How to Sell Used Books Online

Selling used books can be profitable if you know what you're doing.

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Do you have books sitting around your house and collecting dust? Would you like to turn those books into money? Read on for a list of tips that will help you sell used books online.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Step 1

FICTION BESTSELLERS

First, let me save you some trouble. You might assume that fiction bestsellers would be a goldmine, right? Wrong. Because they're massed produced, these books won't bring much, if anything. So leave your John Grisham and Danielle Steele books alone for now and focus on other, more profitable books.
Step 2

COLLECTIBLE BOOKS

You might do well do put older, more collectible books on eBay. Do your research first to see if a book you have is sought after. Read the 'How to Find Out What Will Sell on eBay' article under the resources section below.

If you do decide to list on eBay, use an auction listing, which might generate a bidding war.
Step 3

CURRENT BOOKS

For more current books, Amazon is the place to be. You can harness the power of this book-selling giant and become a seller with them. It's free to create a seller account and it's free to list. You only owe Amazon if your book sells and they take a percentage of the sales price.

Listing on Amazon is easy too. There are no pictures to take or lengthy descriptions to write.
Step 4

TEXTBOOKS

Don't overlook textbooks, which can often bring significant money. More recent books will bring the most, so don't sit on these too long. Again, Amazon or another similar online seller, is likely to be the best sales venue for these books.
Step 5

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Children's books are popular and can be good money-makers. If the book is old and collectible, follow the instructions under Step 2 above.

More recent children's books do particularly well as lots (sets) on eBay. Children's books that do well in lots are Dr. Seuss books, American Girl books, and series books, like Goosebumps. Newbery and Caldecott award winning books also do well in lots.
Step 6

COOKBOOKS

Don't overlook cookbooks when selling online. Older cookbooks can be quite sought after, particularly Betty Crocker cookbooks. Newer cookbooks by celebrity chefs will also do well. And those spiral bound church and community cookbooks that you didn't think were worth anything do surprisingly well in lots.

eBay seems to be a good market for collectible cookbooks and cookbooks sold in lots. Again, follow the method outlined in the article under 'Resources' below to see what will be a good seller. Celebrity cookbooks and other individual cookbooks might do just as well on Amazon.
Step 7

See more resources for selling used books online under the 'Resources' section below.

Comments

janellephant said

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on 2/4/2009 oh my god! finally. I have over thirty books that are all in almost perfect condition, and I don't re-read books. Thank you so so so so much! =]

bookcollector23 said

on 1/20/2009 I have over 400 used books for sale!~

katra1 said

on 8/13/2008 Thanks for the info about BookScouter.

on 8/3/2008 Also worth mentioning is BookScouter.com, which is especially useful for textbooks, but is also useful for selling most any type of book. BookScouter.com compares prices from about 30 different book-buying websites so you can be sure that you are getting the most competitive price for your book. Most of these websites provide pre-paid shipping labels, so there is no cost to ship the books to them.

When you take into account the significant fees (around 20%) that Amazon or Half.com or other sites charge, you can often find a better deal (and fewer hassles) by selling your books directly to one of these sites.