my article, How to Sell Your Gold Dust Books Online for the Best Prices, and then subscribe  to my blog to receive all my latest tips for selling books online fast!

Want to learn even more ways to sell books online quickly and for higher prices? Check out my new Sell Books Fast Online eBook series and discover great strategies for selling books for better profits on Amazon!

 

Advantages of Selling Books for Powell’s Trade In Credit

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Powells

If you’ve sold books online to Powell’s Books, you may have noticed that Powells offers a choice between getting paid for your books in cash or Powell’s books trade in credit.

This trade credit bid doesn’t appear when you see Powells’ online bid on Bookscouter, but can still be an attractive option for you.*

First, let’s look at the difference between selling books online for cash or trade credit.

Selling Books for Extra Money or Trade Credit

Selling books for cash means what it sounds like – the company will send you either a check or a PayPal payment for your books. (PayPal payments are much faster and you can sometimes have your cash available in as little as a week after you send your books).

Selling books for trade credit is different. When you ask to be paid in trade credit, the buyback company records your payment in a trade credit online account you open with the company.

You can then use your trade credit to buy things from the company’s website – which can include college textbooks, trade paperbacks, DVDs, Blue Rays, and more.

If you keep requesting payment in trade credit every time you send a new shipment of books, more money (in trade credit) gets deposited into your online account, meaning you can buy some pretty expensive things online if you save your trade credit.

And since most websites offer a choice between cash or trade credit every time you sell your books online, you can ask to be paid in cash sometimes and trade credit other times.

Advantages of Using Trade Credit

So which is better – cash or trade credit?

Most people would say cash since you can spend that anywhere, while trade credit can only be spent on that buyback company’s website.

But before you select the “cash” option every time you sell your books online to Powell’s Books, consider some of the advantages of using trade credit.

First, when you sell books for trade credit to Powell’s Books, you get a 50% bonus on the original buyback offer.

In other words, if Powell’s Books offers you $20 in cash for your books, you can also choose to sell them for $30 in trade credit.

This lets you stretch your dollars a lot farther if you buy stuff online.

For instance, let’s say the average price of the books you buy to resell is $1. Let’s also say you can sell your books for cash to Powell’s Books for an average price of $2.

In other words, you make a 100% profit on every book you sell to Powells (or $1 profit on every $1 you spend).

But if you choose to sell your books to Powells for trade credit, you’ll sell them for an average price of $3 ($2 + $1 bonus). You’ll make a 200% profit on every book you sell to Powells (or a $2 trade credit profit for every $1 you spend).

Getting Huge Discounts on Powell’s Books

Another way of looking at the scenario above is that you’ll receive a 66% discount on anything you buy online at Powells (since you’re actually only spending $1 of “real money” for every $3 of trade credit you spend online).

When might you want to do this? Well, if you know that Powells Books sells a lot of the textbooks you’ll need next semester, you’d save a lot of money by building up some trade credit in your account and buy textbooks at a discount for college.

Likewise, if you do Christmas shopping on a budget, you can stretch your dollars by building up a supply of Powells trade credit over the year and then using it to do your Christmas shopping online.

And if you have your eye on a rare book or DVD that Powells is selling, buying it on trade credit can be a great way to get what you want while saving money.

Final Thoughts

Finally, let me reiterate that you’re given the choice to sell your books for cash or trade credit every time you sell your books to Powell’s Books. In other words, there’s no reason you can’t sell your books for cash sometimes and trade credit others.

Moreover, there are other buyback websites that can offer a more attractive online bid for your books in both cash and trade credit – including Amazon.com. Be sure to read my article, Should You Sell Your Books for Amazon Credit? to learn about these other websites.

* Keep in mind if you use Bookscouter, you can just add 50% to any online bids you receive from Powell’s Books to see what you can sell the book for in trade credit.

What Are Gold Dust Books — And How Can They Make Me Extra Money?

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GOLD DUST BOOK 2 RESIZED

If you’re like most people, you dream about stumbling onto a copy of the Gutenberg Bible that will sell for $2.2 million at auction and make you an instant member of the super rich.

Well guess what? That’ll probably never happen to you.

Hey, these books are called “rare books” for a reason. And while it is possible that – if you search long enough – you’ll find a book you can sell online for $100, you probably won’t have that success every day (especially if you’re just starting to sell books online).

On the other hand… while you won’t find a $100 book every day, you can make $100 on most days selling books online – just by buying a lot of books and selling them all in the same day.

It’s very possible. In fact I do it all the time — and with only the aid of a free online resource called Bookscouter.com.

The “secret” is to stop looking for only books that sell for $50 or $100 and open your eyes to all the other potentially valuable books available to you – like gold dust books.

Gold Dust Books

In future posts, I’m going to be talking a lot about gold dust books and how you can find and sell them very quickly to make extra money. For now, however, I’d like to give a basic definition of what gold dust books are.

Gold dust books are books that often sell for low prices online (usually $2 to $10, although a few are more valuable). Unlike books on Amazon or eBay (where you wait for someone to buy your book) gold dust books can be sold immediately to book buyback companies that will offer a price quote for your books and pay you for them via Pay Pal or check.

These book buyback companies can range from a textbook buyback company like Textbooks.com or Valore that specializes in buying educational books to a physical bookstore like Powells.com that gets a lot of its stock from books sent to them by people like you.

Even Amazon.com has a book buyback program that will let you sell books directly to their company — although they pay you in trade credit rather than cash.

It’s easy to sell gold dust books. You sign up for a free account at a book buyback company’s website, enter the books you want to sell, and receive a price quote for them. The website gives you with a shipping label to send the books and once your books are received, the company pays you.

Benefits of Selling Gold Dust Books

The best part about selling gold dust books is – they’re everywhere!

Every day, there are dozens of gold dust books selling for cheap prices at thrift stores and garage sales. They can be religious texts, self-help books, paperback novels, and even children’s books.

Many book sellers (or “book scouts”) ignore these books since they don’t look as good as books that sell for $25 or more.

To me, however, it’s totally worth it to load my cart with gold dust books because they’re easier to find than high-profit books – and they provide me with a guaranteed sale since the book buyback company is already offering me a price for each book.

Moreover, once I pack five or ten gold dust books in one package, I can earn $20, $30, or even $40 per package – a net profit comparable to those harder-to-find high profit books.

The other great part about selling gold dust books is that you can sell them fast.

Any business needs to turnover its merchandise regularly in order to generate a good cash flow. So while it might be a thrill to have an Amazon book inventory that’s worth over $10,000, if none of those books are selling, that online store’s ability to generate actual income is limited.

In contrast, I can make extra money very quickly by selling all my gold dust books on the same day I bought them. Even better, I can re-use that same money over and over again to buy more books and earn extra money without having to invest another dime!

Drawbacks of Selling Gold Dust Books

The disadvantage of selling gold dust books is that while it’s easier to find gold dust books than high-profit books, there aren’t enough of these books for most book scouts to generate a full-time income by only selling gold dust books to book buyback companies.

The good news is that if you look at selling gold dust books as a way to make extra money, you’ll be very pleased by what you do earn. It’s fairly easy (if you take the time and effort to study this business) to make an extra $1000 a month by selling gold dust books – which can provide you with a nice regular supplemental income.

Final Thoughts

As someone who’s sold books to both book buyback companies and on Amazon.com, I can honestly say that anyone who wants to succeed in selling books online should take advantage of both book buyback companies and Amazon.

Each of these companies has its benefits and drawbacks and, while I don’t pretend to be the ultimate expert in online bookselling, I have developed a number of techniques and strategies that give me an edge in these markets.

Update: Recently, I published my popular Sell Books Fast Online eBook series which details how to sell books on Amazon faster and for higher prices. If you’d like to make even more money by selling books on Amazon as well as to buyback companies, I encourage you to check it out!

In the meantime, I urge you to subscribe to my blog to make sure you receive all my updates on how you can sell books online quickly to both buyback companies and Amazon.

And then check out my article, How to Sell Gold Dust Books Online for the Best Prices to see exactly how you can start making extra money from gold dust books.

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!

FREE Sell Books Fast Online eBook Offer on Amazon!

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Hey everyone!

I’m pleased to announce that How to Find Profitable Books to Sell on Amazon, the latest book in my Sell Books Fast Online eBook series will be offered for FREE from December 14th through December 18th – and for the DISCOUNTED price of $0.99 from December 19th through December 20th!

I think many of you will be interested in this new eBook – where the previous three books in my Sell Books Fast Online series focused on strategies for selling books you already have on Amazon, How to Find Profitable Books to Sell on Amazon actually shows you how to find used books you can buy cheaply at thrift stores, garage sales, library bookstores, and other book suppliers, and then sell for high profits on Amazon.

By reading this short (60 page), information-packed volume, you’ll learn how to:
• Choose the best book scanning equipment for your budget
• Decide at a glance if a used book is worth reselling on Amazon – and how long it might take to sell
• Locate thrift stores, garage sales, estate sales, and other great places to buy books using the online resources I’ll provide you with direct links to
• Create book routes that let you visit multiple stores every day
• Search for profitable books faster than your competitors and amass a big supply of valuable books to sell on Amazon
• Befriend store employees, volunteers, and your fellow book scouts so you can gain access to more books and learn of other hidden book suppliers

All of the techniques and strategies I cover in this eBook were learned “in the trenches” by me and will be of great value to anyone just starting to sell books online (especially if you can download it for free!) Even if you happen to be reading this after the promotional period has ended, the book is still a great value for its usual price of $2.99.

By the way, if you do download the book and find it useful, please take some time to leave me a quick review! Let everyone know why you got into online bookselling and what you plan to use your extra money on (Vacations? School expenses? Upgrading your home or car?). I’m always interested in learning how the information I’m sharing helps people – and I know others are too!

About My Sell Books Fast Online eBook series

I started my Sell Books Fast Online eBook series over a year ago with my now-popular, How to Write Descriptions That Sell Used Books on Amazon.

Each book in the series focuses on a different aspect of online bookselling, from how to price your books for profit to how to improve customer relations and get better online reviews.

That way, if you just want to improve your skills in a specific area, you can pick and choose among the many books I offer and focus on the strategies in whatever aspect of online bookselling you’re most interested in.

That said, if you’d like to save some money, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of my How to Sell Used Books on Amazon Box Set to get the first three eBooks in my series for the discounted price of $6.99! (Just remember to leave me a review if you like it!)

And if you’d like to know when my next eBook is coming out – and when you can pick up a free or discounted copy – please subscribe to my blog and get all the free tips and articles I offer!

Thanks everyone! Happy Holidays and, as always, feel free to email me with any of your questions and comments!

How to Find Profitable Books to Sell on Amazon

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It’s a question I’ve been asked constantly since I started this blog:

“Where do you find good books to sell online?”

Most of you have heard stories of people with valuable books hiding in their attics. Many of you may have also heard how these books sometimes wind up in garage sales just waiting for someone to snatch them all up for a quarter and cash them in for big bucks.

But this still begs the question – how do online bookdealers find these profitable books every day and earn a regular income from them?

It’s a topic I’ve touched on in a few articles, but never explored in any real depth.

Until now.

I’m thrilled to announce that the fourth entry in my Sell Books Fast Online eBook series will finally reveal step-by-step not only how you can find books to sell online, but also where the most valuable books can be found.

It’s a short, information-rich read titled, How to Find Profitable Books to Sell on Amazon.

What This Book Will Teach You About Online Bookdealing

If you’ve been reading the other books in my eBook series, you’ll know that I focus on a different aspect of online bookselling in each one – from pricing your books for profit, to promoting your books to online buyers, to creating good customer relationships.

How to Find Profitable Books to Sell on Amazon continues this trend by showing you how to find and build a lucrative inventory of books you can purchase cheaply and sell for big profits on Amazon.

For only $2.99, you’ll learn how to:

• Select the book scanning equipment, services, and apps that will help you find profitable books
• Decide at a glance if a book can be resold for a profit or not
• Locate thrift stores, garage sales, estate sales, library fundraisers, and used bookstores where you can find the most lucrative inventory for the lowest prices
• Earn more money and save time by creating “book routes” that let you visit several stores every day.
• Find profitable books your competitors can overlook
• Befriend store employees and volunteers and gain access to even more books
• Turn other online bookdealers from competitors to friends who will share valuable information with you

This is the perfect book for anyone interested in online book dealing who’d like to find more books and boost their earning power. Whether you’re a college student building a vacation fund, stay-at-home parent seeking additional income, or someone looking for a gift to give to the book lover in your life (hey, Christmas is right around the corner…), you’ll find what you need in this book.

Plus, you’ll find that many of the strategies in this book work beautifully with many of the free tips and tricks I offer in this blog – making How to Find Profitable Books to Sell on Amazon the perfect supplement to locating more books to sell through Bookscouter.

I genuinely hope you enjoy and learn valuable strategies and techniques from this book. And if you do, please be sure to leave me a positive review on Amazon and/or email me if you have any more questions. I’m always available to chat with you guys and I’m very eager to know what you think of my eBooks!

Thanks! Happy Holidays!

Bonus Tip! Want to get access to all of my eBooks for the lowest possible price? Pick up a copy of How to Find Profitable Books to Sell on Amazon and then download a copy of How to Sell Used Books on Amazon Box Set to get the first three eBooks in my series for the discounted price of $6.99!

Extra Bonus Tip! Want to know when my new eBooks come out – and when I offer special discounts and promotions? Subscribe to my blog and get advance notices!