List the book for sale – If it looks worth your while to sell the book, head over to your seller account and get it listed. You can do a quick search here by title or ISBN to find the book. You will then be asked about the condition of the book, how many you have available, how you will ship it (Amazon gives you a $3.99 shipping credit for each book) and how much you want to sell it for. You're probably going to want to go with the lowest listed price if you want to sell your item quickly. People wanting to purchase used books want them as cheap as possible.
Swapping. OK, so it may not succeed in freeing up any additional shelf space, but there are plenty of opportunities online to trade your unwanted books for other titles you'd like to read. On most book swap websites, you get a credit for every book you send to someone else, which you can then redeem with other traders for the books you really want. Usually you just have to pay postage for the books you send, not the ones you receive. Popular sites include BookMooch.com, PaperBackSwap.com or TitleTrader.com. Or you could always hold an old-fashioned swap meet with your neighbors, friends and family.
We donate overstock inventory to nonprofit agencies around the world and strive to recycle what we can't donate. You may bring your merchandise to sell to any of our Neighborhood Stores (excludes Outlet locations). We are not able to make estimates or offers from a list; buyers must see the actual items. If you have any questions about merchandise you want to sell, please use the form at the bottom of this page.
Be honest about the condition of the book. If there are damaged corners or missing pages, say so. If someone has written in or highlighted huge portions of the book, make that known. If the book has remainder marks (an indication they've been returned to the publisher), mention that, too. Fudging on the condition won't get you more money. When the buyer receives your book and finds it lacking, they'll adjust their offer down, and may even reject your book completely.
If you find you enjoy selling books online and make a profit you will need to replenish stock in order to sell more. This is where experience and research will determine future success. Just because a book is old, does not mean it is valuable. The opposite may also be true. Some new books are sought after because their publishers miscalculated their popularity and so produced print runs that did not meet demand.
Donating. Charitable organizations — including churches, schools and other civic groups — often accept donations of books and other media, either as part of special book drives or for resale through their affiliated thrift stores. Public libraries often accept donations of used books, usually to resell to library patrons in order to raise funds to support the library. You can even get a tax deduction for donating unwanted items to a qualified nonprofit group.
Thrift Stores – Prices are set from thrift stores but make sure you check out the inside pages and covers to the books your thinking about flipping. Many times you’ll find the books signed by the author which bumps up the value tremendously. Also every so often you’ll find money within the pages. Don’t ask me why but people do it and forget about them!
If you decide you want to sell your used book, just click on the sell button next to the vendor and you’re all set. You will be emailed a shipping label and then all you have to do is ship the book within 7 days. Oh btw, shipping is free. Normally if you were to ship book with USPS, it would cost around $5-6 dollars. That would make no sense at all if the book’s value is only a few bucks. But with BookScouter, shipping is free so that’s one less thing to worry about.
Dave, this is an odd one. I’ve just self published a new printed book — high quality: hardback, dust jacket, good paper, 20 pages of glossy photo’s, etc. It’s non-fiction and history/religious utopian commune/19th century/pretty crazy. Was thinking of selling it for $35, mostly through bookstores, but also on Amazon. Would FBM be the place to start? Excellent blog, by the way — and remarkable for your responses!
Just because you are self-publishing doesn’t mean you want it to like an amateur did it. Hire a graphic designer on a site like Fiverr.com to create a good-looking cover based on your direction and input for not much money. They can also lay out the interior pages too. Just because your book is self-published doesn't mean it has to look and feel that way.
As you can see the profit margins aren't huge on a single book, because there are several other Ebayers playing this trade-in game. However, if you can average a $5 profit margin on each book, you only need to buy 5 books everyday to pocket an extra $750 dollars each month! Considering there are over a million textbook auctions on Ebay right now, it shouldn't be too hard to find 5 books a day to resell.
When I first got started, I really didn’t know what kind of books to look for. So after doing a little bit of research, I discovered that modern day first editions are collectible! A modern day first edition is simply the first edition of a recent publication (in the past 30 years or so). First editions for books older than this will typically command even higher prices.
