Best Resources to Buy and Sell used College Textbooks for students

Book Ends : Returning your texts to the bookstore is the least creative way to end a semester. 

Exams are finally over and it’s time to unload your used books. If you’re like most students, you’re probably dreading the moment of truth.

    You: Hello, good-looking bookstore associate! How are you today? Here are my used books and the receipts.

    Clerk: I’ll give you $20 for all of them, except those really heavy ones you lugged over here.

    You: But I paid $400 for them four months ago, and I never even opened them up!

    Clerk: Next in line, please.

We all know how bad it feels to end up with $20 in your pocket and a pile of heavy books at your feet. What now?

That depends on whether you want to make sure your books don’t go to waste, or whether you’re just concerned about getting your cash back.

Waste Not, Want Not
If you want to make sure your books are put to good use, you have lots of options. Plenty of students would be happy to use your books, no matter what condition they’re in. Professors often assign the same titles year after year and will be happy to pass your tomes on to students who later take the same class. The administrative assistant in your major department can also help you donate books to younger students in your field.

Textbook Tech
Having trouble selling your textbooks? Let the Internet sell them for you.

Some School-operated Sites
Some schools have Web-based book-selling programs which allow students to buy and sell books. Your school may have one you can use. If not, one listed below might come in handy. Check the system before you try another school’s electronic book-selling system, though; some sell only by course. Also remember the rate of mailing the book over long distances may not make a long-distance purchase worth your effort, even if you mail it by book rate.
Texas Tech University
University of Texas
Boston University

Other Sites
Yahoo! College Textbook Auction
Book Swap
EZ Books

Barnes and Noble - Online Bookstore. Features large selection, deep discounts, fast delivery, book reviews, and more. 
Bevo’s Bookstore - Purchase online or at one of their stores. 
BigWords.com - Online Bookstore. Simply put, we sell and rent new and used textbooks. We do our best to get whatever textbooks you need quickly, efficiently and at the lowest cost possible. 
Bookbyte - Bookbyte sells cheap textbooks in all subjects. Not only can you fill all your new and used college textbook needs with cheap textbooks, you’ll also be able to reach a live and knowledgeable customer service representative who can help you with any questions you may have. 
CollegeSmarts.com - A free textbook swap site that lets students buy, sell or trade their textbooks with other students, locally and nationwide. 
Direct Textbook - Find Cheap Used College Textbooks at Direct Textbook’s Engineering Textbooks website.  
StudentMarket.com - Quality products for college life and value pricing are only a click away. Relax … come on in, shop, and have some fun! 
TextForSale.com - TextForSale.com is a free resource for students across North America to buy, sell and compare new and used college textbooks in both a global or location specific environment. At TextForSale.com students can sell books to other students and compare the prices of books with our large selections of Online Merchants. 

Feeling ambitious? Consider setting up a library in your dorm common space or through an extracurricular organization. Get your friends to donate their books, too, and you’ll have a nice collection that others can add to (and take from) in future years. If all else fails, donate your books to your younger siblings or to your friends’ brothers and sisters.Another alternative is sending your books off-campus. A charitable group such as the Salvation Army or your local public library will come pick up your books and pass them along to someone who can use them. Adult literacy programs and senior centers are always looking for reading material, especially novels and short story collections that college bookstores usually won’t buy back anyway.

Some campuses sponsor book drives that make it easier to give books away. If yours doesn’t, consider planning one with a group of friends. First, find a group that will use the books for a good cause. Then find a friend with a car who can get the books there. Advertise on dorm bulletin boards, and you’ll probably end up with more books than you can handle!

Making Money
For those who need to squeeze some cash out of their books, my favorite tactic is to look far beyond the college bookstore. Bookstores near campus have a near-monopoly on used books, but those that are a half-hour’s drive away are hungry for used books to resell. I unloaded many of my books at a surplus bookstore in a strip mall in the Virginia suburbs, and got paid well. When used bookstores aren’t overwhelmed by college students, they’re usually willing to pay more.

A little deviousness can go a long way. If you don’t have a car, go to your campus bookstore when lines are the longest. If there’s a crowd waiting, the cashier might be less likely to notice the highlighter marks in the sixteenth book you’ve presented for inspection. You’re not going to strike it rich, but you may get a few more dollars back.

If you’re returning to campus in the fall, some planning now can save lots of time later. Get a reading list for your fall courses before you leave campus, or talk to someone who took the same classes already. Find out what they read. In classes where there’s one main textbook, it’s usually not worth buying the supplementary texts. But come fall, you’ll know what to check out of the library or don’t say who told you “skip reading altogether”

Feeling ambitious? Consider setting up a library in your dorm common space or through an extracurricular organization. Get your friends to donate their books, too, and you’ll have a nice collection that others can add to (and take from) in future years. If all else fails, donate your books to your younger siblings or to your friends’ brothers and sisters.

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