Advice re: reselling textbooks?

[mjacobson222]

Hi there,

I am interested in getting involved in the textbook resale business and would like to get advice from others who sell a good amount of textbooks.  If you sell a lot of (e.g. 1000+) textbooks per month and would be willing to chat with me, please message me!  Happy to compensate you for your time with a gift card.

Thanks!!
Molly

[retrose1]

Hi Molly,

I am going to give you a totally different take on what you are proposing.

A very dear friend of mine proofreads and checks textbooks for errors and so I have some knowledge you might need to know.

Textbooks are going online now.  It is to cut the cost down AND the fact that most textbooks are obsolete after one season due to everything in there for testing will end up online after the book is opened.

My friend edits the questions and problems in the same books evey year.  He says that one company is talking about doing it every semester to cut back of student cheating.  And they can't print a book fast enough for that so it's online now.

So if you are looking into used textbooks as a way to make a living - look into something else.  One local book store that specializes in textbooks got rid of their storage locker that has been behind their store for 10 years now.  That is a sign.

[pantlandia]

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@mjacobson222 wrote:

Hi there,

I am interested in getting involved in the textbook resale business and would like to get advice from others who sell a good amount of textbooks.  If you sell a lot of (e.g. 1000+) textbooks per month and would be willing to chat with me, please message me!  Happy to compensate you for your time with a gift card.

Thanks!!
Molly

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Many school only use a certain edition for a couple semesters. If you don't sell those ones right away, you are going to be left with nearly unsellable backstock.

[billythekid16]

College textbooks, from what I see, is the most volatile area of the book-selling business.

If you ever been a college student, you would know that once a new edition of a textbook is released, the old edition becomes very difficult to resell.

However, an old edition is not immediately worthless yet... if your local college gets a new edition, then yes, its worthless on that campus. But other colleges and universities around the nation may still be using the old edition for perhaps one more semester, so the chances of reselling it may not be zero, but time is NOT on your side.

I had sold numerous used textbooks, and a few new textbooks, on eBay over the years. The newest edition can sell in literally minutes. Older editions will take a long time to find a buyer or the right book collector if you are lucky.

[sockmonkeydave]

@mjacobson222

Nope, don't even try....

Text books are the biggest scam at university... they "change" every semester.

That is the "edition" changes every year.

And the book stores put the new one on the shelf, 

often there is no change at all.

( former teacher at SIU.... it's a well known scam, to part students and their money.

[18704d]

And don't forget with Paypal, a student could "rent" your textbook for free

with a 180 day return window.

Pay, use it for the class, then get a total return / refund.

fwiw,

Lynn

[emerald40]

As a parent who has gone through this 3 times., most kids now rent their textbooks rather than buy them.  Much, much cheaper way to go.

[sockmonkeydave]

@emerald40

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@emerald40 wrote:

As a parent who has gone through this 3 times., most kids now rent their textbooks rather than buy them.  Much, much cheaper way to go.

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Not every U has a rental program these days.

Most require you to buy the books, and then get cents back, when you sell them back.

[emerald40]

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@sockmonkeydave wrote:

@emerald40

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@emerald40 wrote:

As a parent who has gone through this 3 times., most kids now rent their textbooks rather than buy them.  Much, much cheaper way to go.

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Not every U has a rental program these days.

Most require you to buy the books, and then get cents back, when you sell them back.

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True, but from the time my first went to college and my third, many more were offering it.

[18704d]

"Not every U has a rental program these days.

Most require you to buy the books, and then get cents back, when you sell them back."

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Yep,

You pay $125.00 for the book, but they only offer you $7.50 because

you have the 4th Edition and the next semester required the 5th Edition.

.. and the only difference between the two, is the cover art.

And let's not forget when the Professor of the class, demands His or Her textbook is the required textbook.  (they made a grad student ghost write it for them)

.. and it can even be an eBook!  (no printing costs)

Nothing like doubling your pay by textbook sales...

Been there, done that,

Lynn

[craftysandy1961]

Perhaps not every University does, but Amazon does textbook rental as well. Plus I think that MOST universities do or will start. My high school student rented from the local community college bookstore when he did a dual credit course. This is a small community college with no more than a few thousand students. He's now at University of Arkansas and can rent virtually any book.

Unfortunately, I think that the other posters are right -- this is not a good time to get into selling textbooks unless you are acquiring them for virtually nothing and they are the latest edition. Then I would suggest selling them on Amazon because when buying books for my kids, I take the ISBN number and put it in Amazon and buy it there.

[retrose1]

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@18704d wrote:

"Not every U has a rental program these days.

Most require you to buy the books, and then get cents back, when you sell them back."

----------

Yep,

You pay $125.00 for the book, but they only offer you $7.50 because

you have the 4th Edition and the next semester required the 5th Edition.

.. and the only difference between the two, is the cover art.

And let's not forget when the Professor of the class, demands His or Her textbook is the required textbook.  (they made a grad student ghost write it for them)

.. and it can even be an eBook!  (no printing costs)

Nothing like doubling your pay by textbook sales...

Been there, done that,

Lynn

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Nope.  I don't know how long ago you have dealt with textbooks, but since the internet exploded, colleges have had to change textbooks on a regular basis because everything in it, in many classes, is posted to the net for the next class of students to cheat with.

My friend is a physics professor, he has worked at Fermi and has stuff on the Mars Rover.  Right now, he is writing the solutions and answer key for the new set of problems for the new physics textbook by the company he does part time work for.  He does it every year, because every year they need new textbooks that have new problems because the problems in the old one are on the net.

This is for the education of the students and a load of work for the professors who have to review the new books every year to stay on top of things.  Many professors insist on a certain book not because they get a kickback, but because it teaches in the direction the professor wants to go.  There was a professor at one of the colleges a friend went to that taught sociology not to educate the students, but to convert them to become vegetarians.  And he picked a book that reflected that.  A physics book that is being used at a tech college needs to be different than a physics book being taught at MIT

Ebooks are easier and cheaper, but they still cost money to create every year.

[sockmonkeydave]

@craftysandy1961 @mjacobson222 @retrose1 @18704d

Oh.... the stories a monkey could tell....

Setting in the hall waiting for a chem test.

Guy walks up and says is this chem 201 test day ?

He was taking the test for a student.

The student newspaper has ads for term papers pre written.

The frats have copies of every test from the last 50 years.

Some teachers give the odd number questions as homework from the book.

Then use the even ones as test questions.

I made Deans list every semester of my time at school.

And that was starting with a previous GPA of .001

( I had a bad go with my first attempt... but I did meet a grad student,

She was the first real woman I kissed...40 years later... I remember her touch )

It's a poem, that I keep private.

I need to buy a new FAR ( federal aviation regulation book )

So I will be at the U book store soon.

[fuzzface50]

Last week i clicked thru a link on the front page of my computer about what will be disappearing in the near future and textbooks was on the list. 

anyways anyone that is doing well selling textbooks probably won't be too helpful unless they are getting out of it because why should they help add competition?

[pantlandia]

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@craftysandy1961 wrote:
Perhaps not every University does, but Amazon does textbook rental as well. Plus I think that MOST universities do or will start. My high school student rented from the local community college bookstore when he did a dual credit course. This is a small community college with no more than a few thousand students. He's now at University of Arkansas and can rent virtually any book.

Unfortunately, I think that the other posters are right -- this is not a good time to get into selling textbooks unless you are acquiring them for virtually nothing and they are the latest edition. Then I would suggest selling them on Amazon because when buying books for my kids, I take the ISBN number and put it in Amazon and buy it there.

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Amazon and about 5 other sites do rentals.