Saturday, November 10, 2007

Surfin' Saturday: Sell Your Old Books

After I graduated from college, I spent several hours listing old, unwanted books on Amazon.com and Half.com--the places I'd bought most of my used books. I did sell some of them, but between the time it took to list them, the hassles of shipping, the low prices to make sure they sold, the fees and the postage costs, it probably wasn't all that worthwhile. Steve and I have had a box of unwanted books sitting in our office ever since we got married and merged our libraries--it got moved untouched from the apartment to the house. I keep meaning to list them online, but I just never seem to get around to it.

Enter Cash4Books. You simply enter the ISBN(s) from your book(s) and check to see if they're buying the book. They pay the shipping with a free pre-paid mailing label that you print from your computer. Then they pay for your books! No hidden fees or anything.

They do have a list of books they are generally not purchasing; if you're looking to get rid of paperback fiction, for example, you're out of luck. But it's simple enough that it's worth checking out! If you decide to sell your books, could you be so kind as to click through the link here on my website? They also have an affiliate referral program :)

I haven't tried selling any books yet, but it looks and sounds a whole lot more convenient than selling via the Amazon Marketplace or Half.com (much as I do love those sites for book-buying). I'm definitely planning to get out that box of books and see if we can get some cash for them...just as soon as I get around to it :)

3 comments:

Zoanna said...

Thanks so much for the info. I have had some success w/ eBay, but if they don't sell, of course, you're out the listing fees. How does this company, Cash4Books, profit? Can they really sell books that won't sell on other worldwide sites? Just curious what's in it for them. WE, too, have an office full of books that need a better home. I'm not one to reread most books.

Amy said...

I have no idea how they profit--but they look legitimate; they have a BBB rating and everything. I'm anxious to try it out. My guess is that you won't get real high prices, but to me the convenience factor is huge. Once I factored out all the time/monetary costs when I sold on Amazon, I wasn't getting very high prices there, either.

Anonymous said...

I usually sold my old college books through Cash4Books and they are legitimate. I have no idea how they make a profit either. It's so nice because you can print off the labels right from the site and send them off. It did take about 6 weeks to get the check, but the important part was that it came!