How to Sell Textbooks Online

If you got a good deal when you made your purchase, you might be able to sell textbooks online for more than you paid. Before you take the time to list your textbook for sale online, make sure you've ruled out your other options. Have you tried your local school sponsored bookstore’s buyback? If you’re offered half of the new retail price you might consider the easy cash transaction the bookstore facilitates. Is anyone from your peer group taking the class the following term? You could make an attractive offer to a peer for slightly more than half of the new retail price.

If you've exhausted your alternatives and haven't found a buyer on your terms, then you're ready to sell textbooks online. Let's get right to the web sites you should use when listing your books for sale:

Recommended Marketplaces

The best places to sell textbooks online are the same as the best places to buy online: Half.com and Amazon Marketplace. These are the safest and most efficient markets on the Internet to conduct business. There’s no charge to list a book for sale at either place, and when your book is sold they handle the payment transaction. They take their commission after the sale and pay you within a couple of weeks. These safe marketplaces attract a large number of buyers searching for textbooks. Amazon attracts the largest audience, but Half.com takes less commission, allowing you to keep more of the sale.

Have you bought or sold merchandise from Ebay or Amazon before? Half.com is a subsidiary of Ebay and uses the same feedback rating system as Ebay. If you have a strong feedback rating established at either place, you should consider using your existing profile to sell textbooks online. A strong feedback rating makes you more credible, reducing the perceived risk for buyers.

If you’re starting from scratch, then I recommend using Half.com. It’s hard to pass up the cheaper commission, and I prefer the organization of their listings. Click this link to take a tour at Half.com:



You can set up an account at Half.com here:



Strategize

In order to determine what price to list your book for sale, read this article to learn about the pricing characteristics for textbooks at the online marketplaces: Pricing Characteristics

Now that you have a good idea how prices fluctuate at the online marketplaces, it’s time to set your strategy. Here are some questions to think about and answer:

• Do you have a bottom line price you hope receive or you won’t sell your book?

• What is the condition of your book as described in the standards at Amazon or Half?

• What price is the first high volume seller offering in this category?

• Is a high volume seller offering a lower price in a higher rated category?

• Where are the prices now in relation to the price you have in mind?

If the term has just ended, you’re likely to find lower prices offered online and not much demand. If you’re hoping for a quick sale at a good price right now, you might re-consider the local bookstore’s buyback.

If you’re satisfied with the prices offered online right now, or you’ve waited until the earlier of mid-August or mid-January, your ready to learn some crafty tricks to help you sell textbooks online.

Tips and Tricks

Most buyers will choose a high rated seller if given the choice between similar priced listings. You need to make sure your listing is more attractive than the high rating and feedback comments of any competing high volume sellers. Identify the lowest priced high volume seller in your book’s category or better. Make sure you set your price just below the high volume sellers. You don’t need to be priced to far below the market price set by the high volume sellers or you’ll raise the suspicion of the buyer.

Next you want to make good use of the description or comments field for your listing. Most buyers have procrastinated and need the book quickly. You need to begin the description with your commitment to shipping the book quickly after the sale. Being a low rated individual seller, it’s wise to offer a free upgrade from media mail to UPS or FedEx ground. This could cost you an extra five dollars, but it's a much better strategy than pricing your book to low.

After you’ve shown your commitment to quickly shipping the book, confirm the edition and inclusion of supplements like CD’s or updates. Now it’s time for the physical description of your book. Hopefully you've started with a book in very good condition and have kept it that way. Mention any highlighting or water damage so you won’t surprise your buyer and end up damaging your feedback rating.

Once your book has sold you’ll get an e-mail informing you of the sale. It’s a good idea to continually stop back to check your account page for the sale in case the announcement e-mail is lost. You’ll also want to check the listing page. The markets are constantly changing and you want to know if a high volume seller has undercut your price.

If you find there are other individual sellers following the same strategy, read through their descriptions. Make sure your description sounds the most appealing to the prospective buyer. If you see that two individual sellers are lowering their price against each other, it’s better to let them go and hope the market quickly absorbs their copies. Once they're gone the market will return to your price. If you’re below the high volume sellers and other individual listings seem to be going before yours, try tweaking your description until you get the sale.

Although the marketplaces at Half.com and Amazon offer the most efficient markets, there are a couple of inefficiencies that occasionally occur. Read this article to learn how to take advantage of these to get a higher price when you sell textbooks online: Marketplace Inefficiencies

You should now have a good grasp of your options and the best strategies to use when you sell textbooks online. Next we'll finish up with a page of links to all the great money saving resources on this site:

Leaving Sell Textbooks Online for Resource Summary

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