I can’t believe we’re already at the end of the semester. Finals start next week. I’m not going to give you any study tips because I’m the last person who should be dishing out that advice but I will tell you how you can get rid of your textbooks and make some money in the process.
To start, I want you to check out:
Textbook 123. It’s a site run by a couple of guys at UVic and it looks pretty great. It uses Facebook Connect, so you don’t have to register for the website per se, just log in with your Facebook info and skip the hassle.
Some cool things about it:
- You’re selling within your school’s market
- They have pre-filler. This allows you to just enter your book’s ISBN and it automatically displays author, version, publisher info - all you have to do is enter the price you want to sell for.
- When you enter a book, Textbook 123 automatically adds a picture of it to your listing.
- There’s a wishlist feature, too. Enter a book you’re looking for and the site will search the database and alert you when that book becomes available.
I haven’t used the site to sell books yet but I will be listing a few in a couple of weeks. You might as well give it a try, it’s free.
Textbook 123 has more of a Canadian focus right now. Yeah, we’re the world’s guinea pigs.
craigslist. As if you’re not already aware.
Here are some tips to sell your books faster on craigslist or any other online-garage-sale-site.
- Take a picture! Yes, even if it’s just with your phone. This is preferred over the actual picture of the book on the publisher’s website. Why? People want to see that a) you’re legit and b) what quality the book is in.
- State the class the book is for and the exact edition it is.
- Is the professor using a newer edition than what you’re selling? No problem. Just include a note saying that and explaining that the content is essentially the same and that professors don’t really care what book you’re using.
- Price well. Usually, I check what the bookstore is selling the books at used and I bring the price down by 10-20%.
- Are you selling a bunch of books? Make different listings for each book.
If anything, hopefully this post just reminds you to list your books somewhere!
Enjoy the 4-day week.
