Thursday, April 5, 2012

Selling Textbooks and Bookscouter.com

There is much talk on the internet and on college campuses about the trade in textbooks,  even Obama mentions it on occasion.  I have to agree with him that it's largely a big scam which, in the end, truly profits only the textbook companies.  I had an archaeology professor who once told me that with all of his royalty checks for a specialist textbook he had authored a few years before, he could afford a six pack of beer.  He did note that it could probably be really good beer.

That aside, you will undoubtedly come across not just formal "textbooks" in your travels, but all sorts of books that are taught in classes and, therefore, bought by online textbook firms.  These are the big players: Textbooks.com, Powell's Books, Chegg, etc.  However, I never go directly to these websites.  Instead, I always start with Bookscouter, where you put in the ISBN and they automatically search 44 different companies and give you comparative prices.

There are a number of distinct advantages to dealing in textbooks:
  1. Guaranteed Profit:  If they offer you a price and you accept it, you know you'll make a profit.  These are guaranteed sales.
  2. Prepaid Shipping:  The legit companies offer shipping, all you need to do is print off the label and slap it to a box (more on strategically shipping).
  3. They're usually books you can't sell elsewhere: They are softcovers, recently written, etc.  This means you're not drawing from your carefully selected stock of beautiful old books.
There are, of course, disadvantages as well:
  1. Prices Change:  Most of these websites are seriously sneaky and are constantly changing their prices.  Hence, don't sit on the books, buy them and sell them that night in order to lock in the price.  The exception is Textbooks.com which guarantees their prices for a month.
  2. Minimum Orders:  Every one of these sites has a minimum price or number of books (usually price), below which they will not buy your books.  They don't want to ship your single copy of The Merry Wives of Windsor across the country as it cuts into their profit margin.  These minimums are different for each site and you should make note of them.
  3. General Sleaze:  The textbook companies are bottom-of-the-barrel parasites.  I don't feel particularly good about working with them.
So, how do I work this?  I generally try to get a number of these books simultaneously, sending ISBNs to a partner via textmessaging who tells me which to buy.  Then I come home and try to cobble together the best deal.  Soon, I will be posting a guide to the spreadsheet I use to help me with these calculations.  Alternatively, I look on Craigslist for people selling single textbooks that are above the minimum, I have made $30 in profit on a single book in this way before.

Make sure you check the ISBN of any book you buy.

12 comments:

  1. Another good option is BookFool. You'll find more information at Affiliate.BookFool.com.

    Our hope is that, not only will we help sellers liquidate some inventory; but, that they'll go out and initiate textbook buying from students & professors. As you said within this article, it's guaranteed profit.

    Oh, and hopefully BookFool isn't a "bottom-of-the-barrel parasite :-) We try not to be.

    Good luck.

    The BookFool.com Team

    ReplyDelete
  2. BookFool-
    Thanks for the comment and I hope you weren't too offended. I'm afraid I've been a student for far too long (It'll be 11 years in September) to have any happy feelings about the textbook industry, though that is mostly directed towards McGraw Hill and the other big players, not the folks nearer the bottom of the pile. That said, I do hope you try not to be and push your fellows in the right direction; if so, best of luck to you. You are definitely right about the guaranteed profits, which is the best part of the textbook gig and it's biggest attraction.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice I also share with you something hope this helpful for you. Watching a show where somebody picks up a box and all the stuff falls out from the bottom may be funny on TV, but when that happens to you, it can be the most frustrating and stressful feeling ever. To make a secure box, you must properly fold the bottom flaps and tape the seam shut with three lines of tape going across the box. After you tape the bottom seam, roll another piece of tape that goes around the edges of the box for extra durability. Stuffing the box with newspaper or other stationary material will also make the box extra sturdy. Packing a moving box like this will make sure the box won't rip from the bottom. Check it out thanks.
    Buy Shipping Boxes

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's a good alternative: selling single books instead of ala carte. Or at least a limited number at the time. Not ship so many will catch the eye of a middle man. The internet has loads of potentials as a marketing platform; it's all about calibrating our options and choosing ones that we can maximize the quickest.

    ReachForFreedom.com.au

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I would also consider checking Bonavendi out. I have found it a handy price comparison website to sell used books, dvds, CDs, video games. Easy to use, very good prices!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I appreciate everything you have added to my knowledge base.Admiring the time and effort you put into your blog and detailed information you offer.Thanks.
    potential relevant backlinks

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for your post. I’ve been thinking about writing a very comparable post over the last couple of weeks, I’ll probably keep it short and sweet and link to this instead if thats cool. Thanks.
    get traffic to your website

    ReplyDelete
  9. Tom Corson-Knowles, the author who founded Bestseller Ranking Pro, spent six long years trying to get a traditional publishing deal (and failed miserably). He finally decided to self publish his first book on Kindle in February, 2012.

    That one decision changed his life (and the lives of the more than 30,000 authors he's since taught how to write, publish and market their books professionally).

    Just twelve months after self publishing his first book, Tom had his first $12,000+ month from Kindle ebook royalties alone.

    In Bestseller Ranking Pro, Tom will share with you his step-by-step system for becoming a bestselling author.

    These strategies have also helped Tom and his private publishing clients create more than sixty-seven #1 Amazon bestselling books and counting.

    If you're going to write, publish or promote a book this year, you need to see this:

    https://bestsellerrankingpro.com?vhbshygdf398432

    ReplyDelete
  10. We sell books online best prices and find cheap book stores online. Visit us to know more about the best price books online and online books store near me.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am overwhelmed by your post with such a nice topic. Usually I visit your blogs and get updated through the information you include but today’s blog would be the most appreciable. Well done! For security reasons, you should change your Router default password and choose a strong password for you, Please visit 192.168.254.254

    ReplyDelete