Tutorial: Selling Your Textbooks on Amazon.com
Amazon is the best used book marketplace because it has the most users. It's a great place to sell your textbooks, but keep in mind that Amazon still takes a 15% commission on most books, whereas with the text exchanges, there is no fee. That said, here is a little tutorial that can help you get the most out of Amazon.
1. Create a basic account with Amazon.
2. Sign up for an Amazon payment account.
When you sell a book, the money will be deposited directly into your bank account within 2 weeks. It’s pretty easy. Amazon doesn’t charge anything for you to list your items. When you sell, they take 99-cents plus 15% of the sale (this is significantly better than what you would get in the bookstore, but probably not as good as what you would get from a buyer you found directly on your campus text exchange or through one of the national text exchanges listed on this site)
3. Now, find the books you want to sell. I recommend typing in the ISBN number, found above the bar code on your textbooks. This way, you know you’ve found the exact edition of the book you’re looking to unload.
4. Once you’ve found your book you’ll see a little icon on the right of the screen under the “more buying options” that says: “sell yours here.” Click on this and the rest of the process should be pretty straightforward.
5. Once you’ve sold a book, Amazon sends you an e-mail and a few minutes later, once your money has been collected from the buyer, they e-mail you a packing slip with the buyer’s shipping address. I usually print out the shipping address and sign it, saying “thanks” and tuck it into the packaging with the book.
6. When sending your book, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Small paperbacks can be shipped in those no-rip, waterproof, synthetic envelopes. If you’re going to be selling a lot I would go to your local office supplies place and pick up a box of them. It’s more expensive if you have to purchase them at the post office. For larger books, you’ll have to buy bigger envelopes padded with bubble wrap.
7. The best part is that shipping costs for textbooks are very reasonable. Tell the attendant at the post office that you're shipping a book or book/cd combo and he or she will send it "media mail" or "book rate." Even for bulky textbooks it’s normally no more than 3 dollars.
Additional Considerations:
If you really want to unload your books and recover your cash quickly be as competitive as possible with pricing. If you have the lowest price and your textbook is still being used at a few schools you’re likely to sell it within a few days – or hours! Here’s what Amazon has to say on pricing: general pricing rule.
Make sure you’re honest about the condition. If you’re a highlighter, include that the book is highlighted. Buyer’s will, most likely, send a book back to you if they feel they’ve been duped and with Amazon.com it’s for them to refund the buyers money and give you negative feedback. So be honest and know that books that are advertised as being in poor condition will only sell if they are the listed as the lowest priced books in the marketplace.
The above two consideration also apply when listing your books on the text exchanges listed on this site.
Additional Amazon Links
Amazon’s overview of the selling process
Protection from Fraud when Buying Products on Amazon
