Get the Most Money for Your Used Textbooks
You paid a lot for those books, so here's how to get the best price when you sell them back at the end of the semester.
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Before the school year started, we told you how to cut your textbook costs in half -- or more. Now that the fall semester is almost over, it's time to sell those books back and get a little spending money for the holidays.
The campus bookstore may be a convenient way to do this, but you'll likely get more money back if you sell your books online. I did a little comparison shopping to find out how much more.
I teach a journalism course at the university where I live, so I used the book from my class, Writing and Reporting News. The retail price is about $120.
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First I checked the buyback price at the university bookstore: $37.
The I used two of the comparison Web sites we recommended in the story about cutting textbook costs -- Bigwords.com and CampusBooks.com.
Of the 13 purchasers Bigwords.com listed when I did a buyback price search for Writing and Reporting News, eCAMPUS.com was offering the best price: $50.16 in store credit or $41.80 cash. Plus, Bigwords.com provides free, printable shipping labels and will send you a check or credit your Paypal account within seven to ten days. (Chegg actually had the best buyback price listed, $80.14. But when I clicked through to the site, Chegg said it could not buy back this book.)
My search on CampusBooks.com turned up a better cash price from Bookleberry.com: $49.95. And shipping is free on books more than $25.
So before you tote all your books to the campus bookstore, do a little searching online to see if you can get better buyback prices elsewhere.
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