Selling Books

[karice2]

Does anyone have any recommendations for selling fiction books. I have a bunch that I want to get rid of as part of my decluttering process. I have all kinds, mostly fiction. Lots of hardbacks and a bunch of different series. I have tried a couple of different routes. Some of them are a little older so a lot of them won't bring in a ton of money but I would be willing to sell them in bulk.

Here is what I have tried so far.

Abebooks
Amazon - lots of competitors so not really worth listing to hold onto them in case they sell.
Swagbucks - hoping to get swagbucks for the trade in.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[starwood]

half.com

 

[phillmolly]

IME, books are very hard to sell, even at yard sales it is hard to get more than 50 cents for a hardcover. When I got rid of all my old books, about 1,000 of them, I donated them to the local libaray, made sure I got a reciept, and claimed them on my taxes, I was able to claim a dollar a book.

 

[Brandi1leigh]

If you have a half price books near you, they will buy them.

Like Swagbucks, Amazon has a Buy Back program. They advertise it for textbooks only, but there are tons of fiction books in the program.

Ebay. You can list the books separately or in groups (by author or genre, etc).

Most of the time, you won't get a lot of money for any book. But some is better than none.

 

[Maybelle]

If you are interested in gettin new books to read to replace the ones you are getting rid of, you may want to check out a book swaps site like Paperbackswap, Book mooch, title trader, or swap tree.

I have found that I can get more in a tax deduction for donating books to a local charity than I can in trying to sell them.

 

[chris31997]

I would second the thought of donating them and getting the receipt. I'm sure shelters, Ronald McDonald House, Fisher House, hospital, library, or thrift stores will take them.

 

[Ioansgirl]

I don't know if this will apply to you but may help someone else.

you could try facultybooks.com it's for textbooks but I have found they take other books as well. You don't have to be faculty to sell the books just need a college email addresss (.edu). They will send you boxes to send your books in and you can print off a free shipping form. I always sell my books this way.

 

[SFWife]

i sell my hardbacks on ebay. I list them starting at .99 plus shipping. Some sell at only that, but many sell for 2-7 dollars, depending on how popular they are. Beats selling at a garage sale and I always get more off there than at half price books.

 

[bethk78]

I would avoid selling them off individually because individual shipping can devour your profit. Book lots seem to do well on eBay, especially by one author or series as you mentioned. You can do an advanced search of completed listings to see how an author is selling. Be sure to include the author name, series if applicable, and the word LOT in the title. And ship large lots of books via Media Mail to save on shipping.

I just saw a 135 lot of Sweet Valley High books sell for $510! Wish those were mine.

 

[SFWife]

I would avoid selling them off individually because individual shipping can devour your profit. Book lots seem to do well on eBay, especially by one author or series as you mentioned. You can do an advanced search of completed listings to see how an author is selling. Be sure to include the author name, series if applicable, and the word LOT in the title. And ship large lots of books via Media Mail to save on shipping.

I just saw a 135 lot of Sweet Valley High books sell for $510! Wish those were mine.

I charge appropriate shipping on my ebay listings so there's no loss of profit on that aspect. I do sell series and author books in groups for more profit though.

Sweet Valley High...I think I read all of those...at least a couple of times! Oh the memories of those! I wouldn't pay 500 dollars for them but I'd love to see a whole set of them again!

 

[bethk78]

I charge appropriate shipping on my ebay listings so there's no loss of profit on that aspect. I do sell series and author books in groups for more profit though.

Sweet Valley High...I think I read all of those...at least a couple of times! Oh the memories of those! I wouldn't pay 500 dollars for them but I'd love to see a whole set of them again!

It seems like it would be really tough to make any profit selling used fiction individually for the majority of used fiction anyway. I wouldn't pay more than $4 for a used book so I'm not sure how much that leaves a seller if I only bought one book at that price. Isn't 1lb Media Mail shipping over $2? Plus all the eBay & PayPal fees, shipping supplies, your time, etc. I can see how selling in lots would be more beneficial.

I used to buy used books on eBay but have switched to Amazon w/ Prime - love getting a used book for $2 or $3 bucks shipped to my door in two days. Prime is pretty expensive but with the wide range of things we buy throughout the year, it's a nice convenience.

I liked Sweet Valley High too but if I owned a large set and saw I could get $500 I'd sell them. We're working on becoming debt-free and that's a nice chunk of change.