Where and How to Sell Your Used Books Online
Have a lot of old textbooks or novels cluttering up your bookshelves? Need money for new books? Selling your used books online might be the perfect solution to your home library woes!
How to sell used books online
There are all kinds of websites that promise to buy your used books for a fair price. Some strictly buy textbooks, whereas others will accept everything from children’s books to romance novels and everything in between. The general process for selling to any of these sites usually involves the following steps:
- Enter your book’s ISBN into the website.
- Select what kind of condition your book is in. Common descriptors can include “new,” “gently used,” or “poor.”
- The site should generate an offer for your book. If it meets the minimum purchase price, you’ll be able to move along with the sale. If the price doesn’t quite meet the order minimum, you might have to add another book.
- If you’re happy with the price, you can accept the conditions and enter your payment preferences so you can get paid once the vendor receives your books.
- Print out the shipping labels. Check to see if shipping is free or needs to be paid by you.
- Ship out the order and wait to get your payment.
The exact price you get for a book will vary greatly depending on consumer demand for the product, the item’s condition, its edition, and other factors. For example, a hardcover copy of a popular, like-new book will earn much more than a tattered, decades-old paperback.
Additionally, take note that these sites can be pretty particular about what they’ll buy. If they end up with titles they don’t want or need, they’ll just recycle them. Most of these websites also charge sellers a fee to use their services.
Top 10 places to sell used books online
With this information in mind, here are the top 10 sites to sell your used books for extra cash in 2022!
1. AbeBooks
Unlike other sites, AbeBooks requires you to pay a monthly fee to use their selling/listing service. With AbeBooks you don’t sell all your books at once to the company. Instead you are listing your books for sale on AbeBooks and 6 sister sites. Users browsing these sites can buy your books. As a seller you can set you own shipping rates.
AbeBooks doesn’t just provide a platform for rare books, nonfiction titles, and fiction, either. You can also sell art, collectible items, comic books, and more!
2. Amazon
Amazon is a great site to list your more fiction, nonfiction, and textbooks, but it isn’t the best for rare titles or collectibles. If you want to sell on Amazon, you’ll have to create a seller account, select a selling plan that’s best for you, and choose a fulfillment method. From there, the process is mostly straightforward–you use the book’s ISBN to list it online, fill out the product details, and set a price.
3. BookDeal
BookDeal got its start in the textbook industry over 2 decades ago. Its current platform is home to numerous reputable buyers who are looking for all kinds of college books and textbooks. With this website’s BookDeal Guarantee, sellers are further protected from any buyer disputes as long as they follow the selling guidelines.
Within 5 days of shipping out a buyer’s order, sellers can be paid through PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle.
4. BooksRun
BooksRun is unique in that it allows users to sell their books directly to BookRun or view offers from other buyers. As soon as you type in your book’s ISBN, you’ll instantly see what its value is and how much different vendors are willing to pay for it.
Once you ship your items out, it takes a few days to process your order once the buyer receives it, but you can usually get paid within about 4 business days. You can choose to get paid through PayPal or a traditional check.
5. Cash4Books
Cash4Books is a great site to sell your textbooks for top dollar. Cash4Books provides free shipping for your books and if you choose to get paid through PayPal, they’ll cover any subsequent fees so you can get the full amount of money you were quoted.
This website is highly reputable and one of the few that offers their services at no charge to sellers. The only downside is that it can take around 2 weeks from the time you ship out your books to the time you’ll actually receive your payment.
6. Chegg
Chegg is another great option for students or recent college graduates looking to make a few bucks by selling their used textbooks. Like Cash4Books, Chegg will immediately give you a quote for your book after you enter its ISBN. If you choose to accept their offer to buy your book, they’ll email you a prepaid shipping label so you can mail the package for free. Chegg also promises to pay sellers through PayPal or a traditional check as soon as they receive the package.
7. eBay
This popular selling platform allows sellers to list their items for a fixed price or via online auction. In the latter option, the book will be sold to the highest bidder after a set period of time. Selling for a fixed price might take longer for your book to sell, but it’ll likely earn you the highest payout.
Listing a book for sale on eBay is easy and straightforward. Simply enter the ISBN, fill out some basic details about the book (such as its genre or whether it’s part of a series), and hit the listing button. See more about selling on eBay. You can even choose from a wide array of payment types, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, credit or debit card, and several other options.
8. Powell’s Books
Powell’s Books is a Portland-based bookstore that will consider buying most types of literature either in store or online. If sellers choose to sell in store, they’ll only receive store credit, but selling online gives people the opportunity to get paid through PayPal instead. Although the books they choose to accept will vary based on their current store inventory and reading trends, one thing the selling section of Powell’s site notes is that they won’t purchase any outdated encyclopedias or textbooks.
9. Sell Back Your Book
Sell Back Your Book is a BBB-accredited website that buys textbooks, novels, DVDs, CDs, and more. Entering your item’s ISBN will automatically give you a quote of how much the site will pay for it. If you decide to accept their offer, you’ll be provided with a free shipping label so you can avoid any miscellaneous fees. The website promises to pay sellers via PayPal or check within 3 days of receiving the item.
10. Textbooks.com
This site offers a way for students to purchase used textbooks and sell off their old books. Additionally, Textbooks.com has a buy-back program that can let students save about 50% on their textbook purchases.
To use the site, just enter your book’s ISBN to get a price quote that’s good for 30 days. If you decide to accept their quote, you can print off their prepaid shipping label and mail the package at no cost to you. After the site receives and inspects your item, you can be paid through PayPal or check.
What to do with books that no one will buy?
If you have books that none of these sites are willing to purchase, you can recycle them, donate them to the library, or put them in a little free library which are now in many neighborhoods.
