How to sell school textbooks
How I Buy and Sell My College Textbooks
hey guys so today I wanted to make a
video about how I buy and resell my
textbooks I know that this is an issue
in college that a lot of kids deal with
where textbooks are kind of the
deal-breaker as far as like sticking to
a budget goes and maybe like you know
that's the make-or-break of you know
getting all of your rent money together
and so I by no means have dealt with
quite that much struggle my parents do
help me with a lot of things but I do
buy and rent my textbooks used usually
and I also have found ways to resell
them that are very helpful so I wanted
to go through some of that with you guys
today the biggest thing I think that
helps me is I make a price comparison
spreadsheet and so I do this in Google
Docs but you also can do it on like
Microsoft spreadsheet or that
pre-programmed like one on Mac where
it's a spreadsheet essentially um you
can also use that and so we're going to
switch to my computer screen for a
minute so this was my spreadsheet from
this last semester as you can see here I
put down the class that the book is for
the title of the book and the ISBN
number and those are the only things
that are in here when I start looking my
go-to sites to find books are my
University's bookstore Amazon thrift
books and check so I put those titles on
the top and then the rest of these
columns would all be empty so I put the
class because I want to make sure that I
have everything written down and
recorded accordingly and so I use my
university dues website which tells me
which books to get and I make sure to
have all of that in here and I always
double check and make sure I'm not
missing a book because trust me it's
very frustrating when you miss a book
and then you get partway through the
semester and realize that you now don't
have the book that you need for the next
section of class so I put all of that
down and I put down the titles but the
ISBN number is honestly the most
important thing so make sure that you
get the ISBN number for the books and
you have it in here
so then I copy and paste the ISBN number
into the search bar on each of these
websites so say that we are going to
Amazon so then I can take the ISBN
number and I can put it into the Amazon
search bar and there's the Odyssey which
is the book that I needed for my Greek
and Roman myths class and then within
Amazon you can always buy the new
version you can hit by used you can buy
hardcover audiobook Kindle versions so
if you are able to buy electronic books
I believe that will save you some money
but then also remember that you can't
resell a electronic book so if you are
interested in reselling your books you
don't want to like keep them after the
class you won't think you have to
reference them or anything then you
could look into buying ebooks but on
here you can always buy use so you can
select the condition etc looks it was
only acceptable for the Odyssey even
though you can buy used books on Amazon
my absolute favorite site especially for
buying novels is thrift books so one
thrift books you can also copy and paste
in ISBN numbers into the search bar and
then it'll bring up the book that the
ISBN number is for and it looks like the
paperbacks are out of stock on the
Odyssey currently but you can do
hardcover math paperback collectibles
etc and so say we want a mass paperback
you can use this drop-down and you can
select what book you want so missing
dust jacket means that it would be like
when you took the cover off your
hardcover Harry Potter book and then X
library means there'll be little things
on the spine like that have the Dewey
Decimal number for the library
honestly X library though is usually a
pretty good deal because you tend to get
hard backs with that and as long as
you're fine with dealing with a little
sticker there it is usually in pretty
good condition so I buy a lot of extra
library there's always free shipping in
the US so if you're in the US I highly
recommend using thrift books and their
shipping is pretty quick you'll get it
within two weeks and that kind of brings
me to my next point about my spreadsheet
which is that I put down the date that I
order the book and I put down the date
that I get it this is because certain
websites like third parties selling used
on Amazon and thrift books every once in
a while a book gets lost in the mail and
so you want to keep track of when you
order them and when they arrived and
that for sure keep your email order
confirmations and things like that
because if the book doesn't arrive you
want all that information Beals say over
this book this version of it etc and it
hasn't arrived and then you want to be
able to have a tracking number to say
that it says that it's here but you know
whatever and be able to call thrift
books or call that third-party through
Amazon or call Amazon or whatever and
make sure that you get your money back
or you get another copy
um Chegg is similar to thrift books they
tend to be a lot more textbook oriented
so you can get textbooks on thrift books
and you can also get novels on Schenck
but the Rif books is what i tend to go
for as far as novels go and then shag is
tends to be where i've over text books
just because they're more likely to be
in those locations and then back to the
spreadsheet the other thing I do is I
always check rental prices especially if
it's not a textbook I'm interested in
keeping always check rental prices and
so you can see that for some of mine I
put the price but it says rent next to
it and that just means that it's a
rental textbook it's not one that I will
be allowed to keep after the class so
then I get all of my prices in here for
every single book on every single site
and I highlight the one that I want to
get then I go back to each website so
the one for my university bookstore
Amazon thrift books check and I put the
books that are highlighted into my cart
which does mean that I have to put the
ISBN number back in and go find it again
to put it in my cart and then I check
out that's pretty much it as far as
buying and then just make sure that they
get there no I want to talk about Reese
because this is where you save the most
money I think so I tend to keep my
favorite textbooks and novels from
classes because I want to reread them or
I'll want to reference them in the
future even for like another class
sometimes I go back to old textbooks or
a different class where I'm like oh we
also talked about something related to
this topic in this class let me go find
that and I'll use that in my paper so I
do keep some of my textbooks but if I do
want to resell them because I bought
them I use two things I use a resale app
and then I also use local Facebook
groups so as far as Facebook groups a
lot of universities have groups for
their students that are called like free
and for sale things like that so say
that you go to University of Illinois it
would be like University of Illinois or
a U of I may be free and for sale and so
find one of those Facebook groups and
get yourself added to the page and then
you can post on there your books for
sale what I usually do is I go online
and I look up prices that that book
would be if somebody were to buy used
from a website and I drop the price like
two bucks so that I'm still making a
amount of money that is reasonable for
that book but I am their most appealing
option because now they don't have to
pay shipping and if they even if the
shipping on the website that is free
somehow I'm still giving them a better
deal and then I'm only out two bucks
myself you could also only drop it like
a dollar or something if you want if you
really need the money but to make sure
that you're the most appealing option
for people and you'll be good to go and
also when you post it say what class the
book is used for because sometimes
people don't realize that that's the
textbook they're looking for and so put
like this is the book that you know dr.
Smith uses in econ 306 or whatever it is
so that they know that's the textbook
that they are looking for that they need
for that class the other thing is the
app I use so the app is called book
Scouter and so here it is unless for
some reason you are unable to scan the
barcode because of a sticker or
something on the back of the book you
want to open the barcode scanner and
then you works like a camera and you
hold it up to your book and it takes the
ISBN number down for you so then here's
a list of all of the sites that are
willing to buy your book and sometimes
it honestly says $0 and that's just
because there's such a surplus they are
uninterested in buying your book so then
at this point you want to hit the ad
bookshelf button towards the top there
and then the book will be in your
bookshelf then you can use the button in
the upper right to see your bookshelf
and when you are here you can then ask
the app to email you your bookshelf and
this allows it to be easier to sell
because now you can do it from your
computer so once you have the email on
your computer it'll have a list that is
all of the books that you add into your
bookshelf and it'll have the sites that
you can sell them on like you saw on the
app and then I'm just saying to do this
on your computer because it's a bit
easier than like typing everything in on
your phone so then you go to the site
and you tell them that you want to sell
the book if you're selling more than one
book at a time
I'd recommend adding them all and to
these sites that you were going to sell
them on before you tell any of the sites
that you were done selling because there
some of them they don't give you free
shipping to their warehouse unless you
sell them a certain number of books so
for some books they might be worth more
money on one site but on a different
site where they're worth you know like 5
cents less 10 cents less and they won't
give you free shipping and so you'll
want to sell them on the site where your
free shipping otherwise you're gonna end
up losing money or making a lot less
money in the long run so then usually
they give you a prepaid packaging label
so there's a sheet that you put inside
the box and then there's one thing you
put on the box that has the address and
the fact that it is prepaid postage and
then you take that to USPS or UPS I
whichever one the website uses make sure
that you check that and you just hand it
off to the worker and they'll take it
from there
and then once usually once the package
arrives at the warehouse and they double
check that everything that you said you
were selling them is in the box they
will send you money on paper
and so during the process when you were
telling them I'm going to sell these
books to you when you were on their
website you'll have to put in your
PayPal and I have never not gotten paid
by one of these websites they have
always given me the money for the books
that I have sent them and so I believe
that those are the two easiest ways to
resell your books other than reselling
to your own university bookstore if they
rebuy books but yeah if you have any
questions about how to buy or sell books
or anything I've said here please leave
them below if you would like more
college how to videos or thrifting
videos or sending videos because I
apparently do all three my channel is
very eclectic then please hit subscribe
below and I will see you on another
Monday bye guys
[Music]
