Tag Archives: Best Places to Sell Online

2 More Great Book Buyback Companies to Sell Books To

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One of my most popular articles on this blog is 8 Great Book Buyback Companies to Sell Books To.

It seems a lot of people really want to do their research before they start selling their books to book buyback companies to make extra money.

That’s smart. While there are a lot of book buyback companies you can find by going to Bookscouter, the best book buyback companies accept more books, pay more, and send your cash faster.

So to help you out, here are my reviews of two additional book buyback companies I’ve personally worked with – and the types of books they will and will not take.

Both of these companies appear on Bookscouter.com – however you’ll want to sign up for a free Bookscouter account to make sure they appear in your searches.

Sell Back Books

Located in Lexington, Kentucky, Sell Back Books is an excellent book buyback company that I’ve sold hundreds of books to over the years.

This company accepts a very wide variety of books that includes textbooks, self help books, university small press books, and even several adult fiction titles.

I’ve noticed that Sell Back Books is very partial to literary fiction (especially American and English literature), so if you have classic literature novels you’d like to sell, be sure to visit their website and check their bids on your books.

Sell Back Books accepts ex-library books, as well as books with minor highlighting, underlining and handwritten notes in the margins (as long as the markings do not obscure the actual text).

As always, you should never send any book buyback company books with water damage, unpleasant odors, stains, missing pages, broken bindings, or torn covers. Workbooks and study manuals should also be free to any markings to the worksheets in their pages – so be sure to check your books before sending them in.

One nice thing about Sell Back Books is that they only require you to have $5 worth of books to complete a buyback package (pretty easy since they accept so many books).

Unlike most book buyback companies, Sell Back Books does not offer payment via PayPal. Instead, you’re given a choice between being paid by a mailed check or direct deposit into your bank account. (Notably, eCampus, a buyback company that takes almost all the same books Sell Back Books does for comparable prices, does offer payment via PayPal).

If you choose to be paid by direct deposit, you’ll need to enter the routing and account number of your checking or savings account in Sell Back Books’ website when you place your buyback order and select your payment option.

I’ve always chosen to be paid by check, and while this is slower (often taking four to five weeks after I send the package in), I’ve never had a problem with being paid by Sell Back Books.

Finally, Sell Back Books offers a free UPS label you can print out for fast shipping – just make sure to drop your package off at a UPS store.

Chegg

Chegg is a great book buyback company in Antioch, Tennessee that I sell books to almost every week.

You can sell a lot of different books to Chegg, from textbooks to best selling novels to self help books. I’ve sold multiple business and religious texts to them as well.

Chegg also accepts several literary fiction titles – so college students should make sure to check the prices for their English and American literature novels once the semester ends.

Chegg’s book condition requirements aren’t as strict as other book buyback companies – you can sell Chegg ex-library books and books with minor highlighting, underlining, and margin notes. However, you should always make sure your book is free of any water damage, has strong binding, and no missing or torn pages.

One unique thing about Chegg is that they don’t have a minimum requirement for a book buyback package – so even if they offer only a couple dollars for a single book, you can still send in that one book and get paid.

(That said, I do suggest you try and include at least three to five books in each buyback package – it’s easier than packing each book one at a time).

You can choose to be paid in three ways by Chegg – PayPal, a mailed check, or store credit (which you can use to shop in Chegg’s online store).

Personally, I suggest getting paid by PayPal. Chegg pays extremely fast this way (most of my payments arrive in less than two weeks).

Chegg also offers a free UPS shipping label with all its buyback orders.

Final Thoughts

Both Sell Back Books and Chegg receive a lot of my business since they accept most of the books I find. Their low minimum buyback order also makes it easier to sell books to them on days when I don’t find as many books.

If you’d like to see buyback bids for your books from these companies when you’re using Bookscouter.com, be sure to sign up for a free Bookscouter account and make sure to include these companies in your Vendor Selection. (Sell Back Books will not show up in your searches if you do not do this).

Ideally, as you increase your Vendor Selection to include reputable book buyback companies like Sell Back Books and Chegg, you’ll broaden the number of buyback companies you can sell books to for cash – increasing your overall profits.

Got even more textbooks you’d like to sell? Check out my latest article, 2 Great Book Buyback Companies to Sell Textbooks To.

Like this article? Please remember to subscribe to my blog if you’d like to receive more tips about book buyback companies you can sell your books to for extra money.

Want me to review other book buyback companies? Send me an email at sellbooksfastonline@gmail.com and let me know!

How Much Money Can You Make Per Hour Selling Books Online?

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Hey guys! Thanks for sending me all your questions – I really appreciate the feedback!

Recently, I got an email with a question that I’m sure is on a lot of people’s minds when they start selling books online for extra money.

“How much money can you make selling used books online?”

It’s a fair question – and one that will influence not only your decision to sell books online but how you choose to sell books online as well.

The good news is this – if you adopt some good strategies for selling books online (like the ones I teach in this blog) and keep using them, the money you make in an hour will not only become substantial but also keep growing as you continue selling books online.

For instance, my part time job selling books online currently allows me to make $20 an hour. This net hourly wage is calculated by taking into account the time I spend looking for books to sell, listing books on Amazon, selling books to buyback companies, and packing books for shipping.

However, before you start expecting to make this money right away, there’s something you should know.

This wage includes the money I make selling books to buyback companies and Amazon.com. In other words, while you can make money by only selling books to buyback companies, if you want a higher hourly wage, you need to sell books on Amazon.com and to buyback companies.

Let’s take a look at how different strategies for selling books online can affect how much money you make per hour.

Selling Books to Buyback Companies

If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll know I’m a big advocate for selling books to buyback companies you can find on Bookscouter.com. There are a few reasons for this.

First, it’s a lot easier to find books to sell for extra cash to buyback companies. These books include many subjects – popular fiction, textbooks, science, history etc. – and can be found anywhere from thrift shops to library bookstores to garage sales.

And while the buyback bids offered for these books might not seem high (most sell anywhere from $2 -$10), if you buy the books cheaply and pack several of them into a single box, you can still make a decent profit from each buyback order (I make a net profit that can range from $15-$50 for each buyback package I send).

Second, you can sell books immediately to buyback companies. There’s no need to wait for a customer to find your book in your online bookstore and place an order – these companies want the books now and will pay quickly (usually about 2 weeks after you send the books to them).

Because this turnaround is so fast, you don’t have to worry about all your money being tied up in inventory – you can liquidate and reinvest your books on a regular basis and generate a steady stream of revenue.

And finally, by using a free book scouting service like Bookscouter.com to find books to sell online, you can keep your overhead costs even lower since you don’t have to pay for a book scouting service.

Along with these positives, however, come a few downsides.

For one thing, you’ll need to find a lot of books to send to these buyback companies if you expect to make a decent profit. This can be time consuming (which will reduce your hourly wage) which is why I highly recommend investing in a good barcode scanner that will make finding profitable books much faster and easier.

Another snag I’ve found is that some thrift shops and library bookstores are located in Internet “dead zones” which makes it harder for me to use a free online service like Bookscouter.com. This also eats up time, so it can be handy to use a PDA and scanner which find books using a downloaded database that doesn’t need Internet access.

And while you will find books that buyback companies will bid high prices for (I regularly sell single books for $50-$80), the vast majority of the books will still sell for only $2-$10, which can limit your profits.

So how does this affect your hourly wage?

Well, when I first started selling books to only buyback companies, I could make $8 to $10 an hour selling books online. Not bad if you’re looking for a way to raise money for a vacation or Christmas, but not that great either.

Over time, I invested in a barcode scanner and learned to spot the books buyback companies would want while bypassing the ones they didn’t. This let me find and sell more books in less time, letting me make about $12 to $15 an hour. Better – but I was still spending more time for what I felt should be a higher return.

To really make more money, I needed to merge other internet bookselling techniques with the Bookscouter book selling technique.

Which brings me to –

Selling Books on Amazon

This is the strategy most online booksellers think of when they sell books online. And it comes with some benefits – some of which I cover in my article, Should You Sell Textbooks on Amazon or to a Book Buyback Company to Make Money?

To recap: When you sell books on Amazon.com, you can list your book for any price you want. If you want to sell your book for $300, you can list it for that price. You don’t have to let an online buyback company’s bid dictate what you sell your book for.

The problem is that you need to wait for someone to purchase your books for that price to see any return on your investment. This isn’t a big deal for someone with a large amount of inventory who can sell books every day – but it is a problem if you’re just starting out and only have a couple dozen books listed on Amazon.

It could take months or even years for some of those books to sell – and while the time and effort to pack a single book isn’t that much, you’ll need to keep building your inventory if you expect to make a decent hourly wage.

Another issue is that Amazon.com will take out its own commissions and fees before you get paid – and you may have to invest your own money for postage and/or insurance. This isn’t such a bad deal if the book is an expensive one – but if you only sell cheap books, a lot of your profit will be sucked out.

That’s not to say people can’t earn a good hourly wage by only selling on Amazon.com – many established sellers with huge inventories claim they earn over $30-$40 an hour. But unless you can quickly build a large inventory of profitable books – and keep replenishing them as they sell – you won’t make a lot of money fast this way.

Having said that — I have learned and developed several strategies over the years that have allowed me to sell my books faster and for higher prices on Amazon. If you’d like to take advantage of these special tactics, please feel free to check out my Sell Books Fast Online eBook series.

How to Make More Money an Hour Selling Books Online

So how do I use Amazon.com to make more money selling books online?

Simple – I list books that go for very high profits on Amazon.com. Then I sell the rest to buyback companies using Bookscouter to find the best places to sell online.

It’s a basic technique that’s worked out very well for me. The money I make immediately from buyback sales more than covers the cost of any books I list on Amazon.com.

Then, over time, the books I list on Amazon.com start selling. Sometimes it takes weeks, months, or even years – but since I’ve already recouped my initial investment on those books, I don’t need to worry about not getting my money back.

And once I start generating regular Amazon.com sales, my hourly wage increases – and will continue growing since my income comes from two streams – buyback companies and regular Amazon.com sales.

How Should You Make Money Selling Books Online?

So should you sell books on both Amazon.com and to buyback companies like I do?

Well, that’s up to you.

If you just want to raise money for a vacation, project, or gift, then maybe you don’t have to sell on Amazon. Just invest a few weeks selling books to buyback companies (use a barcode scanner if you want to make the work faster and easier) and you’ll earn the extra money you need.

On the other hand, if you want to generate a source of regular income and earn a decent hourly wage, then you’ll want to sell to both buyback companies and Amazon.com. It doesn’t take long to list a book on Amazon, and the time you invest will pay off once your inventory grows and you make more money selling used books online.

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 Find an ISBN and Use it to Sell Books Online for Profit

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Okay, you’re all set to start making some extra money selling books online. You’ve read my blog, know all about Bookscouter.com, and how much money you can earn selling books through buyback companies.

You are ready to find the best places to sell books online and start making extra money!

Then you go to Bookscouter.com and see the following words in their search engine:

“Search an ISBN”

Wait. What the heck is an ISBN?

What is an ISBN?

An ISBN can be your best friend or your worst enemy when it comes to selling books online – depending on how much you know about it and how easily you can find it.

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number and is a numerical code often found above a book’s barcode or in the publication information page. The code is like the book’s social security number and identifies the book’s publisher, its edition (i.e. hardcover, paperback, 13th edition of a textbook etc.), and where it was published.

Every book (as well as different editions of the same book – especially textbooks) has a different ISBN. Almost all books published after 1970 have an ISBN.

ISBNs are all 13 digits or 10 digits long.

13-digit ISBNs begin with the numbers 978.

10-digit ISBNs in the U.S. all begin with a 0 or 1. (If the book was published in a different country, the 10-digit ISBN might begin with a different number).

So what does this mean to you?

It means if you find out how much money you can sell your book for, you need to locate the ISBN of your book and enter it in Bookscouter.com. Bookscouter can then look up the book and tell you how much different buyback companies will pay for that book.

Sounds easy, right?

Well… not always.

Problems with Finding the ISBN of a Book

Most of the time, finding and using the ISBN is as easy as turning to the back cover of the book and scanning the barcode with your barcode scanner. The ISBN will then appear in the Bookscouter.com search bar and bring up all the buyback company bids.

The problem is, sometimes the barcode on the back of a book doesn’t contain the ISBN.

Instead, the barcode contains what’s known as the Universal Product Code (UPC) which is a different set of numbers that also identifies the book.

Unfortunately the UPC makes no sense to Bookscouter.com and you won’t get any information on the book if you scan that code.

(You can tell if a barcode contains an ISBN or UPC by glancing at the numbers below the barcode. If the numbers begin with 978 it’s an ISBN. Otherwise it’s often a UPC).

Other times, even if the barcode contains the ISBN, it’s covered with a sticker from the store it’s being sold in. These stickers have their own barcodes – so your scanner reads that barcode instead of the ISBN and brings up no information.

In these situations, you need to peel off enough of the sticker (making sure not to damage its barcode) so you can scan the book’s actual ISBN barcode.

Sometimes the sticker is stuck too hard for you to scan the book’s barcode.

It’s frustrating. Believe me, I know.

There have been times I found a book I was sure would fetch a great price – and then wasted a lot of precious time trying to find and scan the ISBN.

A lot of people give up early in the game because of this – and I can’t entirely blame them. While selling books online is a fun way of making extra money, problems like this can lead to a lot of headaches if you don’t develop a strategy to deal with them.

So how do I get around these problems?

Like this:

Top Three Places to Find the ISBN Barcode

While the back cover of a book is the most common place to find the ISBN barcode, it is not the only place where one can be located.

Thus, your first strategy when you can’t scan the back cover is to see if the ISBN barcode is somewhere else in the book.

If the book is a paperback, flip to the inside front cover. A lot of paperback books have a second ISBN barcode inside the front cover that can be easily scanned.

If the book is a hardcover with a dust jacket, look at the inside edges of the dust jacket, where the ISBN barcode can also be located and scanned easily.

Other Places to Find the ISBN

Sometimes, a book doesn’t contain a barcode (or has one that’s covered by a sticker) but does have an ISBN you can locate.

In these situations, you need to enter the ISBN manually into your phone, tablet, or laptop since there’s no barcode to scan with your barcode scanner.

This can be annoying, but if you find a book you think can sell for a lot online, it’s still worth it to spend the extra time typing in the ISBN – especially since a lot of other book dealers may have passed it over, increasing the chances of it being worth something.

First, look at the back cover again. Even if the book doesn’t have a barcode, it might still have the ISBN printed on the back or on a sticker.

If that doesn’t work, flip to the publication information page (it’s usually one of the first five pages of the book) and find the ISBN there.

Be careful – sometimes the publication information page lists multiple ISBNs for the hardcover and paperback versions of the book, so you need to enter the ISBN for the version of the book you’re looking up.

Speeding Up Your Search With a Scanner

Despite these problems, most of the time, finding the ISBN is still just a matter of finding the barcode on the back cover of a book and entering it into Bookscouter.com.

However, you can probably tell by now that entering a 10-digit or 13-digit code manually every time you want to look up a book can be time consuming and lead to a lot of headaches.

That’s why I strongly suggest anyone who wants to sell books online for extra money invest in a barcode scanner before they start selling books online to buyback companies or on Amazon.

These scanners will save you a lot of stress and you’ll find they pay for themselves many times over thanks to all the additional books you can find in less time.

You can read my reviews of some of these scanners at How to Make More Money Selling Books Online with the Bluetoorth Cordless Hand Scanner.

How to Sell Books Online for Profit with the Textbooks.com Buyback Program

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Hey everyone! This blog post marks the first in a series of interviews with textbook buyback companies that let you sell books for cash online.

Instead of just reading my articles on the best buyback textbook website, you’ll now learn what books these companies buy, how much they’ll pay, and how you can send books to them to make extra money – from the people who pay cash for your books!

Our first interview is with one of my favorite textbook buyback programs – Textbooks.com. I’ve sold thousands of books to Textbooks.com over the years and have earned thousands of dollars from them.

Textbooks.com’s Director of Contact Center Operations, Chris Gibson, was nice enough to answer some questions about how Textbooks.com buys books. Thanks Chris!

Let’s see what he has to say:

How long has Textbooks.com offered a book buyback program?

Textbooks.com was established in 2006 and has offered a buyback program since that time.

How many books does Textbooks.com buy each year?

Textbooks.com purchases hundreds of thousands of books across many subjects, genres, and majors each year.

Can anyone sell used books for cash to Textbooks.com?

Anyone with an Internet connection can sell books to Textbooks.com! We have one of the largest buyback programs available online and offer free UPS shipping for our buybacks.

Do you have to live in the US to sell books to Textbooks.com?

You have to be based in the US, with a US address, to sell books to us. We do not ship or do buyback internationally.

What types of books does Textbooks.com buy?

We offer buyback value on books across all subjects and genres. These buybacks range from human biology and algebra, to a variety of Shakespeare classics.

What types of books does Textbooks.com not buy?

We typically don’t exclude specific genres or subjects from the buyback program, but we don’t purchase international editions or annotated teacher’s editions.

Textbooks that are international or teacher’s editions will usually have “International Edition” or “Teacher’s Edition” printed on the cover.

How much money will Textbooks.com offer for a book?

We offer a wide range depending on the demand for the book. Trade titles like The Great Gatsby are among the lowest value books that we purchase back, while some titles related to biology, microeconomics, and calculus have buyback values well over $100.

While we don’t have a specific minimum for an individual book, there is a $10 minimum to process a buyback order, so it can be made up of several lesser-priced books.

Are there certain times in the year when Textbooks.com buys more books?

While we offer buyback value on a large list of books year-round, certain times of the year – like December and May – see an increase as students finish using their books for a semester.

How to Check If Your Book Condition is Good for Textbooks.com

Do you buy books that have underlining and/or highlighting in the pages?

Any color or mixture of color is acceptable for highlighting, as long as it does not obscure any portion of the text. If any of the text becomes unreadable, we’re unable to purchase that book. Our guideline for writing or underlining is limited to 50% of the book, provided that it does not obscure any portion of the text.

Workbooks and study guides are graded differently due to the nature of needing to work directly in the book. Up to five pages can contain writing in pencil; any writing in pen is unacceptable.

These guidelines are put in place to benefit future customers. We hand-inspect all books that are sold back to us and we guarantee our used books. On the website, you’ll see books sold directly from Textbooks.com marked “Certified Used,” which provides peace-of-mind to our customers.

Sometimes, the book’s previous owner writes notes in the margins of a textbook. Do you accept books like these?

Notes in the margins are acceptable, as long as they are not written on more than 50% of pages in the text and as long as they don’t obscure any of the text.

Do you buy ex-library books with library stickers and stamps?

Yes, we purchase ex-library books. As long as the book is in good condition, it’s eligible for our buyback program.

When is a book considered not in “good condition”?

Textbooks.com won’t buy books with the following conditions:

• Water damage or stains of any kind
• Missing, torn, or loose pages
• Damage to the cover, binding, or spine
• Any marking inside the book that makes text unreadable
• Publisher defects

While publisher defects are not common, the most prevalent issues we see are sections that are out of order, a section missing while another is repeated in its place, or text that is printed upside down in relation to the front cover.

Some textbook retailers sell books with lower standards than Textbooks.com. We see some books come through the buyback program with signs of water damage, stains, or ruffled pages that may have been present when the student purchased a book elsewhere.

This leads some students to think that water damage is acceptable for used books, but we’re unable to purchase a book that has any degree of water damage.

It is also possible that a customer may have a book that has been stickered incorrectly. Instead of using the ISBN found on the sticker on the back on the book, it is best to use the information available on the copyright page.

What is an ISBN?

An ISBN is a 10- or 13-digit code assigned to a book. It’s located on the copyright page inside the book and usually also on the bar code on the back cover, although we recommend using the one on the copyright page.

Searching by ISBN ensures you are getting a quote for the correct book. There can be many versions or editions of a given title; some may be custom editions, some may come with online access, some may be packaged with additional components. Each “version” of a title will have its own ISBN, so it ensures we’re talking about the same book.

Sometimes the book’s bar code shows the Universal Product Code (UPC) which is not the same as an ISBN. Remember – 13-digit ISBNs start with “978,” and 10-digit American ISBNs start with a “0” or “1” (foreign ISBNs can start with different numbers).

What else might make a book unacceptable to Textbooks.com?

Any components listed in the title of a book need to be included with a buyback; that means items like DVDs, CDs, workbooks, etc.

If a buyback quote is supposed to include supplemental components and the book is sent back to us without them, we attempt to pay the customer for what is received, which may be less than the original quote. Sometimes a package won’t have any value unless everything listed in the title is included.

When looking to sell a loose-leaf item, it is important to make sure the correct ISBN is being used. While we may be purchasing a hard or soft cover text, we won’t always be purchasing the loose-leaf version of that same title.

What do you do with buyback books sent to you in poor condition?

If we receive an item in unsellable condition, we notify the customer by email and detail the reason why it can’t be purchased. We also provide instructions on arranging a return if the customer would like the item back. If the customer decides they no longer want the item, it is recycled.

How to Sell Books Online to the Textbooks.com Buyback Website

How do I create a free online account to start selling books to Textbooks.com?

To create an account on Textbooks.com, go to the Log In page in the top right corner of our website. Or you can create an account during the buyback checkout process.

What information do I need to give to get a free online account at Textbooks.com to sell used books and start making extra money?

To sell books to Textbooks.com, we would need the following information for your account: name, email address, phone number, a US-based address, and payment preference (PayPal or check).

Once I open that account, how can I check to see how much Textbooks.com will pay me for my books?

Customers can go to Textbooks.com from their computer, laptop, or mobile device and select ‘Sell Textbooks’ at the top of the page.

Enter any ISBN in the search field to see the buyback value we are currently offering for that book. From there, you can add more books to a quote.

Once all books are added, the seller enters their info and finalizes their quote.

Once finished, you print a packing slip and a prepaid UPS shipping label, and then ship the book(s) to us.

Our buyback quotes are good for 30 days. However we recommend sending in your books right away – so you get your cash faster! But it’s peace of mind for students who want to lock in a good price and still need their book for finals.

Also, customers who have purchased books from Textbooks.com can log into their account and check the buyback section in “My Account” to see what value we’re currently offering on those titles.

How to Send Your Used Books to Textbooks.com for Money

How would you like books to be sent to you?

As long as the packaging is sturdy and the books are packaged well, they should arrive to us in good condition!

It’s important to consider the size of box or envelope that is used based on the number of books being sent. Too much extra room allows books to slide around and can damage them. If any filler is used, make sure it is something that won’t stain. For example, newspaper isn’t a great choice for this!

Wrapping the books in plastic is helpful, in case the books come in contact with any water on their journey to us. This will help prevent any damage in transit.

We’ve had a few buybacks received in cereal or pizza boxes – we definitely wouldn’t recommend those!

What type of free shipping do you offer?

For buyback, we offer free pre-paid shipping labels via UPS. This provides door-to-door tracking and shipments are typically received in our warehouse within 3-5 business days.

Do you provide any insurance with your free shipping labels?

Our buyback labels are not insured. While we rarely see any damage to shipments that are sent to us, customers always have the option of purchasing insurance for added peace of mind.

What other tips you can share for making sure books arrive in good shape so Textbooks.com can pay you money for them?

This is all about packaging! As long as books are sent in sturdy packaging and don’t have a lot of room to slide around inside the box or envelope, they should arrive in good shape.

It’s a good idea to wrap books in something plastic to prevent any kind of exposure to water, especially during rainy seasons. Sellers also have to be sure to include all supplemental components quoted in the offer.

How long does it take for books to get to Textbooks.com – and how long does it usually take before a person gets paid?

Shipments usually arrive to our warehouse within 3-5 business days, depending on the distance from our centrally located warehouse in Columbia, Missouri.

From there, sellers typically get their payments in 1-2 weeks, depending on whether a seller chose Paypal or check. We say to allow up to 4 weeks from the day you send your books to the day you get your money. Paypal is the fastest way to receive a payment.

How can people contact you if they have more questions?

If sellers have questions about the buyback process, they can visit our Help Desk for answers to the most commonly asked questions. It’s definitely the best place to start. For questions about existing buyback quotes or returns, we have a dedicated customer service team and sellers can submit their questions to us via the Contact Us page, email us anytime, or call our toll-free number.

Thanks again Chris! I hope Chris’ answers to my questions have made you more aware of the best ways to sell your used books online for a profit to buyback companies.

If you’d like to start selling your books online, go to Textbooks.com and sign up for a free online account. You’ll be glad you did (I know I was!)

And as always, if you liked this interview and want to receive more tips and tricks for how to sell books online for extra money, subscribe to my blog!

Want to ask me a question or offer a suggestion for a future blog article? Email me at sellbooksfastonline@gmail.com.

Hey, did you know that you can also buy discounted textbooks for college from Textbooks.com and sell those textbooks back to Textbooks.com for cash when the semester ends? Learn more at How to Buy College Textbooks for Less on the Textbooks.com Website.

Should you Sell Textbooks on Amazon or to a Book Buyback Company to Make Money?

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Whenever I go out shopping for books to sell online, I inevitably get asked the same question by curious people who see me scanning the book barcodes:

“Do you make a lot of money selling these books on Amazon?”

None of these people even consider that I might be selling my books on a website other than Amazon. To them, Amazon is the first, last, and only place anyone can sell books for cash (even eBay is losing popularity as a good place to sell your books online).

Now Amazon is a good place to sell books online for profit – I sell books for as much as $300 regularly on Amazon.com, and a good portion of my extra income comes from my Amazon book sales.

But as the readers of my blog know, Amazon is not the only online book buyer out there. Buyback websites like Textbooks.com, Valore,Powells,  and Cash 4 Books (all of which you can find through Bookscouter) can offer many more options for selling books online.

So I’d like to spend some time answering this question:

Which Makes Me More Extra Money — Amazon or a Buyback Website?

Short answer? It depends.

Most people automatically think Amazon is the best place to sell books online for cash. After all, if you list your book on Amazon, you decide what price you want to sell it for – a buyback website will only give you a non-negotiable price quote for your book.

Moreover, Amazon receives thousands of visitors every day, which increases the odds that someone will buy your book for the price you’re asking.

But before you start listing your books for hundreds of dollars on Amazon, you should know about some of the downsides to selling books on Amazon. (Be prepared, we have a lot of information to cover).

First, while you can list your books on Amazon for any price you want (some of my Amazon books are priced over $600), the odds of someone buying your book depend greatly on the prices offered by other people selling the same book on Amazon.

Example: if there are five people selling a book and the person with the lowest price is asking $50 for his book while the person with the highest price is asking $80 for the same book, you stand an excellent chance of selling your copy of the book for $60 (especially if your book is in better condition than the $50 copy).

On the other hand, if those people are selling their copies for $2 or $5, you’ll have a tough time selling your book if you try to sell it for $60.

(That’s not to say you can’t sell a book for a high price when everyone else is selling their copies cheaply – I’ve sold books for $20 on Amazon when other sellers were asking just $4 for the same book – but I had to wait several months for my book to sell).

Things get trickier when selling textbooks online. Textbooks get new editions and are replaced quickly in universities – so while your textbook might be selling for $100 today, that price might drop to $50 next week as other students start selling their college textbooks on Amazon for cheaper prices in a vain attempt to sell their books faster and make money fast.

Booksellers call this technique “low balling” and it can make valuable books worthless in a short time. I’ve listed textbooks for $200 on Amazon.com, only to find twenty other Amazon sellers listing their copies for only $5 a week later!

Worse news: even if your book does sell on Amazon.com for a good price, Amazon takes out a lot of fees and commissions before you get paid. Here’s a breakdown:

Amazon Fees and Commissions

Currently, Amazon offers two selling plans, a Professional Selling plan and an Individual Selling plan.

People who sell on a Professional Selling plan pay a monthly subscription fee of $40, which waives some of the fees Amazon places on book sales.

People who sell on an Individual Selling plan don’t pay monthly fees, but do pay an extra $0.99 “item fee” for every book they sell on Amazon.com, which can add up if you sell a lot of books on Amazon.

Now, I’m going to assume that you’ll have an Individual Selling plan (since you probably just want to make some extra money selling books and/or sell your textbooks for some extra cash). Here’s what Amazon will take out:

First, Amazon will take a 15% commission from the price you’re selling your book for (so if you sell your textbook for $100, Amazon will take $15 lowering your earnings to $85).

Next, Amazon will charge a “variable closing fee” of $1.35. (Your textbook will now earn you only $83.65).

And finally Amazon will take out another $0.99 for its “item fee.” (Your textbook will pay you only $82.66. Not bad, but not as much as you thought you’d get, right?)

Now Amazon.com will give you a shipping credit (which they get from the person who bought your book) to help you buy postage to send your book to your buyer. The amount of this shipping credit can vary if you offer faster shipping – but most likely you’ll get a standard shipping credit of $3.99 per book.

When mailing books, most sellers use a low-cost postage called Media Mail. A 3 lb. Media Mail shipping label currently costs $3.72, so you might save some money if your book package weighs 3 lbs or less

However, if your book weighs more than 3 lbs (like a lot of textbooks) you might have to spend $4.22, $4.72, $5.22, or more on a Media Mail label – meaning you’ll lose more money on shipping.

Beyond that, you might want to buy insurance for your package (especially if you’re selling an expensive book) which will eat up even more of your profits.

All told, when you subtract all those fees and commissions, you may only get $79 or less for your $100 book!

Selling to Buyback Websites

So how do buyback websites like Sell Back Your Book, Valore, Powells, and Textbooks.com compare to Amazon.com?

Well, for starters, buyback companies don’t take any fees and commissions out of their price quotes – what they offer you is what they’ll pay (provided your book is in good condition – please read Is The Book Condition of Your Textbook Good Enough to Make Extra Money?).

Also, all the buyback companies I recommend on my blog (and most that you’ll find on Bookscouter) will let you download a free shipping label that you can print to ship your books. (Many buyback companies offer Media Mail labels, although more and more are offering UPS labels – so be sure you drop off your package at the right UPS store or United States Postal Office).

To use the example above, if a buyback company is offering $75 for your textbook, you might be better off selling it to that buyback website even if you can list it for $100 on Amazon (since we’ve just determined you’ll probably make under $79 for that book once Amazon.com takes out its fees and commissions).

So does this mean buyback websites are the best places to sell your books online?

Not always!

Sometimes, a buyback website’s price quote for a book is so low compared to what you could get if you listed that book on Amazon that it’s worth it to sell the book on Amazon, even if you have to wait weeks or months for someone to buy your book.

In these cases, even after Amazon takes out all their fees and commissions, I’ve found that the book often still earned me twice what the buyback company would have paid me.

However, if there’s a price difference of only a few dollars between what a buyback company is offering for my book versus what I can make for the book on Amazon – or if I just want to make some extra money on a textbook before its price drops on Amazon – I’ll sell the book to a buyback company.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide whether or not you want to sell books online to buyback websites or on Amazon.com – but just be aware that even though it might look like you’re not getting as much for your book from a buyback company, you might still come ahead.

Whew! Lots of information to digest, right? But I hope you learned something from this blog article – and if you’d like to learn more about selling books online for extra cash, please take a second to subscribe to my blog and get more valuable tips for earning extra money.

Would you like to learn valuable tips to make your books sell faster and for higher prices on Amazon? Check out my series of Sell Books Fast eBooks that will improve your Amazon sales!

Want to contact me and ask some questions? Email me at sellbooksfastonline@gmail.com. Looking forward to hearing from you!

How to Use the Wired Handheld USB CCD Barcode Scanner Reader to Make Extra Money at Home

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Barcode Reader Scanner

I’ve got a lot of books in my house (as you can probably guess). And when my book collection gets too big, I have to get rid of some of them.

But for me, this isn’t a chore – it’s another chance for me to make some extra money fast by selling used books for cash!

All I need to do is access my free Bookscouter account and compare the prices of my books with my Wired Handheld USB CCD Barcode Scanner Reader.

The Wired Handheld USB CCD Barcode Scanner Reader

Those of you who read How to Make More Money Selling Books Online with the Socket Mobile Bluetooth Cordless Hand Scanner know I recommend buying the Bluetooth Cordless Hand Scanner if you go to a lot of thrift stores looking for books to re-sell online.

This wireless scanner is an excellent way to quickly scan barcodes and look up resale book prices on your tablet or phone – allowing you to search more thrift stores in less time (and make more extra money selling books). I’ve personally seen my extra income go up to over $1000 a month since I started using this scanner.

Unfortunately a Bluetooth Cordless Hand Scanner can be an expensive investment (most sell for over $200), which is why I’m happy to recommend a less pricey scanner that can also help you sell books at home for cash.

The Wired Handheld USB CCD Barcode Scanner Reader is an inexpensive scanner (most sell for under $30) with a USB cord that plugs into the USB port of your laptop or computer.

On the downside, this scanner doesn’t connect wirelessly to your phone or tablet like the Bluetooth Cordless Hand Scanner, making it impractical to take to thrift stores (it’s also twice the size of the sleeker Bluetooth Cordless Hand Scanner).

On the plus side, however, the Barcode Scanner Reader can read barcodes incredibly fast and enters them into your computer instantly; making it a huge time saver when you sell books for cash and home and need to compare prices with Bookscouter.

Using the Wired Handheld USB CCD Barcode Scanner Reader with Bookscouter

Here’s how I use my Barcode Scanner Reader with Bookscouter to make extra money at home:

1. Place all the books you want to look up in a stack on your desk next to your computer

2. Plug the Barcode Scanner Reader’s USB cord into your computer or laptop’s USB port.

3. Go to Bookscouter.com and enter your free Bookscouter account.

4. Open a blank Microsoft Word document on your computer. Type in the names of buyback websites you want to sell your books to (for instance, I sell a lot of books to Textbooks.com, Powells, Sell Back Your Book, Cash4Books, Valore, and Chegg, so I make sure to list these companies). Write each name on a separate line in the document, leaving several spaces between each name.

5. Now click Bookscouter’s search bar and start scanning the barcodes on your books with your Barcode Scanner Reader.

6. Bookscouter will automatically look up all the buyback price quotes from the websites in its database, allowing you to compare prices for your books and select the best company to sell your books to.

7. Once you find the best place to sell your book online, scan the book’s ISBN number again – this time on your Microsoft Word document under the name of the buyback website (i.e Textbooks.com, Sell Back Your Book etc.) that you want to sell the book to.

8. Place the books you want to sell in different piles (each pile for a different buyback website).

9. Once you’ve finished scanning all of your books, you should have several lists of ISBN numbers on your Microsoft Word document, each list under a different buyback website name.

10. Now it’s a simple matter to just visit each of those buyback websites; copy and paste your list of ISBNs into their search bars; and sell the books in bulk to the website.

11. Finally, print your shipping label and free packing slip for each buyback order and place them on the pile of books you want to sell (be careful to put the right labels with the right orders!). Pack those books, ship them, and wait to be paid!

Since I started using the Barcode Scanner Reader, I’ve been able to scan dozens of books in minutes, allowing me to easily sell hundreds of books every month. For the low price, you really can’t ask for more!

I also want to add that I’ve been using the same Barcode Scanner Reader for the last six years, which says a lot for its durability.

I hope this product review shows you how to use a Barcode Scanner Reader to sell books online for profit. As always, please remember to subscribe to my blog to receive more tips on selling books online, and feel free to comment!

4 Reasons Why Selling Gold Dust Books Is a Great Way to Make Extra Money

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4 Reasons Why Selling Gold Dust Books is a Great Way to Make Extra Money

As someone who likes to sell books online through both Amazon.com and textbook buyback companies, I know there are advantages and disadvantages to selling through both of these venues.

In this post, I’d like to share what I think are the top reasons for selling gold dust books to book buyback companies to make extra money.

1. Gold Dust Books Don’t Create Clutter!

It’s a common hazard for any online book dealer; to sell books online successfully you have to build up a large inventory of books – which usually means sacrificing a spare bedroom or garage to store all of those books. For someone trying to sell books out of a dorm room or whose wife despises clutter, this can be a huge problem.

But not with gold dust books! Because you can immediately sell gold dust books, you can buy a hundred books; sell them online that night; and then pack and ship them out the next day. With this kind of rapid turnaround, your books won’t stay in your house long enough to create any clutter!

Additionally, you can declutter your house of any books you already have by visiting Bookscouter.com, entering the ISBNs of any books you want to get rid of, and checking if any book buyback company will offer you a good price quote for them.

Bear in mind that once you sell your books, you’ll want to pack them up and ship them out fast (the next day if possible!). You don’t want boxes of books cluttering up your house when they could be out making you extra money!

2. Gold Dust Books Are Easier to Find!

For the book scout who limits his or her search to books that sell online for $20 or more, book scouting can be frustrating. Other book scouts may have already picked over all the books and if your favorite thrift store hasn’t put out any new merchandise, you can leave the store empty-handed.

Not so with gold dust books! Where high profit books are often in short supply (why do you think they’re worth so much in the first place?) gold dust books are usually much easier to find.

This is because gold dust books are not only in great demand but are also produced in mass quantities. The downside to this is that each book may only sell for $2 or $3 to a book buyback company. The upside is that, since they’re more plentiful, you’ll have a much easier time of finding them.

Personally, I’ve never walked out of a thrift store empty-handed. Like all book scouts, I have good days (where I load up my car with close to two hundred books) and bad days (where I walk out of a thrift store with only five or six gold dust books), but on average all of my book scouting trips are profitable.

Better yet, once you start selling gold dust books, you’ll find you sell the same titles again and again – meaning you can spot these gold dust book titles easily on a book shelf.

A word of caution – sometimes even a book title you’ve sold dozens of times to book buyback companies can stop receiving price quotes for a few weeks or months. This might happen when the book buyback companies get overstocked with the title and need to sell their inventory before buying any new copies.

So make sure to scan your books and check all the price quotes through Bookscouter before you buy them! The last thing you want is to get stuck with a bunch of books you can’t sell!

3. Gold Dust Books Help Build Up an Inventory of High Profit Books!

This reason might sound strange at first. After all, most of the gold dust books you’ll find will only sell for $2 or $3 to a book buyback company.

But not all of them. Often, you’ll find a gold dust book that might only sell for $10 to a book buyback company, but can be listed for as much as $50 or $80 on Amazon or eBay.

This can happen for one of two reasons. Sometimes a book is in high demand and a book buyback company wants to snatch it up for a bargain price so it can re-sell it for a higher profit. New editions of textbooks often fall into this category.

In other cases, the book might not be in high demand, but is in short supply. These books might be considered collector’s items and/or may have a niche following. Such books take time to sell, but can sell for high prices if they find the right buyer.

Either way, it’s to your advantage to check and see if your gold dust book might also be a high profit book you can sell on Amazon. Be sure to read my post, How to Sell Your Gold Dust Books Online for the Best Prices and learn how you can sign up for a free Bookscouter account that will inform you of all your options.

Update: I’ve recently published a very popular eBook, Pricing Used Books for Profit on Amazon, which gives you an effective step-by-step strategy for pricing your high-end books competitively on Amazon — and how to keep them competitively priced (often by raising your prices). If you’d like to learn more, feel free to check it out!

4. Gold Dust Books Provide a Regular Supplemental Stream of Income

This is, in my opinion, the best reason to sell gold dust books online.

Most people want to sell books online to generate a regular stream of income. For a rookie book scout, however selling books though only Amazon or eBay can be difficult. You need to build up a large inventory and even then, you can experience dry spells where you won’t sell a lot of books.

This is why it’s important to have an alternate stream of income that can help you pay the bills as you build up your online bookselling business. If you sell gold dust books on a constant basis, you’ll soon receive regular Pay Pal payments that will not only cover your book buying expenses but also provide revenue for personal expenses.

Keep in mind that, as in any business, you’ll experience highs and lows with selling gold dust books as well. On certain months, you’ll find it’s very easy to find hundreds of gold dust books and sell them for high prices. On other months, you’ll find gold dust books are in shorter supply and don’t receive the same high price quotes they used to.

To make sure you keep making money, you need to diversify where and how you buy your gold dust books – something I’ll cover in future posts.

The other thing to realize is that if you not only sell books online through Amazon and eBay but to book buyback companies as well, you’ll soon have multiple streams of income coming in – which will earn you a lot more extra money in the long run.

Final Thoughts

If someone asked me whether they should sell their books on either Amazon or to book buyback companies, my answer would be simple.

Sell them on both!

Selling books online doesn’t have to be an either/or business. Amazon and book buyback companies are both valid places to sell books – and as you learned in this post, you can regularly find gold dust books that sell better on Amazon than to a book buyback company.

And while it’s true that you can usually sell books faster by sending them to a book buyback company, there are strategies you can use to sell books fast on Amazon as well.

If you’d like to learn more about how to sell your books faster and earn more money on Amazon, please check out my Sell Books Fast Online eBook series.

And if you’d like to learn how gold dust books can earn you thousands of dollars a year, check out my post How to Make Extra Money Every Day By “Flipping” Books Online

Want to make sure you get even more tips for making money by selling books online? Be sure to subscribe to my blog and get regular email updates!