Category Archives: Selling Gold Dust Books

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MAKE $1000+ A MONTH SELLING USED BOOKS ONLINE WITHOUT AMAZON!

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If you have several bookshelves you’d like to clear, odds are you can turn your books into cash quickly — WITHOUT USING AMAZON!

With this FREE eBook, you’ll learn all about a website called Bookscouter that reveals dozens of little-known buyback websites that immediately pay cash for your used books.

I’ll also show you where to find books you can sell instantly for a $10, $20, or $50 profit, allowing you to generate a constant stream of income selling books – or make an extra $200, $500, or even $1000+ a month selling books anytime you want!

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(If you like this eBook — or any of the other books in my Sell Books Fast Online eBook series — be sure to share your thoughts with a brief review! It only takes a few sentences, and you get the thrill of seeing your words in print!)

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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bigstock-Used-Bookstore-26212106

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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SP2100-ProfileGuyLogo--221x443-Trans

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!

Why I Share My “Secrets” of Selling Books Online for Cash

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Recently, I received a very nice email from one of my readers thanking me for sharing my methods of flipping books online for profit on this blog. Like many of you, she’s interested in earning money by selling books and was eager to try out many of the techniques I teach.

She went on, however, to ask why I was sharing my “secrets” so openly with everyone online. Wouldn’t giving away all my tricks make it harder for me to earn extra cash selling to buyback companies like Cash4Books or Sell Back Your Book?

Well, no. It hasn’t. As a matter of fact, since I started this blog way back in 2013, my profits from online bookselling have increased substantially. I’ve even encountered several booksellers who use similar methods to mine, yet we’ve never gotten in each other’s way.

Let me explain why I feel comfortable about giving all of you such detailed articles on online bookselling – and why you shouldn’t worry about competition.

Online Bookselling is a Growth Industry

First, let’s look at the practical side of why sharing information about online bookselling doesn’t hurt my bottom line.

If you’ve read my articles about making money from gold dust books, you’ll know there are thousands of books out there that you can sell for a profit online every day.

Some of these books will earn you a small profit, others will offer a massive payday, but my point is there is no way I’d be able to find, sell, and profit from more than a small fraction of them, even if I spent all my time searching for books.

Plus, when you take into account how there are more and more thrift shops, estate sales, and library bookstores opening up every day, the number of potential suppliers for a bookseller’s inventory is constantly expanding. Even if a competitor did try to buy all of the profitable books from a store or if one of those shops overprices their books, I could easily find a new supplier in no time.

Frankly, if I ever tried to take more than my fair share from all the books out there, I’d burn myself out and collapse from exhaustion – and what fun would that be?

My advice? Make what you want using Bookscouter, but don’t feel like you have to compete with other booksellers or spend all your time looking for books to sell. Relax and have fun – and if you ever have to stop for a few days or weeks, don’t worry! The books will be there when you come back.

My Personal Reasons for Running This Blog

Of course, knowing there are more books out there than I could ever hope to sell isn’t the only reason I run this blog.

The truth is, I enjoy sharing what I know and helping people learn about unusual things – and making money by selling books online with Bookscouter is definitely one of the most unusual ways I’ve ever earned extra cash!

And at the risk of sounding like a spiritual guru (or a Disney princess), sometimes the best thing to do with your knowledge is to “let it go.” I’ve had a lot of fun being an online bookseller, and it’s nice to know you guys will continue to benefit from my methods as long as this blog is up.

There’s another benefit I get from writing all of these blog articles. By taking the time to go over all of my tricks and techniques in detail, I’ve found I’ve gotten even more creative about the ways I sell books online.

Over the last few years, for instance, I’ve developed strategies that have allowed me to sell books faster and for higher prices on Amazon. This is great since you can earn even bigger profits from Amazon book sales than Bookscouter, and those profits will keep coming in even when you’re not spending your time looking for books.

I’m currently sharing many of these techniques in my Sell Books Fast Online eBook Series. If you enjoy reading my blog, I highly recommend you check out my eBooks (and please leave me a review!)

So that’s it guys! As long as I’m running this blog, you can always depend on me to be open and forthcoming about my bookselling methods. Remember, to me these aren’t “secrets” – they’re techniques everyone should be able to try out on their own!

Would you like to receive more tips and tricks on how to sell books online for extra money? Then go ahead and subscribe to my blog!

Keep sending me those questions and comments, guys! Email me at sellbooksfastonline@gmail.com.

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.