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Does anyone have a ton of books? New $ stream!

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  1. #1
    Oldbarnz started this thread.
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    Does anyone have a ton of books? New $ stream!

    Not sure where this one goes, please move it if it goes somewhere else.....
    Always looking for ideas to make extra money when prices are down, does anyone else sell books?
    Similar to sellers for E-waste on here, i found a company that sends you a shipping label in advance. I've been using powells.com and getting $50-100 a month with a little extra time spent.
    Up at the top of their site click on "Sell Your Books" I believe, then choose "Sell Online". You enter ISBN numbers off the book in the box and they will tell you how much they will pay you (either store credit or via PayPal). Not a quick return, it usually takes 3 weeks or so. Not great for old books and they have to be in great condition to count, but I find books all the time by the boxfull. Sometimes I can even score them for a quarter at yard sales or thrift stores and sell them for a buck or two. They are located in Portland, OR and they buy at their store as well.

    So give it a try! Let me know if you win big!

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  3. #2
    parttimescrapperMD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oldbarnz View Post
    Not sure where this one goes, please move it if it goes somewhere else.....
    Always looking for ideas to make extra money when prices are down, does anyone else sell books?
    Similar to sellers for E-waste on here, i found a company that sends you a shipping label in advance. I've been using powells.com and getting $50-100 a month with a little extra time spent.
    Up at the top of their site click on "Sell Your Books" I believe, then choose "Sell Online". You enter ISBN numbers off the book in the box and they will tell you how much they will pay you (either store credit or via PayPal). Not a quick return, it usually takes 3 weeks or so. Not great for old books and they have to be in great condition to count, but I find books all the time by the boxfull. Sometimes I can even score them for a quarter at yard sales or thrift stores and sell them for a buck or two. They are located in Portland, OR and they buy at their store as well.

    So give it a try! Let me know if you win big!
    Powell's is an awesome book store in Portland. I have been there a few times. It is cool that they buy books online. I'll have to check them out.
    Thanks for the tip.

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    nutpie's Avatar
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    Sell Textbooks | Sell Books | Sell Used Books | Sell Textbooks Online. Gives a list of several buyers and what they will pay. Immediately

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  7. #4
    Oldbarnz started this thread.
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    I like BookScouter.com too! I prefer Powells because it is a one box shipment, it's prepaid and I can enter 20+ ISBN numbers at a time. College Textbooks are so insane pricewise...definitely shop around if you find those!

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    ItAllAddsUp's Avatar
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    Been selling on Amazon since about 1997. They would email me a want list in the category I specialize in, I would tell them what I had and the price and then they would mail me a physical check for me to send them in. Crazy. I still do several grand a month in book sales with them, a lot via the FBA program.

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    ItAllAddsUp - Who is "they". And do they accept your price or do they negotiate?

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    just tried the powells site and entered 20 books and they only wanted to buy one for $1. lol

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    You did better than me.I entered 25 and they were all rejected.

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    Oldbarnz started this thread.
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    Books really have to relatively recent or in a particular niche. That's why I have luck with thrift stores, library sales, and such. I think yard sale books sit around a long time before they go back into circulation. I usually put in 20 ISBN numbers and hit on 3-5. In the beginning it was more like one per twenty. I kind of have a feel for it as I do it regularly. Stuff that has target price tags seem to do well, so do anything currently on TV like Game of Thrones or Outlander, seasonal things, and new age stuff. Here's what I got this week searching for a little over an hour: Two newer Nora Roberts, an Outlander series book, two Bill Bryson books (outdoorsy), two Malcolm Gladwell books, four mystery novels with Kmart stickers, two books on modern Christianity, and 10 others for about a quarter each. I spent five bucks and change. Powells offer: $32.25, minus cost and a short drive= $22 an hour. Probably searched 80-100 ISBN numbers.

    Kids books have to be really new hardbacks or popular series. Stephen King, Danielle Steele (scrappers' favorite), romance, and mass produced stuff is almost always a zero.
    Last edited by Oldbarnz; 09-26-2015 at 12:14 AM.

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    I've been selling books as a side market for over a year now. Mainly it has been on eBay, due to crazy situation I went through with Amazon (I will never use them again). I have a steady stream of relatively new (unused) textbooks. I already knew what to expect with the online buyers, but thought I would try anyway. Sure enough, they made me an offer for my books for 3% of what I can sell them for online. Not to say some people wont find this to be a great service, but you would be better off selling online anyway...more $$$.

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    I've been using bookscouter for years, scanning the newer looking college textbooks I find in thrift stores. It's netted me at least a couple G's over the past 2 years alone. Highly recommended, especially with scrap prices being what they are nowadays...

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    I actually made money a few times buying and selling the required textbooks for my engineering degree. That was a nice post finals bonus.

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    Little late to the party, but I sell a lot of books on Amazon and eBay. My Amazon account got shut down for whatever reason, so I am in the process of recieving all 300-400 books left I have that were sitting at Amazons warehouses. But now I have most of my books on eBay, close to 400 and listing as much as I can every day. I am selling a few every day, and hopefully my sales will grow as I Continue to list more and more every day.

    Funny thing is I go dumpster diving every week at a few used book stores and fill up my car.

    I also plan on building a few shelving units in my basement to help store all the books.

    Cheers

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    I have gone thru 316 books and found 1 worth 3.29 and 1 worth .25 I guess I have to fin a lot better than what I have been finding.

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    Quote Originally Posted by tsmith53149 View Post
    Little late to the party, but I sell a lot of books on Amazon and eBay. My Amazon account got shut down for whatever reason, so I am in the process of recieving all 300-400 books left I have that were sitting at Amazons warehouses. But now I have most of my books on eBay, close to 400 and listing as much as I can every day. I am selling a few every day, and hopefully my sales will grow as I Continue to list more and more every day.

    Funny thing is I go dumpster diving every week at a few used book stores and fill up my car.

    I also plan on building a few shelving units in my basement to help store all the books.

    Cheers
    How much does shipping cost cut into your profits?

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    Quote Originally Posted by justdon View Post
    How much does shipping cost cut into your profits?
    I use Media Mail which is $2.72/ for the first pound. If the book is a little heavier I'll jack up my price a little bit to cover for the extra postage due. But using the eBay fees calculator and factoring in paypal fees I'm making around 50 cents a book for one that sells for $3.97. And I have no store, but tomorrow I plan on making one so I'll make a little more.

    Back when I was selling on Amazon I was using an app on my smartphone called FBAscan. It told me how much I would make after fees, cost of goods if I were to buy books at thrift stores. Since I was selling them mainly through Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) they charged the rates they get through UPS, and it came down to around 30 cents a pound to send a box of books to a few different Amazon warehouses.

    Hope that helped :P

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    I aways find books thanks

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    Just thought I would revive this thread. I just sent off my second shipment to Sellbackyourbook.com. The books I get usually come from storage units I buy at auction.



    The first shipment I made was in May. I sent them 9 books and received $15.20. Today I just packed up a box of 16 books and will receive a check for $37.08.

    I had to go through 3 small plastic totes of books to find the 16 I could sell. But it took less than an hour, so that is pretty good money for the trouble. They pay the shipping. I also found a rare book that may be worth over $100. It has no ISBN even though it was published in 91. It was only given to secret service members. I could only find one copy for sale on Amazon and none on ebay. Pretty cool, but I'm not sure just yet how to sell that one.

    Had a yard sale yesterday and had some books there to sell for fifty cents a piece. Didn't sell a single one. I have started looking at books that other people sell at yard sales but it seems that most are too old (textbooks) to be worth anything.

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