As a child I recall my parents and other adults referring to a trip to the Post Office as a nightmare. I recall going there on occasion and being beyond bored as I waited in line for what seemed like hours. The counters were high, I couldn’t see anything, I had to stand the whole time as my mother or father had packages in their arms. It was horrible and for many years I had a phobia about going to the Post Office. I have come to learn that I was not alone. I fear students are out there whose fear of the Post Office prevents them from selling their books online.  Students who would love to make more on their buybacks, but for whom the mere thought of going to the Post Office is paralyzing.
Having overcome my fear I hope to help others overcome theirs. Hopefully after reading this, your fears will be laid to rest as the Post Office is not a scary place. Most of the time people are nice and the worst part about the experience is waiting in line. Before heading off though you’ll need to do some preliminary work. Let’s say you need to ship some books off to Portland.
Step 1, you first need to know when they need to arrive in Portland. Someone is paying good money for your books and they expect them to arrive by a certain date. That date might be next month, or next week, but you will need to know it. Write down the date and the address.
Step 2 is to find a box for the book(s) or if you are mailing a light paperback any large envelope will do. If you have one lying around that is in good shape put the books in it and seal it. If you don’t have a box lying around don’t worry about it. You can get it at the Post Office, but don’t forget the date and shipping address.
Step 3…the Post Office. Take a deep breath, hold your box or books tight and walk through the door with your head held high. More than likely you will have to take a number and wait in line. But, that’s ok because you’ve done that before. While you are waiting there, take advantage of the time and look around. Familiarize yourself with the surroundings. If you don’t have a box, take a look at what they have.
Step 4…you are at the front of the line and they just called your number. Don’t panic. Calmly approach the counter. Take a deep breath and explain to the clerk that you need to mail this package to this address by this date. The clerk will then weigh it, and quote you a few price options for delivery. If the book needs to arrive ASAP you’ll be paying a little bit more for next day air. If the buyer doesn’t need it right away the slowest, cheapest option, is known as media mail but can take 10 to 14 days to arrive.
All that is left for you to do is pay for your postage and box that you bought to ship the book(s) in. That’s it.
How to Get the Most from Textbook Buyback
In the past, students were beholden to the campus buyback counter as the only outlet for their old books. Now however there are so many options online students no longer have to accept making pennies on the dollar for their used textbooks. Enterprising students are able to profit from their books, sometimes earning wads of cash rather than mere meal money.
Making the most off of your used books is not for the faint of heart, but if you are willing to put in the time and effort into selling your books online, you can reap some nice rewards. To begin with it helps to NOT buy your books on campus in the first place. As soon as you sign up for next semester’s classes get a hold of the required text list.
Time is of the essence; the longer you have the more you can make of it. With list in hand start doing some online shopping. There are many schools that change the textbooks for courses from year to year which eliminate the on-campus demand and value of that text. But, if your school needs that text it has some value to you. The student at the other school might be happy to sell you that $150 book for $15 because it’s $15 more than their bookstore was offering.
Not too long ago it could take forever bouncing from website-to-website trying to source the lowest priced book available. Luckily it’s now 2008 and thanks to CampusBooks.com you only have to visit their website, type in your book’s ISBN number and away you go. CampusBooks.com’s online price tool allows you to view what the top book websites (including auction sites such as eBay.com) are selling your book for. You will also be able to get shipping costs and any of the other fine print that can add to the cost of your purchase.
The next step is eerily similar to the first, just the opposite. Instead of going online to buy your books, you go online to sell them. The exact same principles are at work and the book might be far more valuable on another campus than on your own. If you have time and patience take advantage of it. Typically the prices rise as the semester approaches and people become desperate. On some occasions the demand for a certain text might have skyrocketed for the next semester allowing a student to actually sell the book for more than they paid.
You are probably not going to make hundreds of dollars every single semester. There might be semesters where you only break even. But other years the stars might align and you’ll strike gold with that geology book. Over the course of 4 years that it all adds up and maybe you’ve made $500-$1,000 which isnt too shabby.
By: Dan Russell
Things to consider when selling your books online
For decades the only place to sell back your used books was the campus bookstore. If you were lucky they would buy your books and if you were luckier you might get more than meal money. The Internet obviously changed all that. Now students have access to thousands of potential buyers; eBay alone has over 25,000 textbooks for sale. Even more traditional online bookstores Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com are buying back textbooks. The marketplace is so large that websites such as CampusBooks.com and Textbooks.com have been created to specialize in that area.
Students are now taking advantage of this opportunity in record numbers. More often selling their books back for more than their campus bookstore was offering. What could be better than that? What could possibly be the drawback you ask? Well for one it’s just not as simple as turning on your computer and selling your books. With so many options it takes time sorting through them all. Luckily CampusBooks.com has an online price comparison tool that allows you to plug in your book’s details and check out the going rate for your book over most of the major websites.
However it’s still going to take some time to list all of your books for sale on those websites. Time is money and you’ll be earning it. It won’t take up hours of your time, but expect to spend more time than you would have waiting in line at the buyback counter. Once yours books are listed for sale online, you’ll need to manage those sales, answer questions from prospective buyers, and if you’re lucky sell those books. Then you need to lug all those books to the post office (hopefully it’s on campus) and mail them off. Make sure you have the correct postage, the correct addresses, and the correct books going to the correct addresses.
Many of these websites will also take a commission out of your sale price reducing the amount you receive. That is when you finally receive your money. After all the work is said and done you’ll still have to wait for your money to arrive. Waiting for a check to arrive isn’t quite the same as the instant gratification you get walking out of the bookstore with a handful of cash. When all is said and done you might have only made a dollar or two more than the bookstore was offering. Cashing a check for $7.50 isn’t necessarily better than walking out of the bookstore with $5 in cash.
Ultimately there are benefits and drawbacks to everything. The students who benefit the most from selling their books are the ones who understand everything involved. Even if you ultimately decide to sell your books on campus you’ll be doing yourself a HUGE disservice by not taking a look at an online price comparison tool such as the one available on CampusBooks.com. It only takes a minute or two and you might be surprised to find out that other students are buying that Bio book for $100, which beats the $25 the bookstore offered your roommate.
By: Dan Russell
Textbook Buyback Options
There are few bright spots to spending hundreds of dollars on textbooks at the beginning of the semester. In fact, aside from the knowledge gleaned from those books I can think of only one: selling them back towards the end of the semester and making some very easy money. It is important to note though that there are buyback options other than the friendly folks at the campus bookstore. They might not all provide the cash-in-hand instant gratification of the bookstore, but they might earn a few more bucks for your effort and patience.
Many students turn first towards the Internet when selling their books. Keep in mind that this takes more time and effort than simply turning on your computer and logging into Facebook. It takes time to find a buyer, time and effort to ship your books, and lastly plenty of time (though equally little effort) waiting for your money to arrive. There are many websites in addition to CampusBooks.com that can help you sell your books including eBay, Amazon.com, and even Half.com. CampusBooks.com provides an online price comparison which takes away most of the initial legwork associated with searching out the best price by showing what the buyers on other major websites are asking.
Enterprising students are also using Facebook.com, Craigslist.org, and MySpace.com to seek out buyers for their used books. This takes a little more effort, but you can save on shipping costs and commission. It’s also a win-win opportunity for both buyer and seller because you’ve eliminated the costly middleman.
Keep in mind that when you sell your books online you might only make a dollar or two more and you won’t have the instant gratification of trading in 20 pounds of books for $20 cash. Even if you make $30 rather than $20 you’ll still have to wait a week or two to get the money. That isn’t too convenient when you need money for dinner this weekend.
Many Schools have alternative or independent bookstores near campus. These bookstores will sometimes pay a higher price at buyback time to bring students through the doors. Occasionally these stores will have a website allowing students to easily look up their book’s buyback price. Best of all, you walk out the door counting your cash.
By: Dan Russell
What affects buyback prices?
Selling back your textbooks can be the silver lining of many long semesters. Sometimes you can never put that horrible Biology 101 class behind until you actually sell the book back after the final. That Bio class gets the last laugh however when your classmate standing in front of you sells her book back for $50 while you receive $5 for the exact same book. Typically the bookstore employee won’t be able to offer an explanation beyond, “I’m sorry that’s just what the system told me.†Truth be told when you get paid minimum wage you aren’t privy to the reasons behind the buyback variances. I however can let you know that the two biggest factors that affect buyback prices are timing and simple economic supply and demand.
The reason for the huge swing in buyback prices between one book and the next is pure supply and demand. The demand for that Bio book consists of 50 students next semester. This means that the bookstore will only pay a premium on the first 50 books that are sold back. Every book sold back after the 50th will unfortunately be at a greatly reduced price. Timing is key during buyback season. The earlier you are able to sell back your texts the more likely you are to fall within the Bookstore’s demand criteria. The more money you are going to make.
There is a far more important factor at work than timing. You can curse the people standing at the bookstore counter but they aren’t the ones setting the demand for next semester’s books. Most students don’t think about it, but it’s the professors who set the demand. The bookstores aren’t forcing you to buy that $300 Shakespeare Folio. The Instructors are the ones who put together the required text lists. Unfortunately, their students’ financial wellbeing isn’t usually on their minds when they do this.
The earlier a Professor is able to place his or her book order the more beneficial it is to the bookstore and subsequently to the students. In fact the Professor’s order is the single most important factor in establishing demand for textbooks across the country. If the bookstore knows that a specific textbook will be used the following the semester the buyback price can skyrocket. Again, the price is determined by the demand. If you want to make the most on your buybacks let your professors know how much you learned from the textbook and encourage them to reorder them quickly. Like students, most Instructors don’t think about next semester’s books until the end of the current semester.
By: Dan Russell
Learning about the textbook buyback process
Starting next week we are going to teach you all the things you need to know about the textbook buyback process. Our four part series will cover what affects the buyback prices, how to get the most from your books, what options you have and why the bookstore is not always the best option.
The real key in maximizing your textbook buyback potential is to make sure you are armed with the knowledge to make the right decision. Similar to making a big purchase, getting the most from your textbooks requires that you start early, do your research and know your options.
You may be asking yourself “what can I do now?†That answer is simple. Encourage your professor to let the bookstore know if they will be using the book again next semester. The most value for your book will come from your on campus bookstores when the book is being used again the next semester. While this will not guarantee you the maximum amount for your book it will greatly help the process.
As more and more articles are written about the high cost of textbooks what many experts fail to remind students is that in many cases the book does have value at the end of the semester. We have all heard the horror stories of paying $150 dollars and getting $15 back. But there are also students who got $50 to $75 for that same book.
Think of it like this. If I buy my book for $150 and sell it for $75 at the end of the semester I really just rented the textbook for $75. While the math will not always be this pretty, neither was getting that Wii that you are playing with. It requires a bit of effort, a desire and being smarter than the other students who are doing nothing more than standing in line.
So check back with us as we begin to explore how you can get the most of your textbooks this buyback season.
by: Jeff Cohen
No more guessing how much the buyback value will be
Few things in life are guaranteed. According to Ben Franklin and a long ago American History class the only guarantees in life are death and taxes. Thankfully after 200 plus years we can now add text buybacks to that illustrious list. More websites and even many bookstores are now offering guaranteed buybacks on certain texts they sell. The most notable of these is Textbooks.com.
Textbooks.com’s guaranteed buyback program is well established and can be quite beneficial for students. Qualifying books are easily identified on CampusBooks.com’s price comparison tool and students will know prior to the purchase if their book will be bought back and for exactly how much. This means no more buyback counter lotto where you can get anywhere from nothing to $100 on any given book.
The guarantee is ironclad as long as the student adheres to a couple of rules. The book must be returned within a specific time frame at the end of each semester. For the first semester this is December 31st; for the semesters ending May 31st books must be returned by June 30th. Textbook.com also provides a free shipping label to cover the costs. The book must also be returned in good condition. Which means no excessive highlighting, no ripped pages, and no water damager. All you need to do is take care of your book and get to the post office on time to guarantee yourself 50% of your purchase price.
Textbooks.com insists that you purchase a new copy to qualify for the buyback guarantee. As a result you might still save more money by purchasing a used copy and taking a chance at the buyback counter. This however can be a huge risk because it is always possible the book will resale for nothing on campus. I prefer the thought of money in the bank and guarantees help me to sleep well at night.
The World of Price Comparison
Textbooks are expensive. It is a fact if not a universal law. Thankfully in the 21st Century there are more options other than your campus bookstore. There are in fact dozens of options online where one can shop for the best price on their books. The same is true when it comes time to resell those books. For those who are excessively thorough it can take hours to surf through all of those sites in order to track 5your book titles.
Different PCTs (price comparison tools) will list different prices for the same website. For example, a copy of Biology (ISBN 080537146X) has a $20 dollar cost swing on Half.com according to two leading websites. Some websites list shipping costs, while others go a step further and list the costs of different shipping options. Some don’t list shipping costs at all requiring some extra work. Certain websites also list any website coupons or deals within the information about the book.
Campusbooks.com has a pretty incredible Price Comparison Tool. Campusbooks.com is dedicated to the textbook marketplace, and as a result invest tremendous resources to building and improving their PCT. It lists the leading web marketplaces—eBay, Half.com, eCampus, Textbooks.com, Barnes&Noble.com, and Amazon.com as well as a dozen others. The site goes on to break down the version of the text (New, Used, International, Rental, eBook or Teacher’s) and its lowest price. They offer a level of filtering that provides a tremendous amount of information on one page. They include everything from shipping price and availability to condition quality notes to coupons and merchant return policies. In a word, it’s extensive.
As always it pays off to be thorough. Nowadays thanks to Campusbooks.com and similar websites it takes far less time to be thorough and find the best textbook deals. The PCT’s are great but nothing is perfect. Take a little extra time and double check through the specific website, most will list comments regarding the buyer or seller. When that poorly rated seller is offering a too good to be true deal on that textbook it probably is.
Is Amazon my only option for textbooks?
Amazon.com is an amazing website. One can purchase just about anything on there . . . gardening supplies, clothing, furniture, electronics, books, and even textbooks. In fact more and more students are turning towards Amazon.com as a one-stop Internet shop for all their needs. And why not order your textbooks from there? It beats waiting in line at the bookstore. It beats having to carry them all across campus back to your room. And it’s usually far easier to find my books on Amazon.com also.
My friends, those are all excellent reasons. What too many people fail to realize though is that those reasons exist for every single online textbook company. Amazon.com has a lot of competition out there in the textbook marketplace. If one is interested in doing some real shopping one should explore more than one store. When you go to the mall do you only to one store? No, you go to a bunch. The Internet can be thought of as a mall where you don’t have to walk. Considering how much less time it takes to shop online it’s a no-brainer to check out some of the competition.
Of course it’s easy to think of Amazon.com and them alone. Their name is everywhere whether in the news, or advertising on TV and the Internet. If you want to buy something and run a Google search on it chances are Amazon.com will appear near the top. All that exposure drives business and often there are great bargains to be had on textbooks through amazon.com. But, as always I caution you to explore your options. At times you might be able to save hundreds of dollars by sourcing used textbooks on another site.
If the prospect of sourcing textbooks has you already bookmarking Amazon.com do not fret. Campusbooks.com has a price comparison tool that shows you the textbook price across a wide variety of websites including Amazon.com. Plus, it also explains any shipping costs and other fine print that may increase the price or wait time for the book. So, with little to no effort you’ve sourced your textbook across multiple websites and found the best price. Perhaps you should bookmark Campusbooks.com.
What is a used textbook and why would I want one?
Today’s entry is going to be short and to the point. In the most general sense a ‘Used Textbook‘ can be classified as any book that isn’t brand new. Now, why might you want one? Again it doesn’t take much insight into the world of textbooks to understand. Simply put, they are usually cheaper. Much like a car rolling off a lot, once that new textbook is purchased from the bookstore it immediately depreciates making it a bargain for the next owner. This is especially true if the original owner took good care of it, making sure to not rip any pages or disfigure the cover.
The used textbook while usually cheaper and thus a better value is not for everyone. More often than not the used book is pre-highlighted, with notes in the margins, and significant passages underlined. Some students are too distracted to follow along in a marked text. Some prefer to make their own notes and highlights. You never know, the book’s previous owner may have been an imbecile who simply liked to play with highlighters which invalidates all those notes. Campusbooks.com lists the conditions of used books within the seller’s comments when you perform a price comparison. This way you can make an informed decision when purchasing your text.
It is important to note that the used book is not ALWAYS the cheapest. On occasion a diligent student might be able to find an international edition or perhaps a teachers edition of the same book that has been further discounted. As always, it is best to do your research when buying your textbooks online.
