Can I Make Money Selling Used Novels

Selling Books Online: How I Sold Used Books Online as My First Internet Venture!

Ever since companies started making money online, I was intrigued. I graduated from high school in 1996, but when the internet was starting to come up out of obscurity. At the time, I had no thought that learning how to brand money selling books online would be one of my offset interests.

By the time I got into higher, there were always stories of online companies raising millions in IPOs on the stock market.

This whole frenzy played a huge part in my conclusion to become into finance and business organisation management. I was fascinated by the ability of the companies to sell products online. It was just such a new concept dorsum and so.

I just had to have a piece of the activeness!

Contents

How to Make Money Selling Books Online
- Basics of Selling Used Books Online: four Types of Used Books to Sell
Specialized Book Selling Vs. General Book Flipping
- A Few Tips from a Book Hound
- How to Check Selling Prices Before You lot Buy
- How to Sell books Online (and make more coin than I did)
Where Should I Sell Books Online?
- My Future with Selling Used Books Online

How to Brand Money Selling Books Online

Today, flipping textbooks and selling used books online for turn a profit is much easier than it was back and so, cheers to tools similar TexTrader that do all the work for you.

Simply when I got started, the process was much more manual.

It actually wasn't until well-nigh 2001 or 2002 that I finally took the leap into selling used books online. Of class, the big player in those days was eBay. Now the giant is Amazon. Just by this time, it wasn't quite equally large a bargain to purchase and sell stuff online. However, I had never actually sold anything and I was fascinated with the subject field.

I was in college and I was a cheapskate. So, evidently, my investment wasn't huge, only I decided to sell books online. This is how I made my starting time cadet online.

Essentially, I would go to thrift stores like Goodwill and others and look through the used book shelves and find books that I could sell on eBay or Amazon. This was my process back then in a nutshell.

However, I'1000 going to share a few ways yous can improve your chances of success selling books online.

The key to success in ownership and selling books online is to know how much money you tin can sell the book for before you buy information technology. Even though y'all could buy books all twenty-four hours long at $i a popular at virtually thrift shops, that doesn't mean you should.

You should only purchase a volume if you know you lot tin brand some coin on it. I normally merely bought a volume for a $one if I knew I could sell it for $v or more.

Basics of Selling Used Books Online: 4 Types of Used Books to Sell

In full general, there are iv types of books that you should wait for when trying to sell books online. Well-nigh books yous tin can sell for any amount of decent cash volition fall into one of these four categories.

1. Textbooks

The used textbook market is betwixt $5.5 billion and $8 billion according to a recent article. That means in that location is A LOT of money to be made in this disjointed market place identify.

Sure a great deal of used textbooks sales happen on college campuses. However, a quick perusal of Amazon and eBay listings volition show you lot that plenty of people are still buying and selling textbooks online – both used and new.

Where to find used textbooks to sell?

If you are selling your own textbooks, that'southward i matter. Merely what if you want to become a textbook flipper and first selling textbooks, where you lot buy and sell for profit?

I would commencement by looking in these places:

Second manus or austerity stores, similar Goodwill
Garage sales…you never know!
eBay.com. You might be able to option upwards a cheap book and so plough effectually and sell it on Amazon or somewhere else for a higher price.
Craigslist. Especially if you are near a college town, your chances might be better for scoring some cheap textbooks.
Enquire friends and family unit. Y'all might be surprised what they have lying around!
Amazon.com. The chances are probable smaller to find annihilation really low priced here, but it's withal possible to stumble on the correct opportunity.

Where to sell used textbooks online?

Textbooks in particular have lots of places where you can sell. You tin employ Ebay.com and Amazon.com as a not bad way to list and sell your inventory online.

These are sites that every college educatee volition check for a cheaper version of their required textbooks. This was true in the early 2000s and the only alter is that MORE students are looking online to buy used textbooks.

Considering the ridiculous markups at the college bookstore haven't changed, either. That means in that location's a big market for quondam textbooks.

However, there are besides plenty of other textbook-specific marketplaces that are worth taking a look at. Here'south a few of the textbook marketplaces for selling textbooks:

Textbooks.com
BookScouter.com
Chegg.com
CampusBookRentals.com
Abe Books

2. Modernistic First Edition Books

Modern starting time edition books are essentially books published in the final 30 or xl years. For some people these are collectible for their favorite authors or books. For others they are merely willing to pay a picayune higher price for something that might become collectible someday.

These first editions are not difficult to discover for books that are current or recent best sellers. However, they do tend to get a bit more difficult they farther back in time you go.

When I showtime got started, I really didn't know what kind of books to look for. So later doing a little chip of research, I discovered that modern mean solar day kickoff editions are collectible!

A modern twenty-four hour period get-go edition is simply the first edition of a recent publication (in the past 30 years or so). Starting time editions for books older than this volition typically command even college prices.

If you don't know how to tell if a book is a commencement edition, its not ever like shooting fish in a barrel. But here is a good guide that explains how to determine if the book is a first edition.

Profitable book selling right abroad

With my limited knowledge of what books to look out for, I probably missed a few adept ones. Withal, I did observe a few decent modern twenty-four hours first editions. One book that I sold for about $50 was the first edition of The Firm by John Grisham.

I besides found a few other books that sold for $20 or $thirty. All the same, the bulk of the books that I found sold for effectually $5 to $7. Notwithstanding not too bad for a $1 purchase.

If yous go a high enough volume of book sales that tin be a pretty tidy profit!

I simply kept at it for about 3 or 4 months. I would go book hunting on the weekends and sell them online and post them during the calendar week. Because I was in schoolhouse and trying to get my futurity wife interested in me, I didn't spend too much fourth dimension or endeavour on it.

Nevertheless, I did manage to make a few hundred dollars here and there.

Where to buy modernistic first edition books?

2d hand or thrift stores, similar Goodwill
Garage sales & thousand sales
Flea markets
Craigslist
Ask friends and family
Sometimes you can notice bang-up deals on eBay if you know what to await for

Where to Sell Modern Beginning Edition Books?

I would stick to eBay most of the time for selling these types of books. People know that they can get to eBay to observe rare and collectible items, including mod first edition books. eBay is a corking identify to go for both Developed and Children'due south books.

Amazon is probably not the best place to sell these types of books (notwithstanding, y'all can also check for your item books).

If y'all are looking at this as a long-term project and are willing to proceed a large inventory of old books on mitt to get the best price for each then you might want to consider an online bookstore.

Abebooks.com is a great pick for this, though you will have a monthly fee in addition to the percentage taken from each volume sold.

That means you lot demand to have enough antiquarian books and used get-go edition books on manus to justify those monthly fees. However, if you have rooms total of used books, this tin be a dandy way to get the best toll from book buyers for your first editions.

3. Out of Print Used Books

Out of print books are just your standard used books – both adult and children'due south books – that you might find at any old bookstore or thrift store. At that place is typically not a lot of money to exist fabricated in these "run of the mill" blazon books. While you won't make the most money this way, it doesn't hurt to give it a shot.

Peculiarly with the competition and fees that Amazon will charge, it'south harder and harder to make much money on a book that costs you $ane to purchase and yous sell for $5. Later on y'all pay your packaging and aircraft characterization and costs, there just isn't much profit left.

Nonetheless, in that location are indeed yet lots of used books sellers on Amazon selling these types of books. So, you tin make information technology piece of work…just it's not easy.

These are the kind of books that are considered the "long tail." Many of these books will only sell a few copies a month total, and if in that location are 50 sellers all trying to sell a used copy of the same book, well y'all do the math. You might take to wait a year or longer before the book will sell.

Almost people making decent money at not-collectible secondhand adult and children'south books are either large used bookstores with huge stock at a skillful physical location or private book sellers who serve a really specific niche.

4. Collectibles and Antique Books

Many people are surprised past just how much of a market there are for collectible and antiquarian books out there. Selling antique books online, limited start edition books, or even specialty collectible books is a huge market!

Getting skillful at this takes a willingness to learn some new skills and invest time, only the pay-off potential is huge!

One of our writers on this site, Shane, has bought and sold antiquarian books on the side for over 15 years. He jokes about being able to "odor" the money on any old volume at the flea market, garage sale, or fifty-fifty used book store.

While a truly rare book is an uncommon detect, it does happen. He recalls ownership a 1919 offset edition for $55 off eBay, and flipping it iv months afterwards on Abebooks for $775.

Five minutes of enquiry before ownership, 15 minutes putting up the listing, and five minutes packaging and shipping after and $720 is a slap-up payout for a half hour of actual piece of work!

Well-nigh profitable 2d paw books aren't going to return that level of turn a profit.

As a rough rule of thumb Shane says for every $ten he spent on an onetime book he expects most $40-50 dorsum. That's nevertheless pretty good coin selling books as a side gig.

That'southward not figuring in the major money makers like the previous story. This is the turn a profit margin on the average old volume he may observe at a flea marketplace, an estate sale, underpriced online, or even the very occasional garage sale.

Specialized Book Selling Vs. General Volume Flipping

There are proficient arguments that can be fabricated for both these methods of selling books online. Finding popular secondhand books yous tin can pick upwardly for nickels and dimes on the cover price that you lot and then sell can produce some very expert render on investment.

So again, while you may accept to keep quondam collectible books or antique first editions longer before selling them online, they often become for much higher prices, as well.

In other words, both of these methods of selling old books online are a great way to make some serious money if you lot know what you're doing. So is 1 method meliorate than the other? Which one makes you the near money will depend on your particular circumstance.

Flipping books can make a peachy side hustle, or even a full-time job, in a variety of means. The cardinal is to go into the game of selling books online and run into what you lot savour most about it, what you tin consistently notice in the area, and use that to keep moving forrad.

A Few Tips from a Book Hound

Shane was kind plenty to bring some of his 15 years of first paw noesis on how to make money selling used books online to this post. He specialized mostly in first edition antique books and collectible older books.

If you tend to similar to study things in-depth before jumping in, the ideas of learning to locate, identify, and buy used books before flipping them for a profit tin be overwhelming. There'south a LOT of information involved in becoming a book hound (slang for someone who does this, specially with antique or collectible first editions).

Plenty it tin can chop-chop overwhelm you.

Only don't worry. If you're excited about the potential profit in that k sale, garage sale, or library sale, if yous love the feel of a concrete book in the hands, and so the large number later on a $ that shows up later on you sell it, and so don't let the world of flipping books intimidate you.

Follow these tips, think of it as an adventure, and there's a good adventure you lot'll catch the bug, too! And make a tidy profit forth the style.

Be Honest About Status

You should never lie almost the condition of the used book. Being honest is just a good policy, menstruum. Simply this likewise applies to gray areas.

What if the volume falls in that grey area between "very good" and "proficient?" Or "fine" and "very skillful?"

While there are strong guidelines for judging the condition of an erstwhile book, it'southward not gear up in stone. There are times where a rare book's condition is balancing right betwixt two atmospheric condition. In that situation, I E'er characterization it equally the worst of the two.

Why?

Because I would rather be known as the guy who sold a very skillful book at a skilful price than a scam artist who overcharged and underdelivered.

Reputation matters, peculiarly if you end up going heavy into the rare volume or antique volume road.

Plus, in the description mentioning that it's really straddling those ii conditions but you listed it as worse to be on the prophylactic side…information technology's one heck of a endmost tactic for selling collectible books. Those almost e'er sold apace for me.

Every collector likes a good bargain. Worst case scenario, they know they're getting a book that is at least in the all-time range of the lower condition. Best example, they get a groovy deal. And will come dorsum searching my online store for more than dandy deals on future old book finds!

Unwanted Majority Books Hide Treasures

Don't underestimate the potential in picking up unwanted books. While these are often picked through more oft than not, it'southward easy to miss some valuable old ones.

Fifty-fifty if there aren't any valuable first editions or college textbooks, many times you can still make a profit selling groups of books on eBay. Information technology won't be a huge amount, but profit is profit.

Get creative if you find yourself with too many books that are hard to movement.

Donate to a local library or school library. Create those little street free library houses to make books available to neighbors and kids. Donate to prisons. If you take a blog or website, call local news sites or local bloggers and get some proficient PR and some backlinks from this.

There are enough of means that buying and selling used books can profit you lot even beyond the straight sale.

Nothing Beats Hard-Earned Knowledge

Many of the most valuable old books are ones that aren't obviously valuable, only they fall into a specific field a collector might like (example: old medical books or 1930s school lesson books) or are ghost written by authors who later became famous nether some other proper name.

In this case having that knowledge volition permit y'all run into valuable books that even the best apps or AI might not meet.

If yous want to get even more out of selling used books online, buy a few books on being a volume hound or identifying valuable first editions.

This will teach you lot helpful skills like:

Existence able to tell the condition of a book
Knowing obscure titles that are valuable
Spotting overlooked potential gems
Help yous remember titles that are worth something to collectors, but not mainstream

The number of times I felt a "ping" in my head like I knew that title from somewhere, bought the book, and then plant out it was in ane of the many books on valuable commencement editions I had is pretty substantial.

Trusting that gut instinct, because I knew it came from written report and knowledge, has led to some smashing profits I otherwise would have missed.

Pay Attention to Aircraft Costs

If you've done any buying or selling on Amazon, eBay, or anywhere else and then you know that what yous pay for shipping is often a set cost that is more the actual postal fees. This not only covers envelopes, the shipping labels or stamps/postage, insurance or commitment tracking, merely information technology's too accepted the seller takes a little for their fourth dimension/problem.

Keep an eye on what seems like an "adequate" shipping and handling charge. If it'south $5 and you're only charging $3 that's $2 a package you're leaving on the tabular array. If y'all finish up selling 1,000 books in a year, that really adds upwards.

Be Wary of Library Sales

Library sales tin be a great place to find used books you lot tin can flip for a profit. Peculiarly in bulk. Notwithstanding, if you are focusing mostly on valuable first edition collectible books, proceed in heed that an ink stamp with the library'due south name is a value killer, even if the rest of the book is in surprisingly good shape.

"Library re-create" is often a cuss word when information technology comes to antique fiction volume hounds.

Steps to Get Started as a Beginning Volume Seller

Buy some guidebooks to larn almost volume conditions, how to place a first edition, and acquire nearly collectible books
Await for useful apps similar Scout IQ or Textrader to stay on top of trends
Check out common sites to sell books and get familiar with how they work
For collectible/antique books a skillful starting rule of thumb is retrieve specialist collector for non-fiction, first edition/first printing for fiction
Get out in that location and do it – nada beats real earth feel!

How to Bank check Selling Prices Before Yous Buy

Well-nigh of you lot may already know how to check completed listings on eBay; however, if non, its pretty unproblematic. There is an option on the left sidebar that says "Completed Listing." Simply bank check this box, and then only the listings for the particular search topic you have entered that are completed will show.

By doing this kind of inquiry, y'all tin can find out pretty quickly how much you can expect to sell a book for.

Chances are that you are not going to find whatever real "gems" in the used book section. Yous probably won't find whatsoever books worth thousands and probably non even hundreds of dollars unless you are really lucky.

However, you tin certainly find some books valued in the $10 to $twenty range.

The problem with selling books this way, is that the margins are so low for the amount of time that it takes to find the books, creating the listing, reply to online customers, pack the books, and accept them to the post part. I was probably making mode less than minimum wage on my fiddling bookselling business venture.

However, I think there really is some potential for someone who gets serious most information technology.

How to Sell books Online (and brand more money than I did)

While there are a couple of dissimilar approaches to take, the ane I like best is buying used books on Amazon then right dorsum on Amazon and pocketing the difference. If I were to start upward reselling today, this is the avenue I would accept.

Reselling textbooks has gotten very powerful. If I were to exercise everything over, I wouldn't even carp with low priced books. Fiction, nonfiction, information technology doesn't thing. Textbooks cost an astronomical amount and there's a huge opportunity.

Sound too adept to be true?

In that location are actually more deals out there like this than you'd believe. Thanks to the fact that sellers list used textbooks for low prices on Amazon all the time, not realizing they could merchandise that book into Amazon for more money.

For example, you might see a Biological science 101 textbook that has a used cost of $45 and the average used selling price is $lxx. Pregnant you could buy it at the current low price and potentially sell it right back for near a $25 profit.

There are tons of opportunities like this. Students get new textbooks every twelvemonth. And enough of savvy students don't want the 4th edition that just came out. They are more than happy with the 3rd edition that's less than half the cost.

This opens up a massive opportunity for you to buy the "old" textbook when new editions come up out. Look a little bit and there will be more than plenty buyers for what you lot're offering.

You can offset searching for deals manually or apply TexTrader to speed up the process significantly.

Where Should I Sell Books Online?

This can be a crucial decision that really affects your profits. You don't want to brand a bad selection. Don't forget on the other side of Shane's story of selling a book for $775 was a person who was happy to get $50 for it.

In that case Abebooks was clearly the correct call over eBay for bottom line profit margin. This won't ever be the case.

The good news is that there are more places than ever where you can sell books. At that place are also more used books sold in a year than ever before – so in that location are plenty of opportunities.

The following is a listing of several of the best places to become online to sell books – used and new. Go on in mind that depending on what type of old books you're selling or used books you're flipping, some of these sites volition work amend than others.

We'll give you the basic guidelines of adept places to sell books online. Go on in listen that aught beats good erstwhile trial and error testing.

Amazon

They're the largest seller of, well pretty much everything, in the world. Selling used books on Amazon can be a expert option, especially if yous become a very popular modern book inexpensive.

Amazon is never going to exist the all-time place for antique books or rare start editions. But for mod books and some popular books, it'south a great place to checkout. Download the Spotter IQ app to know what a volume is currently selling for on Amazon.

This is an app for retail arbitrage that shows you what an item is selling for right now specifically on Amazon. That makes it a great tool for book hounds looking to supplement that occasional big dollar treasure with profitable smaller sales on the way.

eBay

Near of the fourth dimension you won't get premium prices from your used books on eBay. Merely you can get a lot of sales off this platform. If you are running out of space, or received many relatively collectible first editions that aren't super rare, eBay can be a smashing style to create cash flow from unwanted books.

Many times eBay is on the short listing of places to await for a expert deal as opposed to selling books for profit. Merely if yous received a lot of books for a dime each, you lot might exist happy with $10 and let someone else exercise the legwork to flip it again for more.

Abebooks

Abebooks earned a reputation early on every bit the identify to become for rare books, antique showtime editions, and valuable collectible books. This reputation remains. If you're looking for a very specific old volume, fiction books many decades out of print, then you lot become to Abebooks.

Which makes this a fantastic place for sellers who take a collection of first edition fiction books, collectible sometime non-fiction books, or those unconventional books that sell for more but which you lot also might need fourth dimension to get the best toll for.

If yous are more for the "burn and churn" style of flipping books then you tin can skip this, but Abebooks is a great spot where major money can be made from sales.

Flipsy.com

Flipsy is an interesting site made for flipping a niggling scrap of everything, only their book section is particularly active. This can be a great place for selling popular books. They have even started to give Abebooks a run for their money when information technology comes to collectible books.

If you already have sold with Flipsy, and then y'all should check out its book section, too. This is a place where you lot can sell antique and collectible books. In addition to more modern pop titles, as well.

Bookscouter

Used mostly for looking at used textbooks, this is a favorite if yous can find college students who don't want to spend $350 for a new textbook that and so gets used only one time.

Which will be most of them.

Local Used Book Stores

This is final on the listing considering while I'm all nigh supporting local used book stores. From a pure making money selling books standpoint it'south nigh never going to exist your best option. You will rarely become cash.

That said, if you demand space or accept a lot of books that y'all just tin can't sell quickly, the store credit or gift cards you lot go are great for filling out your own reading listing or shopping for the bookworms in the family unit.

My Futurity with Selling Used Books Online

To be honest, every one time in a while I yet get the itch to go hunting for used books and to start selling them online. If I had some more time, I would Dear to practice this! I enjoy the hunt more than anything. Its kinda fun to observe a kickoff edition book selling for $1 at a thrift store.

So, who knows mayhap this will become i of my future niche projects that I will document on this website. I am always looking for new ideas, but I'k certainly willing to revert back to something I have tried before.

If y'all're looking to start flipping textbooks, I highly recommend checking out TexTrader which will save you a TON of fourth dimension and hassle.

try textrader to start a book selling income stream with ease

Source: https://www.nichepursuits.com/how-i-bought-and-sold-books-online-as-my-first-internet-venture/

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