Category Archives: Book Scouting Tools

Limited Time Deal on Pricing Used Books for Profit on Amazon!

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Hey everyone!

I’m pleased to announce the second book in my Sell Books Fast Online eBook series has just been released on Amazon and will be offered for the bargain price of $0.99 until February 2, 2017!

This latest book, Pricing Used Books for Profit on Amazon, focuses on how to create prices for books you list on Amazon.com that will always earn you a good to fantastic profit on your Amazon book sales.

After February 2nd, this book will go back to its regular price of $2.99, so please make sure to buy it early for only $0.99 and save some money!

Pricing Used Books for Profit on Amazon

As many of you who have sold books online via Bookscouter know, while flipping books for profit with buyback companies can offer you a fast, steady cash flow, there is one big disadvantage to making extra money by selling books this way.

Namely, since you can’t set your own price for the books you sell to buyback companies, you may often have to settle for a much lower price quote if you sell all your books exclusively to buyback companies.

That’s why it makes sense to list some of the more valuable books you find on Amazon for higher prices than buyback companies are offering. It might take longer for some of these books to sell, but your overall profits will be greater since you’ll have an additional income stream.

That’s where Pricing Used Books for Profit on Amazon comes in. With this short, fast-paced eBook, you’ll learn a set of easy pricing strategies that will teach you how to:

• Set a minimum price for your books so you always earn a decent net profit
• Work out high prices that can attract customers and make you a 1000% (or greater) profit
• Keep your books competitively priced by raising your prices
• Use the Amazon Best Sellers Rank to find books that sell fast
• Know when to sell your books on Bookscouter and when to list them on Amazon

With these simple strategies, you’ll never sell books for pennies on Amazon or sacrifice profits for sales ever again.

This is the perfect book to learn how to make more money selling books online with less effort. Buy it for the bargain price of $0.99 (and please leave me a review!) today!

About My Sell Books Fast Online eBook Series

After receiving so many emails and questions about how to sell used books on Amazon, I decided to answer these requests by creating my Sell Books Fast Online eBook series.

Each book in the series provides in-depth coverage of a different aspect of selling books on Amazon – from setting competitive prices to earning excellent customer feedback – that other online bookselling guides might gloss over.

That way, if you have questions about a certain part of bookselling (or want to improve your skills in a specific area) you can choose from any of my easy-to-read guides that will help you the most.

In addition to Pricing Used Books for Profit on Amazon, you can now check out:

How to Write Descriptions That Sell Used Books on Amazon

This eBook reveals how you can quickly write short, detailed descriptions of any books you sell on Amazon that will attract customers and help your books sell faster and for higher prices. (You’ll even learn techniques for how to make your used books’ flaws look attractive to the right customer).

As a bonus, I offer an Appendix full of ready-to-use description templates so you can immediately create eye-catching pieces of copy, even if you aren’t a natural writer.

Future Books in the Sell Books Fast Online eBook Series

Right now, I’ll be releasing a new eBook every month, on subjects as varied as finding better books to sell online to creating an online filing system that will make shipping your books easier.

If you’d like to know when each new book will be released, feel free to subscribe to this blog to receive notices. You can also go to my Author Page and click on the orange “Follow” button to get updates.

For now though, please check out Pricing Used Books for Profit on Amazon – and please leave me a review if you found it helpful!

Thanks guys! I hope you like my books!

How to Write Descriptions That Sell Used Books on Amazon

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Hey everyone! Hope you’re all having a good holiday!

After four years of offering free tips for selling books online, I’ve received many emails from readers telling me how they’ve enjoyed making extra money selling used books with resources like Bookscouter.

A lot of these people are also interested in selling used books on online marketplaces like Amazon.com and have asked me questions about selling on Amazon.

But while I’ve tried to answer some of their questions in my articles, many of my most effective Amazon selling strategies take a lot more room to teach than a short blog post.

That’s why I’m thrilled to announce the release of my new eBook series, Sell Books Fast Online – a series specifically designed to show you easy and effective strategies for selling books faster and for higher prices on Amazon.

And best of all you can get the first book in the series – How to Write Descriptions That Sell Used Books on Amazon – for only $0.99 from December 13th to December 14th!

How to Write Descriptions That Sell Used Books on Amazon

Did you know that writing great descriptions of your used books can help them sell faster and for higher prices on Amazon?

Many Amazon sellers don’t realize this. Most just copy and paste the same vague description on all their used book listings. (Think about all the times you searched for a used book on Amazon, only to find a bland description stating the book “may or may not contain highlighting, underlining or notes”)

Some Amazon sellers don’t even bother to describe their book’s condition at all, leaving that entire section blank.

Yet by passing up the chance to spotlight key features of their books, these sellers are ignoring one of the easiest ways to make more money selling used books on Amazon.

By writing a great book description, you can:
• Tell customers what they want to know about your book
• Highlight special features about your book and online bookstore
• Make your used book’s flaws appear attractive to the right buyer
• Attract customers who will pay higher prices for your books

Best of all, writing descriptions that sell used books can be quick and easy – if you have the resources I provide in this short, fast-paced guide.

After reading How to Write Descriptions That Sell Used Books on Amazon, you’ll know how to create a basic template specific to your online Amazon bookstore that you can use on all of the used books you want to sell.

You’ll also learn how to quickly modify that template to describe key features of each of your used books, allowing you to attract more customers and make more money online!

Even better, I include a series of copywriting templates at the end of the book that you can use to help create your own book descriptions.

These templates are book descriptions I’ve personally used over the years to help me make thousands of dollars on Amazon. Using them as your guide, you’ll be able to create eye-catching descriptions of your own in no time – even if you’re not a writer!

How to Write Descriptions That Sell Used Books on Amazon is a fantastic resource for college students who want to resell their textbooks on Amazon, book collectors who want to get into the online bookselling business and anyone who wants to turn some of the used books in their home into cash!

Plus, at the sale price of $0.99 (regular price only $2.99!) it makes a great stocking stuffer or last-minute Christmas gift for the eBook reader in your family.

Sell Books Fast Online

The best part is that How to Write Descriptions That Sell Used Books on Amazon is only the first in the Sell Books Fast Online series.

Every month, I’ll be releasing a new eBook that focuses on a different aspect of selling used books on Amazon – from getting great customer feedback, to finding more books to sell, to pricing your books competitively – and offer simple and effective strategies that you can use immediately to become a better Amazon seller.

That way, if you have questions about a certain aspect of selling books online – or if you’d like to improve your bookselling skills in a key area – you can choose from any of the Sell Books Fast Online guides that will help you the most.

If you’d like to know when each new book will be released, feel free to subscribe to this blog to receive notices. You can also go to my Author Page and click on the orange “Follow” button to get updates.

For now though, please check out How to Write Descriptions That Sell Used Books on Amazon – and please leave me a review if you found it helpful!

Thanks guys! I hope you like my books!

How to Earn Extra Money for Vacation with Bookscouter

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The college semester is almost over! Time to have some fun and take that exotic trip you’ve been dreaming about the whole year.

But wait! Hold on! There’s a problem…

How are you going to pay for your vacation activities?

If you’re like a lot of college students, your vacation fund is probably a little… sparse at the moment. That’s understandable. College is expensive and between dorm room fees and food costs (not to mention those expensive textbooks!) your expenses have been draining your wallet for the last few months.

Fortunately, there’s a quick and easy way to raise some money before your vacation time starts – and it can be done anytime, anywhere with minimal expenses.

It’s called selling books online with Bookscouter.

Making Money for Vacations with Bookscouter

If you’re already a subscriber to my blog, you’ll know that most of my articles show readers how to generate a steady source of income by selling books online using Bookscouter, a free price comparison website that reveals which book buyback companies will pay the most for your used books.

What’s cool about this unusual way of making money is that it can also be done on the short term – for people who aren’t necessarily interested in making a career out of online bookselling, but do want to earn a few hundred (or even a few thousand) dollars to pay for upcoming holiday expenses.

Because selling books to book buyback companies allows you to immediately sell (and profit) from all the used books you buy, you don’t have to invest any time, money, or space into storing your books and waiting for them to sell (which you would need to do if you tried selling them on Amazon).

Instead, you just pack your books carefully, ship them out (using pre-paid shipping labels supplied by the buyback companies), and wait for your payment to be deposited into your PayPal account (usually in two weeks or less).

This is a fantastic way for college students to sell their textbooks for extra cash – plus since this is peak buying season for buyback companies if you go on Bookscouter right now, you’ll likely find a lot of great offers for your books (I personally recommend selling your books to Textbooks.com, Sell Back Your Book,  Cash4Books, and/or Valore – they give good prices and fast, reliable payment).

For those of you who want to earn some serious vacation money (as in a few thousand), buying cheap used books and selling them immediately using Bookscouter is the best way to build a vacation fund short-term.

I have personally known people who used this method to raise enough money in a couple months to pay for an African safari. I myself have used this method to take trips to Disneyland, pay for Christmas gifts, and enjoy extra-long weekends hanging out with friends.

If you’d like to read a detailed explanation of how to use Bookscouter to make extra money selling books online, please read How to Make Extra Money Every Day “Flipping” Books Online. For now, however, I’d like to offer the following tips for using Bookscouter to raise money on the short-term.

Tip #1: Start Saving Money For Your Vacations Early

Considering that I’m writing this article at the beginning of December, this tip might not seem helpful now, but it is true that if you start selling books online early in the year you can raise a tremendous amount of money by your next vacation time.

I personally say you should start selling books online right now – and definitely when January comes around. This is peak buying time for a lot of book buyback companies (so you’ll enjoy higher-than-normal prices for your books).

Frankly, if you start investing just a few hours a week right now selling books online with Bookscouter, you can probably still raise some money for some holiday activities – and you’ll definitely have plenty of extra cash on hand when Spring Break and summer vacation come around.

Tip #2: Keep to a Bookscouting Schedule

Professional online booksellers like me can spend four or five days a week (or more) searching for profitable books at thrift stores and library sales.

Obviously you don’t want (or need) to invest this kind of time if you’re just selling books online short term – but it definitely pays to make and keep to a set schedule when you’re searching for good books to sell.

Make this schedule something you can stick to easily. For instance, if you pass by some thrift stores when you’re commuting to school or work, you can make it part of your regular schedule to spend a half hour searching through their bookshelves.

Alternatively, you can invest one day out of your week to check out all the thrift stores and library book sales in your area until you raise enough money for your vacation. You’ll be surprised how quickly this allows you to earn money — especially if you keep an eye out for sales.

Tip #3: Set a Goal for How Much Money You Need to Fund Your Vacation

How much money do you need for your next vacation? $500? $1000?

Work out all of your vacation expenses in advance – and then estimate how long it’ll take you to earn that much money based on the type of books you’re finding and selling.

Setting a goal will help motivate you to keep using Bookscouter until you’ve raised enough money for your trip and/or activities – and give you an idea of how much time you’ll need to invest to reach your target figure.

Keep in mind that not all of your book hunting days are going to be super-profitable (I’ve earned as little as $30 and as much as $300 shopping at the same thrift stores on different days), so you’ll need to keep that in mind when creating a time table.

That said, if you’re consistently not finding enough books to sell at your usual shops, you may want to check other libraries and thrift stores to see if they offer better books that can help you raise money quicker.

Tip #4: Keep a Separate Vacation Account

Once the money starts rolling into your PayPal account, it’ll be tempting to spend that extra cash immediately on a new pair of shoes or a night out with your friends.

Resist that urge. If you spend your money as fast as it comes in, you’ll never raise enough money for your vacation.

Keep the money in a safe place – you can keep the cash in your PayPal account, open a new bank account and deposit the funds there, or take out the cash and keep it with you until vacation time comes around.

Optional: Invest in Better Bookscouting Equipment

It doesn’t take much to start making money with Bookscouter – just a cell phone with a good data plan (I recommend Verizon) and a free barcode app you can download from Google PlayStore.

That being said, if you’d like to speed up your search for profitable books and/or find more books to earn more cash, you can invest in a professional barcode scanner.

I recommend the SP-2100 – it’s saved me a ton of time and increased my profits substantially. You can read my entire review of the scanner at Making Selling Books Online Easier with the SP2100 Laser Barcode Scanner.

Optional: Consider Selling Books Online for Trade Credit

If you shop online a lot and/or if you’re raising money to buy Christmas gifts, you can choose to sell your books for Amazon trade credit.

This is a great strategy that’s really reduced my holiday expenses over the last few years. You can learn all about it at my article Should You Sell Your Books for Amazon Credit?

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 Use Bookscouter’s Pricing History to Find Books That Rise in Value

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Price History 2

If you’ve been earning extra money by using Bookscouter to sell books online to textbook buyback companies, you’ve probably noticed that many buyback companies tend to purchase the same book titles throughout the year.

These books (which can include classic literature, self help books, and popular science texts) are known as “backlist books” and are considered required reading by several colleges, universities, and book clubs. As a result, buyback companies purchase these books on a regular basis, since they know there’ll always be a market for them.

That said, there will be certain times in a year (or even a month) where the price quotes for these backlist books will rise dramatically in value as buyback companies seek to replenish their stock. So depending on when you sell your book, you could be earning anywhere from $5 to $30 for the exact same copy of the book.

Things get trickier when you come across backlist books experiencing a temporary “dry spell” where no buyback company wants to purchase them – but which may still get a dramatic rise in price a few weeks or a month later.

This leaves you with a dilemma – naturally you don’t want to waste your money on books you can’t sell, but you also don’t want to pass up on a chance to buy several bags of books for pennies and then sell them all for huge profits a few weeks later.

That’s where using Bookscouter’s Price History features can really help you decide which books can help you make the most money.

Studying a Book’s Price History

If you go to Bookscouter’s home page right now and search for a book with its ISBN, you’ll notice two features that show the book’s price history.

The first is the View Price History feature, located right below the book’s publication information. By clicking on this feature, you’ll see a list revealing the maximum price, average price, and number of price quotes for that book over the last couple years.

The second is the 52-Week Pricing History graph that appears above all the buyback company price quotes. This graph shows the average price quote for that book for every week in the last year.

I recommend using the 52-Week Pricing History graph when you’re debating on whether or not to purchase a potentially profitable book. You’ll be able to see, at a glance, if that book has been selling for high prices in the past. This will let you quickly decide whether to buy the book or leave it.

One thing I love about using the 52-Week Pricing History graph is that you’ll be able to find books other online book scouts will pass up. Since most book scouts only look at the current price quotes offered by buyback companies when looking up prices on Bookscouter (and not their potential future price quotes), you’ll be able to buy more books to sell for money, which will vastly increase your profits.

Using the 52-Week Pricing History Graph to Make More Money

When looking at the 52-Week Pricing History Graph, you’ll want to watch for certain key signs.

First, check to see if there are any dramatic rises and falls in the book’s price – and if these price fluctuations show up on a regular basis. If the graph reveals that a book consistently sells for $20 every three weeks but then dips down to $2 between these high points, then you’ll probably want to buy the book and wait for it to rise in value again.

On the other hand, if the graph reveals that a textbook was selling for $20 six months ago but has been steadily dropping in value over the last several weeks, you’ll probably want to pass it up (or sell it quickly if you can still make a profit).

Also, don’t underestimate your own hunches. If you’ve been selling the same copy of the book multiple times to buyback companies over the last several months, odds are that title will continue to be in demand – which should factor into your decision to buy or pass up a book.

Selling Potentially Profitable Books

If you do end up buying a bunch of potentially profitable books, be sure to keep them in a box next to your laptop. You can look up their current price quotes on Bookscouter while you’re selling your other books – which will help make sure you sell them for their highest price.

And if you find you can’t sell some of these books – don’t worry. You can still profit off of them (read my article How to Make Money From Books You Can’t Sell Online to find out how).

Final Thoughts

In general, while I find Bookscouter’s Price History feature to be a useful way to spot more books to sell online for cash, it can be confusing for someone who’s just started selling books online. For this reason, I consider using Price History an intermediate technique for book scouts who are already comfortable making money by selling books online and want to increase their profits even more.

So if you’re new to this business – stick with learning the basics. Read my article How to Make Extra Money Every Day “Flipping” Books Online to get familiar with the concept of “flipping” books for profit. Learn which buyback companies are the best ones to sell to (I recommend Textbooks.com, Sell Back Your Book, eCampus, and Cash 4 Books) and pay close attention to the condition these books should be in to make you money.

Then, once you start making some money by selling books online (trust me, it won’t take long), start using more advanced techniques like Bookscouter’s Price History. You’ll be amazed by how much you’re profits will increase!

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 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.

Finding the Best Data Plan for Selling Books Online with Bookscouter

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Tablet

One of the biggest concerns I have when using my tablet or phone to find books to sell online is how good my wireless provider’s network coverage is.

While using Bookscouter helps me find a lot of books to sell online and earn extra money, if I shop in places where my wireless carrier’s network coverage is spotty or slow, I waste a lot of time waiting for bids from buyback companies to appear on my tablet or phone. That’s time I should use finding more books to sell for cash – not waiting to see if a single book is worth buying or not.

This is a problem for online booksellers since we shop for books in many different cities, towns, and buildings to resell online. Just because a wireless provider’s network coverage is good in one city doesn’t mean it’ll be great in another – if you want to make extra money selling books online you need reliable coverage everywhere.

So for the past several months, I’ve been testing out data plans from multiple wireless providers to compare their network coverage.

I’m happy to report that Verizon Wireless is by far the most reliable and cost effective wireless provider I’ve encountered so far, and allows me to find hundreds of books with Bookscouter in multiple locations quickly and efficiently.

Here’s my wireless carrier comparison of Virgin Mobile, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless based on my personal experiences.

Data Plan Cost

When I started testing out data plans from different wireless carriers, I was attracted to no-contract data plans offered by companies like Virgin Mobile and T-Mobile. Since I just wanted a reliable network to find books to sell online via Bookscouter, I went with some basic plans.

Virgin Mobile charged me $38.10 a month and provided me with unlimited data. While I appreciated their data plan it was difficult for me to see all the pricing information on the small screen of my phone. Plus, holding the phone in my hand so long eventually gave me carpal tunnel syndrome (please read How to Make a Hands-Free Cell Phone or Tablet Platform to learn how to prevent that).

T-Mobile offered an attractive $20 monthly 4GB data plan that I could use on my tablet. This looked like a great deal, but their spotty in-building coverage soon forced me to waste most of that data just waiting to look up prices on Bookscouter. After a while, the aggravation wasn’t worth the lower price.

I’m currently paying $31.19 a month to Verizon Wireless for a 2GB data plan (Please note that plan rates can change so this actual figure might be different when you read this).

While this might sound like I’m paying more for less, Verizon’s faster and more reliable network allows me to spend less time scanning books and looking up prices so I don’t need all that data – and can actually perform my work much faster, sometimes cutting an hour from my workday.

Unlike Virgin Mobile and T-Mobile’s no-contract plans, Verizon requires you to enter a 2 year contract to use their network. I was a bit apprehensive about such a long-term agreement but I’m now satisfied that their network offers me a good return on my investment.

Verizon now offers another perk for entering into their contract – an Ellipsis 8 Tablet with a SIM card that connects the tablet directly to their network. Previously, I used a T-Mobile Hotspot to connect my tablet to T-Mobile’s network – which was a hassle since the hotspot gave me another device I needed to keep charged. Because of this, I recommend getting tablets with SIM card slots if you want to use a mobile network.

Overall, I’m very happy with the cost of Verizon’s wireless network and feel it offers a good middle-of-the-road option in terms of reliability and affordability.

Network Coverage

Virgin Mobile’s network coverage was decent but its speed was slow in places with low ceilings – which included many of the library bookstores and thrift stores I shopped at. I sometimes had to wait ten or twenty seconds for Bookscouter to look up the price quotes of one book.

T-Mobile’s network was extremely spotty. I couldn’t get a signal in certain parts of thrift stores and had to move around the store trying to work out where I could access the Internet. This made looking up book prices slower since I had to move my books from one part of the store to another just to look them up on Bookscouter.

Verizon Wireless’ network is lightning-fast and can access the Internet anywhere I take my tablet. I visit a total of 25 different thrift stores and library bookstores every week in 5 different cities and I can look up the price of any book on Bookscouter within two seconds in any of these areas. The difference is striking since I know both Virgin Mobile and T-Mobile’s networks can’t match Verizon’s speed in the same locations.

Data and Battery Usage

One nice thing about Virgin Mobile was that it offered me unlimited data so I didn’t need to worry about using up my data plan. On the other hand, my cell phone’s battery did run low after a few hours, so I had to invest in a portable charger.

T-Mobile’s 4GB plan seemed like it could provide me with enough data for the month, but since its spotty network coverage forced me to spend more time looking up prices, I ended up using more data every month. My tablet’s battery did last for several hours without issue, but the T-Mobile Hotspot ran out of power constantly.

Because Verizon Wireless’ network is much more reliable and faster than Virgin Mobile or T-Mobile’s, I can get my work done faster and use up less data and battery life (this month alone, I’ll be using less than 1.5 GB of my 2 GB data plan).

That said, there are some important steps you should take when using a mobile network to make sure you don’t accidentally consume too much of your data or battery life. I cover these tips in a separate article, 3 Tips for Saving Data and Battery Life on Your Tablet or Phone. Please read this – it’ll likely save you money!

Keep in mind also that I only use my tablet to sell books online through Bookscouter, which makes it easier for me to use less than 2 GB a month. If you use your tablet or phone more often, there’s a chance you’ll need a bigger data plan.

But when it comes to selecting a reliable wireless provider with great network coverage that can help you find more books in less time to sell for extra money there’s no contest – go with Verizon Wireless!

Do you have your own opinion about which wireless provider offers the fastest and most reliable network coverage? Email me at sellbooksfastonline@gmail.com.

And remember, you can receive more tips and tricks for how to sell books online for extra money by subscribing to my blog!

3 Tips for Saving Data and Battery Life on Your Tablet or Phone

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When I switched my wireless provider to Verizon, I found that, while Verizon’s network coverage was much faster and more reliable than my previous wireless providers, it also limited my data usage to 2 GB for $31.19 a month – and charged a $15 overage fee for every additional 1 GB I used.

So I really needed to keep an eye on my data usage and conserve as much data as I could when using Verizon to find books I could sell online with Bookscouter.

After just one day using Verizon’s network on my Android tablet, however, I checked my data usage and was shocked – I’d used over 0.3 GB of data! At that rate, I’d burn through my entire 2 GB in no time, and would soon be racking up a huge bill in overage fees!

More bad news – even though I’d charged my tablet’s battery the night before, it was almost completely dead after just a few hours of use.

Disappointed, I did what I always do when I’m frustrated – get on the Internet and research the problem.

Surprise! Turns out there were some very simple steps I could take that would not only dramatically reduce my data usage but also conserve my battery life.

I applied these strategies, and was amazed by how little data I used in the following days and how long my battery lasted. I realized I only needed a little over 1 GB of data every month to find hundreds of profitable books with Bookscouter, make more extra cash with Verizon’s faster network, and save a lot of money in overage fees in the process.

Here are some of the best ways I found to conserve data and battery life:

Check to See Which Apps Are Draining Most of Your Data

One easy way to save data is to first find out which of the apps on your phone or tablet are draining the most data.

For Android tablets, go to “Settings” on your tablet or phone and click “Data Usage.”

You’ll see a list of different apps and web browsers, along with estimates of how much data they’ve been using over the last week.

If you see a lot of unnecessary apps draining your data (Candy Crush etc.), shut off any you don’t need when you’re using Bookscouter. A lot of open apps send and receive data even when you’re not using them, which not only wastes data but also drains your battery.

Make Sure Your Device Automatically Connects to Your Secure Wi-Fi network

If you have a secure Wi-Fi network at your home or office, make sure your tablet or phone automatically connects to it when its in range.

Just go to Settings, click on “Wi-Fi” (under “Wireless & Networks”) and log on to your home or office’s wireless network using your password.

Once your device automatically connects to your secure Wi-Fi network, you can use this Wi-Fi for activities that require large amounts of data usage – like downloading music or streaming videos. Since you’re using your Wi-Fi network, you won’t be draining data from a mobile network like Verizon.

One app you definitely want to only use when you’re on a secure Wi-Fi network is the Google Play Store App. This app automatically downloads updates to apps on your tablet or phone. While updating apps is good, it also consumes huge amounts of data, slows down your device, and can prevent you from doing things on your device.

To keep Google Play Store from draining your data, do the following:

Go into Settings

Click on Data Usage

Find Google Play Store

Click on Google Play Store

Click on “View App Settings”

Click on “Auto-update apps”

Select “Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only”

Now Google Play Store will only update apps when you’re on any of the secure Wi-Fi networks you connected your device to. This will save you a huge amount of data (I cut my Verizon data usage in half just by doing this).

Do NOT Use Google Chrome as your Internet Browser

My tablet had Google Chrome as its default internet browser which, despite being popular for its speed, is a huge drain on your battery. My tablet’s battery was almost completely dead after just a few hours of usage.

Luckily, there are plenty of more energy efficient Internet browsers that you can download onto your phone or tablet, including Opera, Dolphin, and Mozilla Firefox. You can add any of these browsers to your device by searching for them in Google Play Store and downloading them. You can then click on the new browser icon and access Bookscouter through it.

After testing multiple browsers, I found both Dolphin and Opera are the best browsers to use with Bookscouter. Both of these browsers can look up a book’s buyback quotes in three seconds and use less than half the battery power that Google Chrome does. Opera also advertises that it uses less data, which may affect your decision if you aren’t saving enough data already.

Mozilla Firefox was considerably slower, requiring six seconds to look up a single book’s buyback quotes. Firefox also uses less battery power than Google Chrome, but the extra time it takes to look up book prices will force you to spend more time looking for books than you need to.

How Much Data Can You Save?

After instituting these changes, I checked to see how much data I used the next time I spent a day shopping for books with Bookscouter – and was pleased to discover that I only used 0.12 GB – almost a third of what I used when I was on Google Chrome and allowed the Google Play Store to automatically update my apps.

Thanks to this, I can easily visit dozens of thrift stores a week, use Verizon’s faster network, and make selling books online quicker and more profitable – all without having to pay more than 2 GB of data each month.

These are very simple strategies that I highly recommend you use on your own devices. Not only will they save you a lot of money in overage fees, they’ll also make earning money selling books online much easier if you use a reliable network like Verizon.

Do you have your own tips for saving data and battery life? Email me at sellbooksfastonline@gmail.com.

And remember, you can receive more tips and tricks for how to sell books online for extra money by subscribing to my blog!

How to Earn More Money Selling Books Online by Buying Discounted Books

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If you’ve been selling books online using Bookscouter and the methods described in this blog, you’ve probably realized that the profits you earn from your books depends greatly on how much you bought them for in the first place.

Think about it – even if a thrift store offers a lot of books you can sell to buyback companies for $5 per book, your profit margin will be pretty slim if that store makes you pay $4 for each book. Sure you’ll make some money – but is a 20% profit per book worth it when you have to invest $4 up front just to make $1?

On the other hand, let’s say you find a bunch of books in a library sale’s $0.25 bargain bin that will each sell for $3 to various book buyback companies. Suddenly, you’re making $2.75 net profit per book – $11 for every $1 you invest – or an 1100% net profit!

That’s a great profit margin – and one that should show you that you should always find ways to buy books as cheaply as possible, so your profit margin is as high as possible.

Here are three tips for how to find and buy discounted books.

Collect Thrift Store Coupons

Many thrift stores offer coupons that can offer you a nice regular discount (usually anywhere from 10%-25%) on the merchandise in their store. You can usually just download these coupons from their website and print them up to show to the cashier when you purchase your books.

Some stores require you to sign up for their email newsletter to receive discount coupons. I highly suggest you do this – not only will the store usually email you coupons, they’ll also inform you of any special sales that can give you even bigger discounts.

A few stores offer what I call a “stamp card” discount – you get a card that gets stamped every time you buy something from the store. After so many stamps (usually 10), you get a discount on your next purchase. While it can be tedious to remember to get these cards stamped, if you go to a store on a regular basis, this can also save you some money.

Please keep in mind that certain coupons come with specific restrictions (for instance, you might need to purchase a certain amount of merchandise before receiving a discount and you usually can’t combine multiple discounts). Make sure you know the rules of each thrift store coupon and you’ll know the best place to buy discounted books.

Shop for Discounted Books on Thrift Store Sale Days

Thrift stores and library bookstores are like any other retail business – they need to keep selling off their older merchandise to make room for new merchandise.

As a result, almost every thrift store will offer special sale days where virtually all of their merchandise (including books) are sold even cheaper than usual. Usually, this means a 50% off sale, although I’ve seen thrift store sales that discounted their books by as much as 75%!

These are gold mine days for people who like to sell books through Bookscouter – and you should make an effort to always visit stores on these days.

Many of these stores offer these sales on a regular basis (usually twice a month or every other week). Some of the sales can get pretty hectic, so be prepared to brave a lot of crowds, especially if you come early.

Many library bookstores also offer regular sales which you can learn about by signing up for their email lists. You’ll enjoy some amazing discounts on these days – many libraries have “brown bag sales” where you can fill an entire bag with anywhere from twenty to thirty books and purchase the entire bag for only $5. Since that means you bought each book for only $0.16 to $0.25 a piece, your profit margin will be fantastic when you sell those books using Bookscouter.

Develop Good Relationships with Your Book Suppliers

Okay, but what happens if you shop at stores that don’t have discount coupons or thrift store discount days?

Simple – create your own!

If you’ve read my article How to Build Good Relationships with Your Book Suppliers, you’ll know that it’s very possible to form special business arrangements with the thrift stores you shop at. As long as you can show you are a reliable shopper who buys books in bulk on a regular basis, many managers will be open to offering you a special discount since you’ll be clearing out their overstock.

Please keep in mind that this is only something you should do if you already sell books online on a regular basis. If selling books for cash is just a hobby for you and you don’t intend to shop at these stores regularly, don’t try to get a “one-time-only” discount.

That being said, building good relationships with your book suppliers is an important part of selling books online, and if you intend to make selling books for cash a part time business, you should definitely look into getting better prices for your books this way!

I hope this article has given you some ideas for how to make more money selling books online! Remember, you can receive more tips and tricks for how to sell books online for extra money by subscribing to my blog!

If you enjoyed this article, I encourage you to check out Make More Money Selling Books Online with Bonus Codes. You’ll learn how buyback companies like Cash 4 Books and Valore offer great bonus coupon codes that will increase the money you can make selling books online.

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!