Selling off books?

[Mounds]

Ok, I need some advice.
I've got about 350 paperback books that I've built up over many years that I'm looking to sell. Here's my dilemma. Books sell for next to nothing and shipping is expensive. Who is going to buy a $2 book and then pay $10 for shipping?
Anyone have advice on how to sell off books?

[spirit4711]

Take the books to a second hand bookshop and ask for a cash offer. Then, ask for a better offer if you choose other books from their shop in exchange.

With luck, you'll end up with about 100+ books you didn't read yet.

Alternatively donate them to a prison, orphanage or hospital or some such.

[moonrambler]

Sell them in groups and ship them by media mail

[Angela]

I'd donate 'em and get the tax deduction. Or have a garage sale if you have other stuff.

[PhoenixFlames]

There's no point selling on Amazon- its too time consuming to list them all, check e-mails to see if they've been bought, write out envelopes. Then you have to buy bubble envelopes, get them weighed and post at the Mail/Post Office etc (I should know I did it myself for a while).

To do all the above you could be doing something more practical that would earn you Money- like working extra hours at work, studying in your spare time, taking up Volunteer Work etc.


If most of your books are $2 a piece I wouldn't bother.

However do check all the titles because some might be rare (or delted titles) and therefore more valuable so do check every title in case.

I have one book on Amazon that is worth £50 $77.

In addition to other replies if your books haver a common theme donate them to Charity, give them to a book group or anywhere else that maybe interested.

[Mounds]

I'll probably go the charitable donation route. Between the hours I'll lose packing, shipping, listing and the rock bottom price of the books, the tax receipt will probably give me more monetary gain.
Maybe donating things for money sounds bad but I spent probably $3000 on these books. Gotta get something back!

[Mounds]

So my library doesn't issue tax receipts for books unless their collectible. Boooo library.
Looks like I'm taking the ebay route after all. Gonna do lots of 10.

[RichD]

Last year I wanted a Kindle from Amazon. It was pretty pricey. Like you I had a ton of books that I was never going to read again. The point of buying the Kindle was to cut down on the book build-up. So I sold most of the and it paid for most of my Kindle.
I used Cash4Books.net - Sell Used Books. It took a couple days to organize. Some books they are not in the market for. I would grab a stack and open a text file and just start listing the ISBN number from the back covers. Then copy and paste the list into their search engine. It will quickly tell you which books they are interested in. When you check out it will print you a receipt for the estimated money they will send you and (here is the best part) a FedEx number to use in the shipping! THEY PAY FOR THE SHIPPING!

In about 2 weeks (they have to go through the box and see that everything is there) I received my check. I HIGHLY recommend using them.

Rich
Practical Journal Keeping

[Angela]

There's also those book trade websites. I can't remember the name of the one I saw, but it looked like a really good idea. If you make enough books available, all your shipping costs can be covered. The credit you receive varies on how in-demand your books are.

[InterfaceLeader]

Book Club to Swap, Trade & Exchange Books for Free.

I used bookhopper for a while (the UK version) and it worked pretty well.

Or donate to your school instead of the library?

[pjhaggerty]

Book Club to Swap, Trade & Exchange Books for Free.