Sell books online for the most cash.  New on the garage sale scene were three patrons that did the same thing.  They scanned the ISBNs of the book and DVD pile with a cell phone app to check the resale value.  They assumed I didn’t know the value of the books I had for sale at the The Money Skinny™ garage sale.  Well, have a seat.  As both buyer and seller of my four children’s college textbooks, I am very familiar with book-to-cash conversion.  Any books I owned that had a resale value over $5 had already been sold online.  Recall The Money Skinny™ mission is to save you time and money.  Let’s detail the best ways to sell books online to make the most cash.

How to Sell Books Online

The days of schlepping used textbooks to the campus bookstore for a fraction of their worth are over!  It’s easy to evaluate the resale value of books and convert books into cash.  Listing books for resale on Amazon or Ebay’s half.com is a piece of cake.  It doesn’t even require a picture.  Input the book title or ISBN number into the resale website to determine the value.  There is HaveOneToSell button on the book product page.  Follow the steps to create a listing.  That includes an evaluation of the book condition according to Amazon or half.com guidelines.  There’s no haggling.  You determine the book’s list price.  Review the competition.

Books-to-Cash Conversion Project

If you’re an avid reader like me, books are easy to accumulate.  It is best to view yourself as a temporary book custodian.  Keep what’s important to you.  Re-home the rest for others to enjoy.  Start a Books-to-Cash conversion project by gathering every book you own into a pile.  Use Amazon or half.com to check the resale value with the book’s ISBN.  List books for resale with a value of perhaps $5 or more.  Set a goal of cutting the volume in half.  Not as painful as a total purge but still has a big impact.

Use Craigslist to Sell Books Online

Don’t forget Craigslist as a resale tool.  Consult The Money Skinny™ article Craiglist Selling in 5 Easy Steps.  List textbooks for sale in the applicable college town.  That’s where the demand for that book is.  Be sure to include pictures.  Recall there are no buying or selling fees with Craigslist.

The Money Skinny™ Book Resale Matrix

The resale route to choose depends upon how quickly you want the resale money.  Use Amazon if you want a fast sale.  The drawback is you’ll pay a high selling fee.  If you want to move bulk volume, put a pile of books for sale at a garage sale for $X each.  I like to list textbooks on both Amazon and Half.com.  The same book for sale at the same time.  Whichever listing sells, the other listing gets deleted.  Adjust listing prices depending upon how quickly you want the resale cash.

 

The Money Skinny™ Book Resale Matrix
	Cost	Speed	Volume
Amazon	High	Fast	Single
Half.com	Medium	Medium	Single
Craigslist	None	Varies	Single
Garage Sale	None	Varies	Bulk

Textbook Hot Potato

Textbooks are a unique category of used books due to updating editions.  Treat textbooks as hot potatoes.  Resale prices plummet when textbooks are replaced by new editions.  Perhaps you are a college student that wants to save a textbook for future reference.  Resell it now!  You can always rebuy that same textbook in the future at a lower price if and when you need it.