I have a bunch of textbooks from my Master’s (computer science) and a set of law textbooks that were left by a friend who was “going to collect them in a few months”. Seeing as that was almost three years ago, and I haven’t heard from him in two years, I’m assuming he has no further interest in them, and they’re being sold. I’ll be moving house this year, and I’m not interested in carting his stuff around.
So - where should I go to get the best price? I’m assuming that selling online will be the easiest. So far, I’ve looked at eBay, Amazon and AbeBooks. If anyone with experience of these (either in the UK or elsewhere) can give me advice, that would be useful. I realise that I’m just starting out as a seller (although I have decent feedback as a buyer on eBay), so the prices won’t be great, but I’m also not in a mad rush to get rid of them. Sometime in the next few months is fine, although I don’t want to wait much longer than that.
You might be able to sell them through your university’s Student Union. The uni I went to provided a service where you could re-price your old textbooks and drop them into the bookshop in the Union. When each book is sold they contact you to arrange pick-up of your cash. Obviously the chances of your book being sold depend on how relevant/popular they’re likely to be so if they’re more obscure textbooks they might end up gathering dust.
If that sounds relatively hassle-free it might be worth giving your (former) Student Union a phone to see if they have a similar service.
Assuming there are other copies for sale on Amazon, you should be able to get a fairly accurate idea of the potential resale price just by looking at what other people are selling - look at the ones listed as new and used - and compare like for like in terms of condition. Seller Feedback means next to nothing for books on Amazon, so you needn’t worry too much about being a newbie seller.
Be warned though - Amazon imposes a standard shipping cost for used books, that may be less than the actual cost of sending it, if the book is a heavy one - and Amazon fees can seem a bit hefty at times (although they are declared upfront when you list the item)
I looked into that, but the Uni bookshop will only
[ul]
[li]Take books sold by them[/li][li]Give you up to 1/3rd of the value of the book, no matter what its condition[/li][li]Give you bookshop credit, which I don’t want[/li][/ul]
It looks like Amazon might be the way to go, then.
To clarify, our uni bookshop was the same as yours. It was a student-run book trader service within the Student Union that ran the deal where you price the books and get cash in hand when they’re sold. It’s a shame your union doesn’t have a similar service because it’s such a straightforward way of selling on your old textbooks.
Anyway, I hope you get a good deal on your books. Good luck with the move when it rolls around!
Most faculties aren’t that difficult to get into. Find the department notice board and advertise them direct to the students. Or go up to ULU and stick a note on the board. For the law books, go to the College of Law on Store Street. If no-one wants them, take them to the Charing Cross Road. Don’t expect back anything like what you paid for them, though. Unless they’re valuable for some reason, secondhand books will never make your fortune.