Selling academic text books

Rockman

Hi

My son has just finished an online business degree course and is looking to sell his textbooks to recoup some of the money spent on them. Does anyone know of anywhere that buys/resells such books?

I live in the North West area but any information about anywhere in the province would be appreciated.

happy_gardener

I realise this is an obvious answer :Ebay, Gumtree..or any other online auction site .....or a site in Belfast which is free to advertise like Gumtree ..might be worth a try http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/BelfastDistrictCheapcycle/?yguid=341137810

Golden_Anemone

Amazon marketplace perhaps?

Mrs_Money

Golden_Anemone wrote: »

Amazon marketplace perhaps?

Yes, I would agree with the above. Even if you do not eventually use Amazon to sell- it is important that you check what your book titles are selling for on there (just enter the isbn number in the search box).
Amazon seems to have become the (very low) benchmark for used and new book prices and unfortunately you may be disappointed at how little your books are worth compared with what you paid for them.
A thick and heavy adacemic book will also be almost impossible to sell on Amazon due to the very low postage prices they set (I think it's still around £2.75 per book - any book) and some books can cost around £5 to post. Another factor to consider is that immediately a newer edition of your book is published, yours will plummet in "value" on the site.
The sad fact is that, as economic restraints bite even deeper, people always check how cheaply they can buy their books - meaning, if your price is more than anyone on Amazon, you may not sell them at all unless you can find local buyers- perhaps at a local academic institution.
Not very cheering I'm afraid, but I've sold books on Amazon for over 3 years and now I'm finding it's almost impossible to sell a single book!:(

WhiteHorse

If the value justifies it, and the books are relevant to regular courses, he could try a postcard in the student union at the nearest university.

Mistral001

If he is going into a related field to his degree, it might be worthwhile to hold onto the books. I know I kept most of my university books and still refer to them from time to time 30 years later.

You will only get a fraction of what the books cost new if you sell them online as the postage is fairly high. A £30 pound book might only sell for £5 when postage is deducted.

kidshorsesdogs

I see a lot of books being given away on Freecycle especially medical and accounting books. I imagine with a low resale value most people are just happy that they are just going to find a good home! I know that my daughter bought books some were from older students but she mainly bought newer editions as already mentioned.

lazer

Queens used to have a bookshop in the student union that would sell the books for you and then give you the money (or at leastsome of it) not sure if it still exists

I think they will only take books that are on the reading lists for current queens courses