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Sell college books?

PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 3:09 pm
by Ashley
Anyone know a good place that will buy back college textbooks? I'd like to avoid Ebay if I can, and the places I've tried (BN.com, Varsity Textbooks) are all giving me really low prices, like 9 bucks. :shady:

So anyone have any suggestions?

PostPosted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 12:23 pm
by sanitysux13
I haven't actually tried this yet, but I think my brother said that I should sell them on amazon.com.

PostPosted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 2:24 pm
by Ashley
Amazon gave me horrible deals. LIke, 13 dollars for a textbook I paid 90 for.

BTW, I decided to give Ebay a shot. If anyone needs some philosophy or books on Greeks, PM me for the link.

PostPosted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 2:58 pm
by Saint Kevin
I was actually going to try using the professor (since they tend to use the same books over and over) as a go between. You know, asking their permission to solicit their classes next semester. I was even thinking of making it win-win by offering a lower price than the school's bookstore, and throwing in a kickback (no...incentive) for the teacher to allow this. I'm not sure how that would look before the school's ethics committee, but they are just books...not drugs or guns or something.

Anyway yeah, you might try that.

PostPosted: Mon Dec 20, 2004 11:17 am
by Technomancer
The school will typically buy them back, check with your bookstore. Alternatively, you could simply put up a few notices around campus advertising them being for sale.

I've usually kept most of my books anyways.

PostPosted: Mon Dec 20, 2004 12:52 pm
by agasfas
Perhaps UH has a bulletin board where you can post up a flyer about what books you are selling. Though, ebay may be your best bet, you can set a reserve price to guarantee a minimum price you are happy with. Or perhaps a local book store...
I may do the same, I have a bio book from like 2 years ago I bought for $100. THey wanted to give me $15-20... don't remember. But that was a bad deal. The college book stores makes more than 100% profit on books. It's can be quite frustrating

Plus, I remember purchasing my math book on ebay. The book store wanted $98 for a used one and I got a near perfect condition on ebay for about $50 after shipping. :P

Edit: here are some of a few sites that may help. Though, to be honest I've never used them and know little about them.
http://www.textbookbuyer.com/
http://www.sellusedtextbooks.com/
http://www.campusbooks.com/sellbooks.asp

or even buying/selling to students directly:
http://www.studentlistings.com/sell.asp?tid=276900

PostPosted: Mon Dec 20, 2004 8:23 pm
by Ashley
I've checked the campus itself, and the bookstore gives absolutely horrid rates. Like 10% if you're lucky. I guess if they don't sell I will put up some flyers or something.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 9:29 pm
by Zedian
I sell all mine on Half.com....and usually I get around 40% back of what I paid. You can never expect to get the full price but it sure does beat the campus bookstore, though I know everyone differs.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 9:32 pm
by Arnobius
Ashley wrote:I've checked the campus itself, and the bookstore gives absolutely horrid rates. Like 10% if you're lucky. I guess if they don't sell I will put up some flyers or something.

I've been out of college for a few years, but the time to do it is the end of a semester when they are stocking up for the next semester. If they need the book, you can get more for it. Otherwise you're out of luck.