Common Mistakes When Selling Textbooks Online

Selling textbooks online is a totally different experience compared to selling to your neighborhood bookstore. For one, you have to ship your books to be assessed and priced, whereas your neighborhood store will assess it on the spot. However, online bookstores are offering higher prices to students who sell textbooks online.

By avoiding these common mistakes, you can make sure to get the full price for your books:

Not choosing a reliable site - Some students get lured by high offers that they fail to double check the integrity of the site where they sell their books. Sometimes, these are scammers - pretending to buy your books, asking you to ship them, and then just disappear. You never see a single cent from your precious books. Make sure you sell your books to sites that are legitimate, with good feedback from other students who also sell textbooks online.

Selling damaged books - Bookstores love books in mint condition - and will even pay higher fees for those in great condition. If you try to pass of your book as undamaged, you will be discovered once the books are shipped - possibly leaving you with no money for them, and no books. Bookstores will rarely spend to return books unless you pay for the shipping. Therefore, make sure your books are acceptable before you even put them in the box.

Leaving behind the extras - Publishers are now including added materials with books sold, like CDs. Books that are complete with all the extras are priced higher, and are more likely to sell.

Not packing properly - If you went through all that effort to protect your book, only to send it without care, then you will still end up with damaged books and no money. Most online bookstores will give you ideas on how to pack when you sell textbooks online. Follow those instructions so your books will arrive, still in mint condition.

Being in too much of a hurry to get paid - If you want to be paid quickly, you can always choose to be paid via online services like PayPal. However, be prepared that these payment methods will mean less money due to the transaction fees. Having the check mailed to you takes longer, but will cost you less.

Textbooks are great because they hardly lose value, even when new editions come out. They can always be resold after the semester and give you some extra cash for the incoming school expenses.

Jules Mariano is a full-time freelance search engine and social media marketing specialist and a web developer specializing in web content development. He is the co-founder of VPRO Digital Marketing. He currently writes for BookGator.