This Post may contain Affiliate Links. Please read our Disclosure for legal jargon.
Books are where a reader’s heart is. But how much can a heart hold within itself? Though books are an inseparable part of a reader’s life, at some point they have to leave their master’s shelves to give place to new books which bring new adventures, new ideas and new lessons in a reader’s life.
But apart from getting away from your books what brood your mind is how will you sell them appropriately, right readers? So if you are one of these readers, you must be looking for the best places to sell textbooks. You might not want to sell it off to some scrap dealer, rather give it to someone in need, but how to reach those buyers?
Well, we have some recommendations for you while we go further with the article.
Which is Better – Selling Online or Selling In-Person
Selling books online and offline have their own set of black and whites. They have their own hassles and conveniences. It depends on you as to how and when you would like to hand over your textbooks to someone.
At the end of the day, you are helping yourself as well as the opposite person because you want to declutter your books appropriately with a good deal and the buyer is in the need of that textbook. Remember, one person’s junk (not actually intending to call books as junk) is another person’s treasure.
Celebrate all the money you’ve saved on cheap textbooks by spending it on something way more fun… might we suggest… you know it without us saying it…buying some new books?
Best Places to Sell Books Online
1. Decluttr
BBB rating: A-
Decluttr as the name means subtracting some part of your library which may include unused books, CDs, DVDs, games, and even Lego toys. Once you’ve determined what you have to sell, dive into the Decluttr’s website and enter the barcode number from your items.
Decluttr has got their app on your Smartphone – it’s available on both iPhone and Android devices – you can just scan the barcodes instead of entering an ISBN or book’s title. When you’ve fed in the item’s information, Decluttr tells you the price they’ll pay you for that item. After the shipping process, it’s just a short wait until they receive your items.
Once they do, they promise next day payment after their warehouse team inspects your stuff and makes sure everything’s in decent condition for reselling.
2. BookScouter
BBB rating: N/A
Found in 2007, BookScouter, a Small website made for students to earn some bucks in exchange of books is now a big business. Students, schools, universities, corporations, small businesses, and many others can take advantage of their services. Bookscouter not only gives the opportunity to buy books but also gives us a list of vendors with offer prices by just clicking the title of the book or the ISBN.
It provides you a list of vendors along with their ratings. Once the vendor inspects the parcel he will pay the amount through online medium. One thing that should be made very clear about Bookscouter is that it is a search engine which will find you a variety of buyers, but it itself isn’t a buyer. It also has an Android and iOS app.
It makes the reselling process easy and deals with all problems related to selling in just one go. It gives a great opportunity to the seller to choose the best vendor of his choice who has good ratings and pays the highest amount for the book.
3. BookFinder
BBB rating: N/A
Since 1997, BookFinder has made it convenient and effortless to sell any book at the best price. You get to find various buyers who are interested in buying your book. Because of this feature, you get to choose the best offer among them for your book.
Or looking for a book? BookFinder will find just the right book for you, be it the cheapest reading copy or a specific collectible edition. It searches the inventories of over 100,000 booksellers worldwide, accessing millions of books in just one simple step.
Bookfinder offers book search by title, author, keywords and ISBN number. Through them, you compare prices at 60+ online book sites to find the lowest price! All the search and comparison results are unbiased. Their power search supports searches for new, used and out-of-print books which will never disappoint a user to find what they want.
The comparison results give the best price, as well as availability, shipping, and tax information. With all these features and convenience, Bookfinder guarantees a wonderful and pleasant online shopping experience. It has been in this business since 1997 and its website still has the layout of that time, an antique one.
4. Amazon
BBB rating: B
You must be well aware of Amazon, one of the largest E-commerce website. If you don’t know, Amazon actually started as an online bookstore. You can become an individual seller via Amazon’s marketplace or exchange books for cash through their buyback program. For this, you require an Amazon account, Amazon marketplace individual seller account and shipping label along with packing slip. You can’t sell more than 40 textbooks from your marketplace individual seller account.
It’s very easy to sell books here. All you need to do is to select the condition of your book and set the price accordingly. You can also set the shipping method. For the people who are new to this experience, Amazon offers free tutorials “webinars” that includes pricing books and managing multiple accounts. The Buyback program only gives a small percent of the book’s original price.
After shipping your book on Amazon for free, trade-in-payment comes in the form of an Amazon gift card. Once you’ve made some sales, you will be cock-a-hoop about having some extra space in your bookshelf and a little cash in your pocket.
5. Chegg
BBB rating: N/A
Founded in 2005, Chegg, Inc. is an American education technology company. This is a company which is based in Santa Clara, California and is intended to help students in high school and college. It not only offers online textbook rentals (both in physical and digital formats) but also carries out the trade of used/unused books. It also provides homework help, online tutoring, scholarships, and internship matching.
Chegg has an arrangement with American Forests’ Global Releaf Program such that every book rented or sold means that one tree is planted. As the firm claims over five million trees have been planted. Isn’t it amazing to sell, rent or buy a book and get a tree planted?
6. Barnes & Noble
BBB rating: D-
Barnes & Noble became a leader in eBooks in 2009. They offer over 1 million titles in their eBooks store and they launched NOOK, the world’s most advanced eBook reader, which features groundbreaking lending technology, a color touch screen and lets readers download books in seconds. Orders are shipped via Postal Service.
Apart from selling books, they also buy used books. The total value of your books that you sell should be $10. They only allow you to enter one ISBN at a time. Sometimes you may have more books to sell which can take some extra time to list them one by one. You get the amount via check or PayPal after they receive the book.
7. TextbookRush
BBB rating: N/A
TextbookRush also offers reasonable prices, great selection, and online convenience when it comes to a trade of books. It’s a one-stop resource for buying, selling and even renting textbooks of all kinds — from traditional textbooks to study guides, practice texts to lower-priced international edition textbooks., which makes it easy to find just what one needs. Apart from books, you can even sell games and movies.
Their catalog includes over 15 million books — new, used and international — that one can search for online by author, title or ISBN. Whether you want a new copy or a used one that saves some money, you’ll get free shipping when you spend at least $35.
8. Cash4Books
BBB rating: N/A
Cash4Books is a family-owned company. Jim and Breanne Smith are the owners. They believe in providing their customers with useful tools to make the process even more convenient for which why they have built their iPhone and Android apps so that students can scan their textbooks instead of typing out the ISBN. They believe in outstanding customer service. That’s why their customers can contact them when they call (5 days a week).
Payments are issued within 1 business day of books arriving and processing in their warehouse. They also give monthly bonus codes which are just another way to help you make extra cash. You know it’s a work of love when a company is family owned and operated. So if you really want someone to count on, you can give them a try.
9. CampusBooks
BBB rating: A+
CampusBooks is a site which accepts nearly all types of books. That does come with a condition that the books won’t be accepted if they are missing any supplemental stuff like CDs, etc. CampusBooks juxtaposes the prices from“dozens of buyback sites” to find you the best deal. August and January are the months which have the highest demand so it would be preferable if you sell books during that time.
The CampusBooks’ mobile app may ease your process of selling books. In addition, the company offers free shipping facilities. You get paid by cheque, PayPal or store credit.
10. Sell Back Your Book
BBB rating: A+
Sell back your book buys your textbooks straight from you without any intermediary. Better Business Bureau has officially recognized them. This site has already paid millions of dollars in textbook buybacks. their mobile app will help you in listing your books efficiently.
Although most of the books are acceptable, what doesn’t come in the list of their acceptance is a teacher or instructor’s edition, encyclopedia sets or books without an ISBN. Shipping is free when you use USPS Media Mail or FedEx Ground. Their mode of payment is cheque or PayPal.
11. Textbook Recycling
BBB rating: A+
Textbook Recycling is located in Moscow, Idaho and has been in business since 1997. Provided the ISBN is listed in their database, textbook recycling is one of the few websites that considers and accepts an instructor’s editions of textbooks. Although, if the ISBN isn’t listed, they won’t buy that book at the moment.
Shipping is free if the delivery is in the continental United States. Payments can be redeemed via check or PayPal. They proudly claim to have some of the quickest payment windows in the industry.
12. ValoreBooks
BBB rating: A+
Valore.inc is another Boston based American company/website that compares textbooks. It claims to compare the prices from hundreds of buyers. Its tagline also claims that it saves students up to 90% on the cost of textbooks. Sold books are shipped for free. You can be paid with check or PayPal.
They only accept boxes that weigh 70 pounds or less if you are selling back multiple books to ValoreBooks. You then need to contact them for additional labels if you exceed that weight.
13. Student2Student
BBB rating: N/A
Student2Student allows you to sell your textbooks not only online but also locally in your own campus. After entering a book’s ISBN, they will compare the buyback prices from several online vendors and they will connect you with the students for direct buying and selling from people just like you. So no middleman, no price gouging!
The service is completely free if you sell locally, and the buyer pays you in cash at the time of purchase. Just meet up on campus to do the deal. No fees, no shipping, and no credit cards. What else can someone ask for?
14. BooksRun
BBB rating: F
You can sell your used college textbooks all at once with no hassle. Like many others, BooksRun provides free shipping, including package tracking. Payment is done through PayPal or cheque within 4 days . They don’t just offer good prices for your books, but they also have various promos and coupons to get the best buyback deals.
BooksRun offers a 14 days 100% satisfaction guarantee through which you can reach their customer service, hassle-free returns. So you’ve got one more reason to pick them up.
15. BookByte
BBB rating: C
Found in 1999, BookByte is a company based in Salem, Oregon. It is another legend when it comes to the trade of textbooks, though it’s Better Business Rating is not as good as a few others.
They accept books when they are in an okey-dokey (minimal wear & tear) and acceptable condition(cover damages & torn pages if the book is still legible). Other textbook companies only buy the book in absolutely good condition so you might want to try this option for your more worn books. It pays via cash, cheque or PayPal.
16. eCampus.com
BBB rating: A+
eCampus.com can be a delightful site to buy & sell your textbooks. Their rewards program can save you money on future purchases, which is something different and interesting from the other sites. eCampus.com is quite flexible when it comes to allowing a seller to enter multiple ISBNs and pay with a check, direct deposit, or store credit.
The sellers get a selling price if they select store credit plus 1 eWard point per textbook sold.175 points earns a $5 eCampus gift card. There are several other ways to claim reward points which makes the website more engaging and attractive for the sellers.
17. Textbooks.com
BBB rating: A+
Textbooks.com comes in the list of the largest online textbook sellers. They have more than 10 million books in their catalog. They offer the best deals for textbooks. Students can save up to 90% in trading books.
Shipping is free if the deal exceeds $25 or when you want to ship with UPS. Once your books are received by them, payment is disbursed with a cheque or via PayPal.
18. TextbookX
BBB rating: A
A website that is akin to Amazon is Textbookx. Firstly you have to list down the book as a Textbookx seller on TextbookX. As soon as someone will buy it you will get paid. Sales commission charged by this platform is15% of the selling price plus $1.50. A shipping credit will be received by you which will help you counterbalance your shipping costs.
You get paid either by PayPal or store credit. You will get a 5% bonus if you choose to receive store credit. If you are planning to sell your book back to them then chances are that you can earn up to 2 times more when selling your books. And if your order exceeds $49 then you would also receive free shipping facility from them in most of the orders.
Best Places to Sell Textbooks Offline
19. Second-hand Book Shops
Selling your books at Second-hand book shops is a good option to go for. Maybe some of them wouldn’t buy textbooks which are teacher’s editions or international editions. Make sure you ask them if they have these kinds of restrictions.
They would give you fair deals and you won’t have shipping and payment hassles. so do take a step ahead and prowl for some second-hand shops or indie bookshops that that would pay for used books.
20. Half-Price Books
If you are planning to sell back your used books, textbooks, CDs, DVDs, etc., then half price books would be a cromulent option for you. They possess more than 120 stores in 17 states, so they are quite approachable. What you have to do is take all the textbooks you would like to sell and handover to them.
They check the condition of your book and price it accordingly and because you have to be present there while they price your books, you can walk down their store. It is possible that you like something while browsing their store.
Mostly, you will get a decent offer on anything that you present before them. If you are okay with their offer and accept it then you will directly receive cash on that very moment. It’s a pretty straightforward process.
21. Powell’s
Based in Portland, Oregon area, Powell’s claim to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. So for people living in this area, Powell’s is the most ideal place to sell textbooks in person. Their collection has over four million books for its retail and online sale. Their collection of books include million new, used, rare, and out-of-print books.
They buy around 3000 used books a day and are even ready to buy antique books from their customers. They never disappoint their customers because they are ready to buy almost everything along with giving the sellers good deals. Payment modes are store credit or PayPal.
If you don’t live near Powell’s store, you don’t have to fret because they also give you an option of selling the books online and they cover the shipping.
22. Advertise On Campus
On your very own campus, there might be many students who would be searching for places to buy textbooks at an affordable price. You can head over and advertise your books on your campus. You can meet the person face-to-face and make the best deal for yourself and them too.
There are many colleges and universities that have a bookstore on campus where you can buy and sell textbooks. If you are planning to sell books there then you have to carry the supplementary material also. Before you carry your textbooks to sell on campus, inquire about the requirements they have for the condition of books.
23. City/Community Libraries
Another possible option for selling back your used textbooks is city and community libraries from where you’ve bought them. Of course, not all libraries will buy back your used textbooks, but you may approach them because you never know…And if you are living in an area with a large number of colleges and universities, then the likelihood of your success is much greater.
The Bottom Line
Everyone has different ways of doing things, everyone has different choices. Some people may find selling textbooks online more efficient because they might want to compare prices from several websites. And undoubtedly the websites above may give you exemplary deals from a huge amount of vendors.
However, some people may find the process of online buying and selling troublesome, which is actually not the case. Although online shopping comes along with a list of tasks like printing a shipping label, packaging books and dropping them at a shipping location which can be a cross to bear, it saves you from the trouble of dealing with a person.
Selling offline will give you hard, cold paper money in your pocket quickly without having to go through the boring process of packaging and shipping books. If you want to avoid all this, go local, go offline. There are many options while selling books offline too. Both of them have their own merits and demerits.