It's a question that comes round yearly for every student, everywhere - Should I keep my used textbooks or sell them?
Most students realize that their old textbooks have served their purpose and are now of little use. As such, they make the decision to sell them to raise funds for next semesters textbooks. But most buy-back stores or college bookstores will only give you half of what you paid for them. Not a great deal, you say to yourself.
You can't blame the bookstores because, afterall, they are the middleman. It makes good business sense for them to buy books back at a discounted price, tidy them up a bit, and then sell them on for a good deal more than they just bought them for.
So, is selling your used textbooks back to the store you bought them from the only option? Or, is there a better deal out there for you?
Well, think about selling your used car. You will probably get the worst deal selling it back to a car dealer. Hey, I don't blame them. They are, afterall, trying to make money.
What you ideally want to do is cut the middleman out and make a direct sale to another buyer. Without the middleman taking his piece of the pie, both the buyer and the seller get a better deal.
The same can be done with textbooks. One option is to try listing your textbooks on Craigslist for free and hope someone is looking for the same exact book. Another option is to use a textbook exchange website designed specifically to help you buy and sell textbooks among college students, fast!
In addition to cutting the middleman, another cool feature is that you can set up book agents, or email alerts where you will get an instant email notification whenever another student lists a textbook that you are looking for.
Believe me, I've looked long and hard for a site like this.
Many other "used textbooks" sites are nothing more than bookstores themselves. So beware!
Most students realize that their old textbooks have served their purpose and are now of little use. As such, they make the decision to sell them to raise funds for next semesters textbooks. But most buy-back stores or college bookstores will only give you half of what you paid for them. Not a great deal, you say to yourself.
You can't blame the bookstores because, afterall, they are the middleman. It makes good business sense for them to buy books back at a discounted price, tidy them up a bit, and then sell them on for a good deal more than they just bought them for.
So, is selling your used textbooks back to the store you bought them from the only option? Or, is there a better deal out there for you?
Well, think about selling your used car. You will probably get the worst deal selling it back to a car dealer. Hey, I don't blame them. They are, afterall, trying to make money.
What you ideally want to do is cut the middleman out and make a direct sale to another buyer. Without the middleman taking his piece of the pie, both the buyer and the seller get a better deal.
The same can be done with textbooks. One option is to try listing your textbooks on Craigslist for free and hope someone is looking for the same exact book. Another option is to use a textbook exchange website designed specifically to help you buy and sell textbooks among college students, fast!
In addition to cutting the middleman, another cool feature is that you can set up book agents, or email alerts where you will get an instant email notification whenever another student lists a textbook that you are looking for.
Believe me, I've looked long and hard for a site like this.
Many other "used textbooks" sites are nothing more than bookstores themselves. So beware!
About the Author:
Visit iCollegeWeb.com today to start buying and selling your used textbooks. It'd be wise for you to know what classes you will be taking next quarter or semester and set up the alerts early on. Or you could simply search their list of used textbooks to find the book you need.
0 comments:
Post a Comment