Selling Old Textbooks

[Blu]

I searched around and looked for some older threads related to the topic, but alas I did not see any.

Does anyone have any experience with selling older textbooks and other reading materials? I'm wondering if Amazon is the route to go. I have a footlocker with so many older books that I am no longer needing, and wonder if I should just sell them online or make a contribution to my local thrift store. Any advice is appreciated!

[J T]

If they're more than a few years old, then the best place to go is here:
http://www.epa.gov/recycle/recycle.html

Unfortunately, the textbook industry is a crappy thing where books cost a fortune, and then the books aren't worth anything as soon as the next edition comes out (and they keep making unnecessary new editions all the time).

[Retrodude]

I know, right? All they have to do is add a single footnote or fix a single typo and they can release a "new edition" and force people to buy the exact same book again at full price. Jerks.

[Hazerd]

It's like DLC, except they make you buy the whole game again, i wonder when EA will roll this out!

[aaron]

I know, right? All they have to do is add a single footnote or fix a single typo and they can release a "new edition" and force people to buy the exact same book again at full price. Jerks.

have you been swindled out of a large sum of money in the past? just curious.

[Blu]

Yeah, I think I might be going the route of recycling. The more time that passes and I don't do anything about these books, the less likely they'll be worth anything. Half of me cries out about the exorbitant sums of money some of these books cost, at least for my undergrad. My Masters I hardly paid anything for. You think I should recycle them JT?

[Ack]

Yeah, I think I might be going the route of recycling. The more time that passes and I don't do anything about these books, the less likely they'll be worth anything. Half of me cries out about the exorbitant sums of money some of these books cost, at least for my undergrad. My Masters I hardly paid anything for. You think I should recycle them JT?

Whoa, hold up. What subject are these books?

[MrPopo]

I know, right? All they have to do is add a single footnote or fix a single typo and they can release a "new edition" and force people to buy the exact same book again at full price. Jerks.

have you been swindled out of a large sum of money in the past? just curious.

As much as I've disagreed with him in the past when it comes to anything financial, he is right that the textbook industry is a huge scam. I had multiple professors tell us "just get the previous edition; it's cheaper and has all the same information that we care about". Generally the biggest thing that would change is in math books the problems at the end of a chapter would be very different; which wasn't a problem for non-math classes. Otherwise it'd be very minor differences.

[Luke]

Does anyone have any experience with selling older textbooks and other reading materials?

YES!

But only College textbooks. Book Buy Backs on campus are rip-offs. Sell the book to a student who needs it for the next semester and you are likely to break even.

[Blu]

Yeah, I think I might be going the route of recycling. The more time that passes and I don't do anything about these books, the less likely they'll be worth anything. Half of me cries out about the exorbitant sums of money some of these books cost, at least for my undergrad. My Masters I hardly paid anything for. You think I should recycle them JT?

Whoa, hold up. What subject are these books?

A few disciplines, I was a Secondary Education History and Political Science major. So I have a few history texts, political science texts, education philosophy and methods books. Mainly social sciences and any novels that were assigned as complementary reading.

Luke: You'd be spot on, and I'd agree but I'm no where near my alma mater. I think the book buy-backs I went to offered a dollar or nothing for some of these books and I probably went, "A DOLLAR!? I'll just keep it."