Selling books back to college bookstore

[tinnean]

It's been a long time since college, and the books were a good deal cheaper back then. (although it didn't feel that way at the time.) I've googled this, and it seems all the sites are for online selling and require an ISBN number. I've also looked up the cost of buying the books from the bookstore with no luck

Comments

[nightmer]

It's mostly feasible, I've spent upwards of $700 a semester on books and probably would have gotten back a hundred at most. It was pretty common for a new book to run $200-300 and barely get back $40 or so. Someone in school "not having time" to do something that could net them hundreds of dollars is the most puzzling part of the scenario. I'd say if you made some of them course-specific (as in the teacher had them printed for the course, and thus they won't be of use to anyone else) you'd have another reason he's not heading online (this is pretty common in certain majors, I have no idea about ID). The switching of editions is also a very common issue for students.

[tinnean]

My character has been summoned home from college, and his family has more or less terminated his education. (long story short: you do what I say, now get your butt home!) However, this does give me an idea. It's at the end of the semester, so while he would probably have the time to sell his books online, he might just get rid of the books for the electives. And I'm wondering if he might donate some of the books to the design store where he's been working part time. (my editor is going to have so much fun with this.)

Thanks for your reply and for giving me some ideas to ponder.

[bluealoe]

Someone in school "not having time" to do something that could net them hundreds of dollars is the most puzzling part of the scenario.

At my college (small liberal arts school in Minnesota, graduated in 2006), textbook buyback only took place at certain times on certain days, and there were often long lines, so if you were in a hurry it was tough to get to the bookstore to sell your books. Also, considering that buyback was during finals week, sometimes you needed to use the textbooks until the last minute, and after your finals were over you'd lost the opportunity to sell back your books. (Until the next semester, anyway.) So I can easily see not having time to sell back your books, even though you want to.

[nightmer]

Oh, it was a giant headache to sell back books at my old school too. I meant I had trouble imagining that he wouldn't sell them online due to time, as online you might get back $800 or so of the $1,000 compared to the $90 the bookstore would give you. At my schools most people only sold back books to the store if they had to (for stupid reasons like class-specific books) or they only had one or two books and getting ripped off by the bookstore didn't impact them so much financially.

[shotglass]

Very feasible. Generally, they'll only give you 1/3-1/2 back on them (if that...! I've had a few that only sold for a couple of dollars!), and if any of the books came with a CD or any kind of code? Even if it was never used, they won't buy the book back. And if they change editions, same boat. Or else sometimes they'll just say that they have plenty in stock and won't take them back. Or maybe the class isn't being taught or it's a different instructor next semester... yeah, selling textbooks back will maybe get you enough for half of one of the new ones.

[tinnean]

It's sad, isn't it? I've got a number of books that I couldn't sell back, but the only one I voluntarily kept was my English Lit book.

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I might be able to incorporate the different instructor next semester scenario into this.

[rainbowxgeek]

Texts that aren't bought back at school can often still be sold online. As for 1K worth of books--my friend was a business major, and her books cost a bit over that one term. So yes, I could see it being reasonable.

And you can search texts on amazon and ebay (an many other sites) by title, so if you have that you don't need an isbn.

[tinnean]

In googling, I discovered the selling online possibility, but I didn't want to give my character that much time. He'd planned to do that, of course, but while he's in the middle of finals, he's informed he has to return home. Originally I'd had him box up his books and take them with him, but traveling by bus with a fairly large box seemed cumbersome, and so I went the selling his books route.

I can't begin to tell you how many times I've changed this story. It looks like I might have to change it again.

Thank you so much!

[rainbowxgeek]

Well, he could sell pretty quickly. Places like bookbyte.com you can commit to the sale, print a shipping label, and send them out the same day.

And if you want him to keep the books, he could put them in the mail. When I moved from Maine to NY, I literally mailed all my possessions by parcel post.

[tinnean]

This is an interesting idea. I know if you're traveling during the holidays, it winds up being cheaper to mail the presents to your destination than to carry them along with you.

What I wound up doing is having him give his books to his employer, who was going to sell them for him online. Of course, he's a bit distracted, and his boss could suggest this, and so he'd be able to go the bookbyte.com route.

Thanks for giving me more to consider. :-)

[cat_77]

The $1000 seems a tad on the high side (was an engineering major at one point and think I spent $700 - $800 at the most for all course materials including lab one term). That said, the $90 return is very feasible. The most I ever got back was from selling to a friend that was taking the course after me and they had not changed the main book yet, and that was about $35 or $40 because the bookstore was charging $80 or so. I think that sale brought my total up to just shy of $100.

[tinnean]

You're right, that was for an entire year, which I realized after I'd posted the question. I imagine it would be about $500 for the semester, and hopefully I won't get nibbled to death by ducks over what he got for the books. The previous semesters he would be able to sell his books online; I needed him to get rid of his books as quickly as possible, so he did take a loss.

Thanks so much for commenting. This is good to know!

[tinnean]

I had no clue there were online college bookstores. (when I went, the computers were using 5" floppy discs, and there wasn't much in the way of the internet, at least for me. :-P) I hadn't even thought of checking Amazon.

I'll need to see what courses he'd be most likely to take the spring semester of his junior year. If it's mostly the electives, I might be able to get away with that. I hate him having to sell off books he'll need, but he can't travel with them. Maybe I'll have his employer hold onto them for him.

Y'know, this was just for a throwaway line. ::sigh::

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply!

[archangelbeth]

And then there was the "Nature Writers" course I took where the teacher had written/assembled the book (selected the poems and essays, and written blurbs about them, basically), where he so helpfully told the store not to accept any used books so we could all have nice, crisp, new books for his class. He even helpfully made sure to order half of them in hardback, for the students who got to the store late wanted to have a nice copy to keep forever on their shelves!

I would've been more mad, but I'd doodled in mine and didn't want to lose my art. >_>