So the semester is over and you have a handful of books you don’t need anymore. The thing most college students decide to do is sell back the books. In some cases, the book store where they purchased them will buy them back but sometimes there are certain editions of books they don’t buy back. Not to worry, there are a few avenues you can use when trying to make back some cash on your books.
The first choice many students use is selling the books directly back to the book store where they bought them. As we all know, college book stores are full of used books students have sold back from previous semesters which are then resold a little cheaper than the brand new books. Some book stores have a buy back period where you will get the most money for your books. However, none of them are going to refund you the full price you paid for the book at the beginning of the semester. The most I’ve been known to get was half the price I’d originally paid. In most cases, you won’t even get paid that much. Some students have received as little as five dollars back for a book that initially cost them fifty. For those who had financial aid book vouchers cover their book expenses, they might not mind not getting full price back for their used books. However, for those students who paid out of pocket, this unfair exchange stings a bit more.
So what if you don’t want to go the book store route? Well you can sell your books directly to students. There will always be students who are taking classes you took before, especially the general education courses such as English, mathematics, and science. Post flyers up around campus on your school’s bulletin boards. The only thing you have to do is sell them a bit cheaper than the book store does. If you sell an eighty dollar book for fifty or sixty dollars, at least you would’ve made most of your money back and the student you sold it too would have saved some money.
Another way some students choose to sell their books is through an online outlet such as ebay or amazon.com. This is good because many students trying to avoid the high prices of the school book store shop online for their books. You probably won’t make as much as you would selling them directly to students on campus, but you can still make more than you would have at the book store. This is especially true if they refused to buy it back altogether. Perhaps your school will no longer be using that edition of the book, but if you sell it online more than likely someone else will need it.
If all else fails and you just want to get rid of the books, you can always donate them to the library. Choosing this option won’t net you any profit, but it will be helpful to those students who may have a hard time buying all of their books. Many come in the library to use the books in order to complete their course work.
The most lucrative option would most likely be selling your books directly to students but all of these options are good ways to get rid of your unwanted books.
