Does anyone on CC have ideas when it comes to selling books? We are putting our house on the market, and I have - literally - hundreds of books. I am looking to cut my collection at least 75%.
We have some text books too, but nothing valuable (at least I don’t think we do). We have been homeschooling for 9 years so as you can imagine I have multiple copies of classic literature, etc.
We have a used book store near me, but I’m not sure what they give you (probably not much).
I have an ebay account but never use it. I’m also wondering if selling on Amazon is worth it, and how hard it is to get started.
I wish there was some easy place to send my books for money, sort of like mailing in your gold. I have some good stuff that’s worth something probably; not looking to make lots though. And I can’t bear to just throw my books in the recycle bin or trash can. Venal sin at our house.
In addition to selling some, you could also donate some and take a tax deduction. There is a local used book store run by a non profit and I took some books to them and was given a receipt . Important to itemize any number of books you donate.
We were selling a lot of books on Amazon, a collection, but these are specialty history books, the sort academics would want. Unfortunately, the commonly available books often sell for a pittance on Amazon, the prices can be a dollar or less, and there’s a ton available.
The library will like anything they can sell. And nowadays, it feels especially good to support them.
So take a few books you think might be in demand for a good price and look them up on Amazon (you can use the ISBN number, match it to the photo and hard vs paperback,) see how many are offered and what price, then the Amazon fees and how shipping works. Right now, we don’t sell anything less than $7, it’s not worth the effort. Last, Amazon is strict about how quickly you ship, how accurately you state condition, and buyer feedback- the idea is that it’s a real marketplace. Many booksellers are checking daily and then put their lists on hold, if they go away. And so on. Sorry.
My experience has also been that unless you have something really valuable, trying to sell used books is more trouble than the possible return. I sold some to a local store, but I’m pretty sure that I didn’t get much more (and maybe less) than the tax deduction I would have received for donating then to the local library used book sale. Selling them online would be even more trouble.
Powell’s bookstore in Portland has a place on their website where you can enter the ISBN# and they will tell you if they’ll take it and how much they’ll pay. It’s fairly labor intensive. They pay shipping I believe.
I addition to donating to libraries for book sales or non profit book stores, there could be some places that could use the books for their students or residents. For instance, when my kids had outgrown a lot of their kids’ books, I took a bunch (about a hundred) over to their old elementary school ( a very diverse city school with lots of low income kids). Kids could pick a book to take home. If you have some kind of neighborhood email list, you could put a bunch of books outside (in good weather of course) and let people know there are free books available. I sold some books years ago in a yard sale . Didn’t get much money for them but people seemed glad to buy them for cheap.
Selling books is impossible. We are taking our primarily brand new books to the Public Library and getting receipt for the tax return. We have been doing it for several years. We still have tons of books.
This. I’ve tried selling books (to a local - and well-known - used book store) and donating books, and I much prefer the latter. The values for books that you get from entering the ISBN number into on-line databases are often high, and they always depend on the condition and/or edition of the book.
Good luck! I routinely cull my books and I almost always donate them to my library now.
I like this outfit, in that for every book bought on the site, they donate one to someone/ organization in need; by collecting and selling, they have donated millions to literacy programs…and they keep tons of books out of landfills.
Goskid got many of her college books thru them.
You can also sell textbooks here. I believe they have some drop sites in South Florida.
You can list them on Half.com, and it is free to list as many as you want. They can sit for awhile before they sell though. My D had a bunch of novels she needed for her classes and I bought them all there super cheap. It is affiliated with Ebay.
We homeschooled all the way through as well so I know what you are dealing with. A local homeschool group has a huge used curriculum sale once a year. I wasn’t a member but it was open to everyone. They kept a percentage but I did much better there than I could have anywhere else. I’ve also donated to the library and Better World Books.
I donated and took the tax deduction when downsizing. Used ItsDefuctible to value them. Note that there is a limit for donations like that in a year (I think they are part of the household goods category). It was $5,000 last year, and if you go over that you need to have the goods appraised. Nice books add up fast if you have a lot of them – those with other donations took me to $5K last year, and I ended up donating some stuff without the deduction.
My D sells her used college textbooks and recently sold some high school books she no longer wanted (not textbooks, literature mostly). She sold maybe 6-8 of them recently for like $20. Company pays shipping.
That said, I personally donate my books, or just give them away to people directly. When I sold the house I was in for 15 years, I put all the kids’ books (less the dozen or so I kept for sentimental reasons) on the porch with a big “FREE” sign during the yard sale I had to get rid of larger items. Kids and parents had a blast going through them. It was fun.
If there’s a 2nd and Charles near you, they take books and other types of media (records, DVDs, CDs, etc) in exchange for cash or store credit. You get more if you pick store credit, and they don’t take textbooks, but we’ve found it to be fairly convenient. Anything they don’t want to sell they put in a free bin outside, so you can get rid of everything all at once.
http://2ndandcharles.com shows only one location in FL, so perhaps not a viable option for OP, however
The guy at my recycling center pays 10 cents a pound for non-fiction, and sells them online somehow. He says he can’t make any money at all on fiction.
I used to make pretty good money on barely used brand new hardcover fiction right after the release of the book (that is, I bought it, read it, and didn’t want to keep it but it was within days to weeks of its release). I would always price it a bit lower than the other used copies on Amazon and I got a pretty good return. Otherwise-- nope, not worth it; donate instead. Sometimes I let my daughter take books to our local used store and she can keep the money-- it’s worth it to me not to have to do the legwork.
I have some good stuff that’s worth something probably; not looking to make lots though. And I can’t bear to just throw my books in the recycle bin or trash can. Venal sin at our house. 
