The Best Places to Sell Your College Textbooks
At the end of each semester, college students are saddled with textbooks that they won't need anymore. So they try to sell textbooks they no longer have any use for to at least recover some of the money they've spent on them.
But more often than not, those who bought their books at regular (read:insane) prices and expect to also sell them with crazy prize tags are in for a major disappointment. Buy back programs in place in bookstores tend to buy them at a much cheaper price. But are buy back programs a scam? Well, not really. It's just the way things work. You don't really expect to buy a spanking new textbook, use it for an entire semester, with all those annotations and highlights, and sell them at roughly the same price you bought them, do you? At the other extreme, those who found ways to buy cheap textbooks are the lucky ones, because it's possible for them to sell their books at about the same price they paid. Some enterprising ones could even sell them at a profit.
In any case, you'd still prefer to get people to take those textbooks out of your hands, and here are some of the best places to sell your college textbooks, profit or no profit.
1. Outside classrooms
On the first day of class, find the rooms where classes using your textbook are held, wait for those classes to finish then hawk it to students taking those same classes when they're dismissed. It's better if you can quote a price from bookstores and tell your prospective clients how much they will save if they buy your copy.
2. Campus Bulletin Boards
No, you don't have to stand right in front of the billboard and sell it directly to everyone who stops by, although that isn't a bad idea altogether. Just slap some flyers on it saying you're selling this and that textbook for a lower price and wait for them to come to you.
3. Bookstore Aisles
Now this one's a bit shady, but not exactly against the law either. You can stand in an aisle of a certain bookstore where the book you want to sell is displayed, wait for someone to check that same book out, then offer that person a deal, discreetly of course) where he or she can save $5-10 on a used copy you have. If that person consents to it, you both go outside and thresh out the details. Just don't get caught.
4. The Internet
Craigslist, Ebay, Amazon and all those websites that buy used textbooks could help you dispose of your now-unnecessary textbooks.
5. Campus Bookstores
If all else fails, then you can always sell your books to your campus bookstore. Sure, the chances of that bookstore ripping you off by buying your $85 textbook for $5 then reselling it for $70 are great, but $5 is better than being stuck with books that do nothing but take up space in your dorm room, right?
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[...] always never used again after the semester they were required for. While they could always go to the best places to sell college textbooks, the chances of them getting something close to what they’ve spent are pretty [...]
Under the internet resources, you should also list BookScouter.com which compares book buyback prices from about 30 websites. These are companies that buy them directly (and usually pay the shipping) so you don’t have to worry about the hassles or fees of selling it on a site like ebay or craigslist.
How about listing classifieds sites so that the students can sell to each other? This way the only one that stands to win is both students (the seller gets more than what the bookstore wil pay and the buyer gets the book for less than what the bookstore will sell).