Tips for selling your used textbooks
As a student, there will soon come a time that you'll no longer require all those textbooks that you had to purchase back when you started college or university. Selling your textbooks back to the campus bookstore you purchased them from is easy - you're already familiar with the store and it's located right on campus. What could be simpler than that? While many schools offer their own buy-back programs to students, often times students will be able to recoup more of the original cost of their textbooks by selling them privately. Many students will take out an advertisement in the local city wide newspaper or community newspaper to get the message out to prospective buyers. While this method has its merits, you're going to be in competition with a lot of other local sellers, not to mention the added logistical inconvenience of having to arrange the sale and collect money from a complete stranger. When it comes to reselling your textbooks, one of the easiest and most direct ways is selling your books online. The biggest advantage of selling your books online is that you are going to be reaching a global audience - why settle for the students in your community when you could be selling to students from all over the country?
If you're ready to sell your textbooks, there are some steps you should complete beforehand. First, know what exactly it is you are selling. Many buyers, selling services and bookstores search, sort and categorize by ISBN number, not the actual title or author of the textbook. The ISBN number will either be 10 digits in length or 13 digits. Using ISBN numbers for identification is more accurate than identification by title and author because ISBN numbers will also identify the correct edition; this is very important when selling textbooks. The ISBN number is usually located in one of two places in the book; look for them on the reverse title page or on the back cover.
Once you've correctly identified your textbooks, assessed any selling competitors and have attained an approximate value of the books you'll need to complete one final step before you're ready to sell - cleaning up the books and making them presentable for sale.
Provided you haven't used the books to the point where they could only be considered discount merchandise (*spills, stains, missing pages, mold, etc.), cleaning them up shouldn't take too much time or effort at all. Gather some cleaning supplies: spray cleaner (i.e.: Windex), paper towels, or microfiber cloth should do the trick.
Clean the front and back covers using a minor amount of spray cleaner on the cloth or paper towel, not directly on the covers themselves. Dry them thoroughly. Remove any stickers or adhesive residue with a hairdryer. Blasting the adhesive with hot air will enable you to peel off the sticker or remove the adhesive residue fairly easily. Other commercial cleaners may remove adhesive with less effort but many tend to leave stains (*they'll look like grease spots, but they'll be permanent), so avoid using these and stick with the hot setting on your hairdryer. If you need to scrape off residue from a sticker, heat it up and use a plastic spatula to carefully scrape the residue off. No plastic spatula? The edge of a library or credit card will suffice in a pinch!
If there are markings on the books pages (like if you underlined specific passages or wrote notes in the margins), carefully erase them. If the markings are in permanent ink or highlighter do not attempt to remove them as this will more than likely cause more harm than good. Make sure that when you list your book that you note any permanent markings, this will downgrade the quality somewhat and will likely affect the price as well but unless the markings are extensive to the point of being considered "damage", it shouldn't be too big of an issue to a prospective buyer and should still be considered acceptable.
Once you've completed cleaning them, your textbooks should now be ready for sale. Pass on what you have learned!
If you're ready to sell your textbooks, there are some steps you should complete beforehand. First, know what exactly it is you are selling. Many buyers, selling services and bookstores search, sort and categorize by ISBN number, not the actual title or author of the textbook. The ISBN number will either be 10 digits in length or 13 digits. Using ISBN numbers for identification is more accurate than identification by title and author because ISBN numbers will also identify the correct edition; this is very important when selling textbooks. The ISBN number is usually located in one of two places in the book; look for them on the reverse title page or on the back cover.
Once you've correctly identified your textbooks, assessed any selling competitors and have attained an approximate value of the books you'll need to complete one final step before you're ready to sell - cleaning up the books and making them presentable for sale.
Provided you haven't used the books to the point where they could only be considered discount merchandise (*spills, stains, missing pages, mold, etc.), cleaning them up shouldn't take too much time or effort at all. Gather some cleaning supplies: spray cleaner (i.e.: Windex), paper towels, or microfiber cloth should do the trick.
Clean the front and back covers using a minor amount of spray cleaner on the cloth or paper towel, not directly on the covers themselves. Dry them thoroughly. Remove any stickers or adhesive residue with a hairdryer. Blasting the adhesive with hot air will enable you to peel off the sticker or remove the adhesive residue fairly easily. Other commercial cleaners may remove adhesive with less effort but many tend to leave stains (*they'll look like grease spots, but they'll be permanent), so avoid using these and stick with the hot setting on your hairdryer. If you need to scrape off residue from a sticker, heat it up and use a plastic spatula to carefully scrape the residue off. No plastic spatula? The edge of a library or credit card will suffice in a pinch!
If there are markings on the books pages (like if you underlined specific passages or wrote notes in the margins), carefully erase them. If the markings are in permanent ink or highlighter do not attempt to remove them as this will more than likely cause more harm than good. Make sure that when you list your book that you note any permanent markings, this will downgrade the quality somewhat and will likely affect the price as well but unless the markings are extensive to the point of being considered "damage", it shouldn't be too big of an issue to a prospective buyer and should still be considered acceptable.
Once you've completed cleaning them, your textbooks should now be ready for sale. Pass on what you have learned!
Sarah O'Sullivan represents CollegeBookRenter.com where our goal is to make your textbook rental experience as easy as possible! Not only is our rental system faster and easier but with CollegeBookRenter.com, renting your textbooks can save you up to 85% on your textbook costs! For more information about College Book Renter, check us out on Youtube! Tips for selling your used textbooks
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