College Bookstore
Textbook Buyback Strategies

You’ve decided to price your books at the college bookstore textbook buyback. You know your book has been re-adopted by the professor. The first store you go to offers you half back; the second store offers you much less. You tell the clerk that you understand the book has been re-adopted and you should be offered more, the clerk states that the offer is the most they will pay. Why is there such a discrepancy between stores?

You’ve learned how college bookstores lower the price they pay for re-adopted books as the buyback week progresses. In some cases college bookstores won’t even pay you 50% of new retail for any of your books, even the ones that have been re-adopted. The reason for this is purely profit driven.

A strategy often used by the college bookstore is to only pay 50% of the used retail price. If you bought a new textbook for $100.00 and offered it to a bookstore following this strategy, you would only be offered $38.00 for it instead of $50.00. Bookstores can use this strategy and still claim to pay you 50% back during textbook buyback. That’s why it’s important for you to do the homework on the price ladder and know your objective before you get in line at buyback.

Some college bookstores will only pay you wholesale prices for your books. If you take the $100.00 book from our example to a bookstore following this strategy, they would likely offer you approximately $20.00. The wholesale prices are set by supply and demand and could be more than this, but will be less than the half back offer you're shooting for. If you have a small private bookstore serving your campus that sells books at discounted prices, they’re likely to be following this strategy at textbook buyback. These stores will often claim to offer the best prices at buyback. You know their prices are good when buying, so you may be fooled into thinking their buyback offer is good as well. Once again, be sure to do your diligence!

One final note: Trade books, study guides and other paperback texts have the lowest wholesale values. Even if these types of books are re-adopted, bookstores will only buy a small percentage at 50% if they pay that much at all. If you have these types of books to sell, make sure you try to sell them as early as possible during the buyback week.

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