Sell back textbooks – when is the best time?

May 27th, 2011

As the year ends, people often ask us when is the best time to sell back textbooks?

Well, at first we thought we should go into an in-depth discussion about supply and demand economics.  Of course we slept through that class as well, so that would not really help out this discussion about selling used books for cash.  However, there are a few things that will definitely alter the value of the used textbook you are hoping to we will buy back for mad summer cash.

  1. Do you still have the required CD, DVD, or other possible supplemental materials with your school book?
  2. Is the book in great condition, or did you forget to highlight on two pages, or perhaps dropped it in a fish bowl?
  3. Is this book still going to be in high demand next year, or is a new textbook edition about to be released?
  4. How many of these books have already been sold – is the market flooded?

Unfortunately, you as a college student really only have control over the first two items.  So we recommend trying to limit highlighting in your books to less than 25% of pages or else you are not likely to find a textbook buy back company willing to purchase your used book; however, you might find another student willing to pay for your artistry.  Also, don’t lose or break those required CDs – your music appreciation textbook is not really worth much to us or anyone else with the seven required CDs missing or broken into pieces.  The other factors (supply and demand) are really in the hands of the textbook publishers, campus book stores, and of course your professors.

Sell Back Textbooks

Sell Back Textbooks early for the most cash.

Okay, so you Mr. College Student, has kept your book in good condition and wondering when might be the best time to sell back textbooks for cash?  Well,  we reviewed some of our data, through it into the calcujumbulator and will give you the highlights after reviewing intensive ISBN buyback data.  Our conclusions, are as follows:

  1. Supply is related to demand: In other words, as more and more students are selling back books the buyback prices go down.
  2. The sooner the better: The last week of April, into the first couple weeks of May saw increasing buyback price quote generation and subsequently lower and lower cash buyback prices for your books.  The early bird definitely gets the cash book worm.
  3. When we fill up, the cash stops: As our quota for a given ISBN was reached we stopped offering buyback quotes for that ISBN.

Final thoughts: Sell early for the best used book buyback cash.  Remember, you can get a quote before you are done with your school book, but we still want that hot little textbook in our hands within two weeks, or we will have to give a new buyback price because supply is rapidly increasing as the season progresses.  As supply increases, it means less demand, and therefore lower cash prices for your used books to sell us.

With a little bit of careful timing you can sell back textbooks early for the highest cash price.

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Where to Sell Back Textbooks? We buy old Textbooks

April 9th, 2011

If you sell back textbooks, it can be a great way to get cash quickly, but where is the best place that buys old textbooks?

Sell Back Textbooks

Sell Back Textbooks

Finding a good place to sell back textbooks can be the difference between eating pizza or rice and beans for dinner.  Getting cash for textbooks is one of the easiest ways to save on college costs. The cost of an education has been steadily increasing and the high prices for textbooks are rising even faster.

The traditional college model for purchasing college textbooks has always involved an on-campus bookstore. Students had little to no say in where they purchased their textbooks. Because of a lack of competition, textbook prices soared and students ended up paying substantial amounts of money for books that shouldn’t have been that expensive. Many companies on the internet began offering online book sales, with reduced prices in comparison to the in school book store.  So if you are buying books be sure to get a price comparison when buying textbooks online – our comparison shows you textbook rental prices as well.

When buying textbooks online it is important that you pay attention to what edition you are buying online. Textbooks go through numerous revisions as the years go by, and having one with different problem sets than what you need for Algebra would be problematic.   Pay attention at your local bookstore because often times they just slap on a big white label claiming the book is the newest edition when it is not, they may also do this with an instructors or international edition.  Also, international versions of your textbooks do usually exist and it’s important to check to make sure they are identical to what you will need for class.  By making sure you are buying the right textbook edition you will save money and hassle by having to find the right book to buy online, or trying to return the first textbook you bought online.

Many students now put their used textbooks up for sale online after they have “enjoyed” the book for one semester and now need to try and sell back textbooks for cash.  Hopefully, there is not a new textbook edition that has been released or the used school book could now be worthless, at least at their local college bookstore.  However, in this day be sure to always check online with textbook buy back companies who have a national focus and will likely be buying back your textbooks.  If you are attempting to sell back textbooks on venues like Amazon of Half.com remember, they are going to charge a 15% commission plus all sorts of other fees.  What does that mean?  Well let’s say a textbook buy back company is offering you $45.00 for your college textbook.  That means you need to expect to make at least 25% more (on top of the 15% you will have shipping and packaging costs), or sell back your textbook for at least $56.25 not to mention potential customer service headaches.  You might also consider trying to sell back textbooks to local college students that might need the book next semester, but if the summer is approaching you might not be able to find any buyers.

If you sell back textbooks online it is fast and easy.

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Sell Back Used Books for Cash with ISBN Buyback

March 27th, 2011

Sell Back Books

Sell Back Books

Sell Back Books for Cash quickly with an ISBN Buyback Search:

You can sell back books for cash whether they are new or used, not just sell back textbooks for cash.  So today we want to talk about a few more things to remember when selling back books for cash.

  1. Usually, the best way to get the best buy back price for your used book is to conduct an ISBN buyback search.  The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique identifier for books, kind of like a social security number.  It was originally, a nine digit book number created in 1966 at Trinity College in Dublin.  This became the 10 digit book label created by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was published in 1970 and was the standard until it became necessary to change to the 13 digit ISBN in January of 2007 due to a shortage of ISBNs.  In fact, once the “978″ prefixes are exhausted they will become “979″ as is already planned.  The 13 digit ISBN, also know as EAN, contains information about the published country, group, publisher, title, and a check digit.  You will also occasionally see numbers after the ISBN which contain original list price information.  The ISBN can usually be found on the back of a textbook, but sometimes college bookstores will paste incorrect labels over older editions, instructor, examination, and even international editions.  While the content is often the same, the book is truly not the same and most used book sell back companies are very strict about you sending them the ISBN buyback you received on the quote they provided to you.
  2. Make sure when you sell back books they meet our condition guidelines – this information can be found in our help section under, “You only take books in “Good” or better condition.  What exactly is good condition?”  We constantly get books that have broken bindings, water damage, or textbooks that have markings and highlighting on every single page.  If your college bookstore refused to buy your textbook because of condition, sell back book companies, including us, certainly will not buy it back either.  Also remember, we will not send back books that do not meet our condition guidelines – they will be recycled if possible.
  3. When you sell back books double-check the book your are selling back for cash is actually the buy back quote we are offering, and that it meets our condition guidelines.  The next thing is log into your existing account, or create a new, and remember we allow you to use your Facebook credentials for easy check-in.  Decide if you want to be paid by check or paypal – if you decide you want your payment via check – please make sure your payment address is correct.  Remember, we issue payment within 10 business days AFTER your book has been inspected and received at our warehouse.  You will receive an email that your book buy back payment has been issued.  You can always check the status of your order by logging into your sell back account.  If the status has not changed it is not because we are ignoring you, it is because we have not yet received your buyback order.  Emailing us only serves to slow-down our response time to other issues.
  4. Now print out your free shipping label and packing slip to complete selling back books.
  5. Carefully package your used books, we have supplied you with tips in our help section, and blogged about some good articles.  Remember you are essentially sending cash in this package, so package your textbooks for buyback as you would if sending cash.  Do not just use one piece of tape, a flimsy box, and expect your book to arrive in good condition, if at all.  The post office runs your shipment through large high-speed sorting machines, not a white-glove service, which means packages get destroyed and lost all the time.  However, if you follow the tips we have provided it will provide your buyback shipment the best chance of reaching our warehouse in either Austin, TX or Denver, CO.
  6. Hand your well packaged buyback book order to your postal carrier, or drop it off at your local post office.
  7. Media mail is slow, but generally arrives in 7-14 days after mailing, but can take as long as 30 days to arrive.  Generally, if your order has not reached us within 30 days it has likely been lost by the post office and you should file a lost mail claim with them.  Again, if you have not heard from us within 30 days of selling used books back for cash it probably means your package has been lost and will never arrive.
  8. Once your textbook buy back order arrives into our warehouse, it is opened, the books are inspected to make sure the ISBN you sent matches your sell back quote, they are condition graded and checked to see about media like required CDs or DVDs, and finally your order is checked into our system.
  9. Once a buyback books order has been checked into our system the accounting department picks up an unpaid order and generally processes once or twice a week.  Paypal payments happen pretty quickly, while checks are mailed out usually once a week via First Class Mail and take 3 to 5 business days to arrive, provided you have given us the correct mailing address.

So there you have it, just a quick review of the process and tips to sell back books for cash.

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Selling back textbooks for cash with ISBN buyback

March 21st, 2011

Have you recently done an ISBN buyback?

ISBN Buyback

ISBN Buyback

We really appreciate how many people sell back books for cash which helps us support RIF and SELF.  However, sometimes our customers do not do the best job packing their buyback textbooks.  We recently discovered a good article on how to pack textbooks for buyback over on RentScouter.com.  The article does a good job talking about packing types like not using packing peanuts, or ensuring your books do not slide around in whatever box you use to ship back your textbooks.

Remember you can sell back books of all kinds, not just textbooks:

Fiction and non-fiction books

Computer and art books

Workbooks that do not have any writing in them

However, remember we no longer buy:

Loose leaf editions – basically the same pages as the textbook, but ready for three ring binder

Partial sets – for example volume 2 of a two volume set, make sure you are entering the individual isbn buyback and not the set

Any sort of advanced ready copies

We also can not buy back books that have:

Missing, ripped, or loose pages

Covers that are heavily damaged or ripped/torn

Textbooks with odors or mildew

Books with any sort of liquid damage

Textbooks that have broken or damaged bindings

Any books that do not meet our ISBN buyback conditions will not be returned and are promptly recycled.  Remember all this information can be found in our “Help” section.  We also encourage people to use more than one piece of tape when sealing their textbook buyback book boxes – tape is cheap, losing your textbook in the mail is not :)

Remember selling your books for cash is fast and easy with an doing an ISBN buyback:

ISBN Buyback

ISBN buyback

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Blue Rocket Books recommended in Consumer Reports

March 1st, 2011

We just learned that Consumer Reports recommended Blue Rocket Books to sell used books in their March 2011 edition.

You can view the article titled “How to get rid of Practically Anything” by clicking here.

Thanks to you our customers.

Consumer Reports recommends Blue Rocket Books

Consumer Reports reviews Blue Rocket Books

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