Get More Money for Your Old Textbooks

According to the College Board, a national, nonprofit membership association in New York that informs students about college opportunities, a student at a four-year public school will pay, on average, $393 per semester for books and supplies. This is in addition to tuition costs, which rise every year. So say your books average $300 per semester--that's $2,400 spent solely on books during your undergraduate career!

That's a lot of money to spend on books you may or may not read--and probably won't use again. So what should you do with your unwanted books once final exams are over?

You could go to your school bookstore during its "buy back" time. School bookstores often will buy back a textbook at 50% to 60% of its list price--if it's in good condition and it's needed for the next semester. If not, you will be lucky to get 10% to 20% of the list price. So using our average, you will at best receive $150 to $180 each semester from your bookstore. At worst, you will get $60 or less. Doesn't seem fair, does it?

If you want to get more money back for your expensive textbooks, try selling them yourself on Amazon.com.

Why Amazon?

Unlike many online textbook stores, Amazon lets you list and sell your books yourself. It gives you a suggested price for your book based on its condition, but you choose how much you want for it (which means if you keep your books in excellent condition, you potentially could get almost all your money back). Many other online bookstores will buy the book back from you, but you don't get to choose the asking price.

For example, in January and February of this year, I sold seven books on Amazon for a total of $115 (this is the total I was paid after fees were assessed--see below). Some were in excellent condition, some not so great. The list prices of these books (on Amazon--this doesn't account for school bookstore mark-ups) totaled $185.50. So I only lost $70.50 on those seven books.

If I had sold those books at my school bookstore, I would have made, at best, $92.75 (50% of the list price--the highest my school bookstore would pay) and at worst, $37.10 or less.

For further comparison, I checked what Barnes & Noble would pay me for those seven books combined--$6.90 (Barnes & Noble wouldn't even buy five of the books).

Listing an item on Amazon

Listing an item on Amazon is easy and free. Of course, if you sell an item, Amazon will charge you a fee of 99 cents plus 15% of the sale price. But until an item sells, you're not charged a cent.

Here's a step-by-step guide to the listing process:

To sell books on Amazon, you must register. This requires giving your e-mail address and selecting a password.

Go to Amazon's textbook site and click on "list your textbooks." This will take you to a page where you can search by title or ISBN (International Standard Book Number). The ISBN usually is found on the back cover of a book at the top of the bar code. When you enter the ISBN, do not include the dashes.

If Amazon allows you to sell that item, it will ask you to give its condition. Make sure you completely understand Amazon's condition guidelines--you don't want to mislead any buyers.

You also have the opportunity to enter comments about your book. I usually give more information about the book's condition. For example, if you have highlighting in the book you are listing, comment on that. If the highlighting is limited to one or two chapters, note that. If the cover is bent or a page is ripped, add that information. You want to be sure your potential buyers fully understand the condition of the item they are purchasing. Buyers have the opportunity to leave feedback, and if you receive low ratings, it may be harder to sell your items in the future.

Amazon lets you list and sell your books yourself.

Based on the condition you select, Amazon will give you a suggested price. You can go higher or lower than that suggestion, as long as your used copy is priced at or below Amazon's list price for a new copy of that book.

A good way to choose a price for your item is to look in the "pricing details" box to the left of Amazon's suggested price. That box will tell you how many new and how many used versions of that book are for sale in its marketplace, and the lowest price that book is being sold for.

After you enter your price, choose whether or not you will offer expedited and/or international shipping.

If this is your first listing on Amazon, you will be asked to enter your Amazon payment information. Giving Amazon this information will allow Amazon to disburse any of your earnings directly to your share draft/checking account at no cost to you. If you have previously sold items on Amazon, you will not be asked for this information.

Review and submit your listing. It may take about 15 minutes for your listing to appear on Amazon.com.

Once posted, your listing is live for 60 days. When those 60 days are up, you receive an e-mail asking if you would like to relist the item.

You sold a book--what's next?

When someone purchases your book, Amazon will notify you via e-mail. Once the transaction is complete, it will send a second e-mail (titled "Sold--Ship Now!") that gives the buyer's address and asks that you ship the book within two business days from the date of purchase.

You pay the shipping costs and you send the item to the buyer, but Amazon gives you a shipping credit when it disburses your payment. The shipping credit for books sent via standard shipping is $2.26. Amazon recommends that you ship using media mail.

When you ship the item, include your seller name in the return address. Amazon also requests that you include the packing slip (sent in the "Sold--Ship Now!" e-mail) in the package.

After you have sent the item, e-mail the buyer and let him or her know on what day you sent the book. If, for some reason, there is a delay in your shipment of the item, notify the buyer about that delay.

Once every two weeks, Amazon automatically transfers any payments in your account to your checking account. You will receive a notification e-mail when this occurs.

Anna Thayer is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin--Madison. She will be starting law school in the fall.

Published June 2, 2003