[britishbane]

I've got a dearth of used and unused textbooks from college that I'd like to rid myself of. Anyone have experience selling on half.com? Positive experience?

If not half.com what other websites do you suggest?

 

[derek800]

I have used half.com to sell used textbooks in the past and everything went well for me. Of course some of my books were not worth much at all so I didn't take the time to sell them unless they were worth more than $20 or so.

 

[intoflatlines]

I just unloaded about most of my textbooks on half.com.

Advantages:
- set a price and wait.. no checking auction bids, meeting reserves, etc.
- no expiration date
- easy to compare prices that others are listing same books in same condition
- very straightforward and simple
- no dealing with non-payers. if they want it, they have to pay for it before the listing is taken down

Disadvantages:
- it's still eBay
- the shipping charges that Half.com reimburses you are usually off. Sometimes it will work out to your favor, maybe giving you an extra $.10-.50, but usually you will end up paying $.50-$1.00 more than they give you.
- they take commission for each sale
- they pay you bi-monthly, so money from a sale might take several weeks to actually be deposited in your bank account.

On one particularly cheap book ($1.00?) that the buyer chose expedited shipping that I offered, I pretty much ended up paying a dollar to get rid of it (After shipping and commission). More expensive textbooks that I sold ($~100) returned a much higher percentage to me, as opposed to the cheaper books (<$10).

It was really great though. I had this huge box filled with books that was taking up space in my apartment. I didn't want to sell them back to book stores because they give you nothing for the books pretty much. I listed on craigslist for awhile but all I got were lowballers. I put 31 books up on Half.com in November and now I have maybe 7 left (all of them are $1-$10).

edit: I forgot to mention that in most Half.com transactions I don't get feedback as a seller. I've left feedback for every buyer though. Out of all my sales on Half, I have only gotten maybe 3 feedbacks in return.

 

[britishbane]

Thanks for the input all. Looks like I'll give half.com a try.

 

[smrtby123]

I like Amazon to unload all of my stuff, because the organization is usually better. Its book search I have found is better so it is easier to stick your book with exactly what author, version, etc.

I have found that it is hit or miss depending on your field. My engineering books, some had very high resell value, and some had a new version come out and then weren't worth enough to sell sometimes. All I ever did was go on Amazon, see the lowest price and set mine $5 lower to make sure mine sold.

 

[intoflatlines]

Quote:

Originally Posted by smrtby123 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I like Amazon to unload all of my stuff, because the organization is usually better. Its book search I have found is better so it is easier to stick your book with exactly what author, version, etc.

With Half.com all you have to do is enter the ISBN and it correctly selects the title, author, version, etc..

 

[RYCeT]

For current edition book or older edition with value more than $20, I prefer to sell it on amazon. My book will not last more than a week during this early semester session. For the book less than $20, I rarely sell them, it's just not worth the trouble. With the shipping and commission, you'll get only $5.00. The thing I don't like about amazon, as a seller you have to abide by their return policy which is quite generous for buyer. Their shipping charges also a bit off by $1-3.00, especially if you offer the expedited shipping. Thus, it will cost you money when a buyer return a book because of their own stupidity ordering the wrong book.

 

[mmwwhats]

I like amazon.com, and they give you a recommended price for each book, so you can get an idea of what it's worth without asking too much and having it never sell.

 

[ecclesand]

I donated all of mine from my undergrad and graduate degrees and took a big fat tax deduction for them. Just another option to consider.

 

[tintin47]

I know that there are some companies around here that buy textbooks direct from you. One of the ones that bothers me often is belltower books. If you have super specialized books, they may not take them, but I have had a good experience with them in the past.