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Step 1
Sell them during August or September, right before the new school year starts. Even if your semester class ended in December and a new section will start up again in January, you will get a better price for the books at the beginning of fall semester.
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Step 2
Post your used books for sale online, on sites like Amazon, Craigslist, or other textbook exchange sites. Set your prices high, but fair. Don't feel pressured to match someone's low ball prices. Your books may not sell as fast, but if your price is fair, someone will buy it before classes start.
Never sell it back to a campus bookstore, or a to book buyer on the street who sets up shop at the end of the semester. Their offers are the worst! -
Step 3
Maintain the condition of your textbooks while using them for class. Don't write on the book, use it as a coaster, or fail to put a cover on it. Simple covers made of paper grocery bags are one of the easiest ways to keep your textbooks in good shape.
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Step 4
Repair damage whenever you can. A spot of glue can fix binding problems; a rubber eraser can restore penciled pages. If you turn "fair" into "good," or "good" into "excellent," you can actually turn a profit.
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Step 5
Sell solutions sets with your textbooks. If you have correct solutions to many of the exercises, this is value added. You can negotiate a much higher price for used textbooks with this extra. Just make sure they are correct solutions, or else you will get bad seller feedback.
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Step 6
If yours is the second most recent edition, and there is not much difference between the two editions, don't be shy about advertising it. Many students are reluctant to buy a previous edition, unless they know it is virtually the same. This way, you can sell the previous edition for almost the same price as when you bought it.
