Reselling used college textbooks

Textbook prices drop like that because the sellers get the schools to change books every semester just about with a “new version”

Used to piss me right off.

I found that 99% of the time, when I was in school at least the older versions were “close enough” and I’d buy a 3.00 used book vs the 300.00 one on the “required” book list.

Fuck them hoes.
 
Don't resell to companies. Resell to individuals. Best way to get rid of them is through social media or putting up a flier near the class a specific book is for.
 
Sellbackyourbook is one of the buyers included in Bookfinder's aggregate. They're the motherfuckers who want to give me $1.11 for my $99.95 Property Law casebook lmao
Now I understand why lawyers are assholes.
 
Textbook prices drop like that because the sellers get the schools to change books every semester just about with a “new version”

Used to piss me right off.

I found that 99% of the time, when I was in school at least the older versions were “close enough” and I’d buy a 3.00 used book vs the 300.00 one on the “required” book list.

Fuck them hoes.

Some of the international ones are the same as the US versions except with a note that says "Not for sale in the United States". That's the only difference.

Textbooks are a fucking scam.
 
I thought newer textbooks are circumventing resellers by tying the curriculum to online work for which you need a password?
 
Anyone know of any websites that link up college students for buying/selling used textbooks? I'm in my 2nd year of law school and have already paid a fortune on books, and I realize I'm never gonna have to refer back to most of these books so I'm trying to resell them. Problem is, when I'm looking at the buyback prices online I feel like I'm getting raped but not raped in a good way. This site Bookfinder.com aggregates the buyback value from 10 different online book buyers and shows you the top price from the 10. So I try this out with the 18 books I'm willing to part with and the grand total is a whopping $381.93, and to put that into its proper rape context I paid a total of $1572.55 for these used books all within the last 16 months or so. To give an example; I paid $99.95 for my Property Law casebook last January and the best offer on Bookfinder is $1.11 lmfao

So does anyone know of any sites where I can sell my books directly to other students?

i heard uber drivers augment by selling things
 
Just steal the books from the school bookstore so you can resell for a profit.

I mean who are you really hurting? Just make sure to find the magnetic sticker that’s in a random page in the book.<{jackyeah}>
 
I thought newer textbooks are circumventing resellers by tying the curriculum to online work for which you need a password?
Maybe, when I went to college there was no “homework” only exams and papers and labs in some classes.
 
Textbook prices drop like that because the sellers get the schools to change books every semester just about with a “new version”

Used to piss me right off.

I found that 99% of the time, when I was in school at least the older versions were “close enough” and I’d buy a 3.00 used book vs the 300.00 one on the “required” book list.

Fuck them hoes.
I became well aware of the textbook racket when I was an undergrad. But the books I'm selling for a total of $930 are currently valued at $1326 on Amazon. Professors at my school make a concerted effort to push back against the racket by not updating to a new edition every semester
 
You college probably has a Facebook group that you can post. Or just make some copies of an ad and spread around the campus.
 
I thought newer textbooks are circumventing resellers by tying the curriculum to online work for which you need a password?
A password for online textbook material? I haven't encountered that. A few of my professors have abandoned textbooks altogether and put all the course material online but your student ID/psswd gives you free access to it. All you have to pay for is the cost of printing the material if you want hard copies
 
Two pages and no one has said...

you sound poor.

Must be the holiday spirit.
 
A password for online textbook material? I haven't encountered that. A few of my professors have abandoned textbooks altogether and put all the course material online but your student ID/psswd gives you free access to it. All you have to pay for is the cost of printing the material if you want hard copies
Jones&Bartlett use it among others (mostly textbooks for the Healthcare and Security industries).
homeslider05.jpg

Each textbook has a password you need to scratch off which is good for one semester of access to the online supplemental material, which you also need for tests. It's a devious but ingenious solution to students buying used textbooks. I think more publishers will turn to this.
 
Jones&Bartlett use it among others (mostly textbooks for the Healthcare and Security industries).
homeslider05.jpg

Each textbook has a password you need to scratch off which is good for one semester of access to the online supplemental material, which you also need for tests. It's a devious but ingenious solution to students buying used textbooks. I think more publishers will turn to this.
Now that I think of it one of my legal writing supplements back in first semester had that. You were required to login to the publisher’s website in order to submit assignments

The textbook racket is so ridiculous, I honestly can’t believe it’s gone on this long. You have politicians talking about the student loan crisis yet everyone seems oblivious to the textbook racket that’s literally scamming students out of thousands of dollars every year (or semester, depending on your area of study)
 
I made a comment in another thread... I teach at a university and stopped using a book about 10 years ago because the price is way too high and they try to put out new editions (usually by adding a few pages riddled with errors) so the old editions are obsolete, rendering them worthless.

The whole process is ridiculous. The publishers try to meet with me every once in a while and I basically tell them to f off every time.
 
Individual reselling, but maybe try abebooks?
 
And why the fuck are law books soooo expensive? I had to buy a handful of overpriced books for my undergrad and that was like £30-60, fuck paying thousands on top of the already huge fees you guys pay in america.
 
Anyone know of any websites that link up college students for buying/selling used textbooks? I'm in my 2nd year of law school and have already paid a fortune on books, and I realize I'm never gonna have to refer back to most of these books so I'm trying to resell them. Problem is, when I'm looking at the buyback prices online I feel like I'm getting raped but not raped in a good way. This site Bookfinder.com aggregates the buyback value from 10 different online book buyers and shows you the top price from the 10. So I try this out with the 18 books I'm willing to part with and the grand total is a whopping $381.93, and to put that into its proper rape context I paid a total of $1572.55 for these used books all within the last 16 months or so. To give an example; I paid $99.95 for my Property Law casebook last January and the best offer on Bookfinder is $1.11 lmfao

So does anyone know of any sites where I can sell my books directly to other students?
Back when I was in school I resold through half.com which was eBay's sister site that specialized in media only. They took a smaller cut of the sale total, and made it easier on the seller with simplified rates to offer (such as the shipping rate you had to use because the USPS offered a special rate on "media" shipping for things like books, CDs, DVDs-- anything you could fit into a special envelope they would give you). It also made it easier to list the sale because all you had to do was find the ISBN of your book, and it drew a higher volume of purchases who didn't want to deal with auctions, and liked Buy It Now used prices when browsing the online store sorted by strictly defined New / Like New / Excellent / Good / Okay / Poor conditions for the books.

Today, eBay is total garbage for sellers, it abuses you, and I don't think Half.com generates the views it used to. You're better off starting an Amazon seller account these days, and using their marketplace-- way higher volume of customer. You can also use the ISBN# to easily find and list your offering. When starting out and you don't have a seller rep rating the best thing you can do is offer a terse description of who you are, and the book. It helps to offer the best price, but even better is what you convey with this description. You're usually limited to a pretty small number of words. For example, "College student reselling to not get screwed. New Condition, but listed 'Like New'. Pristine cover & pages, no markings. STRICT TO SELLER STANDARDS."

The last line killed for me. I understood used book buyer psychology because I am a bibliophile who bought a lot of used books. All you want is to know what you're getting. In this short description, you have conveyed that you are a college student, and this immediately summons the image in most folk's minds of a child of privilege & good character who isn't trying to scam people online (or at least it used to). You aren't hard up for money. Not only that, but you have conveyed a sense that they have the power. You aren't a bookseller businessman. You are a college student stuck with something you don't want. So this evaporates the anxiety there might be something wrong with the product; there's just no need for it.

Simultaneously, it conveys a sense of seriousness, discipline, and character with regard to the obeying the rules, and conforming to the marketplace definitions. This is because some sellers, as I knew well, abused those definitions and sold "Okay" books as "Like New", or worse, "New". All you wanted was consistency and reliability as a customer since you weren't given pictures for book sales on Half.com, and this is also true for the Amazon marketplace.

I actually sold my art history textbook on that website, filled with writing and underlining in the margins, for more than I paid for it New at the college bookstore: in "Poor" condition (because a single inscription dictated that according to the rules). I made money my junior and senior year selling my friend's books for them while taking almost all of the profits. They didn't care. They were facing those same garbage $3-$7 offers for barely used, pristine $140 math textbooks and the like. I'd say, "How does $25 sound?" Pay them up front, then go sell it for $70-$110, usually, depending on the market. I had a line of friends showing up at my door with a box full of their entire college library they didn't want to keep.
 

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