How to Get Rid of This Semester's Textbooks

By Kaitlin Hurtado on May 10, 2018

As dreadful the process of getting textbooks at the beginning of each semester is, the process of getting rid of this semester’s textbooks may be even more so. Sometimes the class the textbooks were used for is no longer offered or the class you took no longer uses the same textbooks you possess – or maybe you’re just too lazy to put in the effort of finding the next owner of your textbooks.

Regardless of your current situation, there are plenty of ways to get rid of this semester’s textbooks that require varying levels of effort on your end. Here are some different methods you can consider when getting rid of this semester’s textbooks.

stacked books

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Sell them to your campus bookstore

If you’re looking to make some extra cash, this option requires little to no effort when it comes to getting rid of your textbooks. Typically, campus bookstores host textbook buy-back events at the beginning of the semester or at the end in order for students to get pack a small amount of the money that they put it into the book.

Be warned, however, that while this option saves you both the time and effort of packaging up books and mailing them to other textbook sites, or finding and meeting other students to sell the textbooks to, it may not make you the most money when you are reselling it.

Campus bookstores know when textbooks are in need and know that they can get the books sold either way, so getting you a “good” deal isn’t necessarily on their list of priorities.

Post on Facebook pages to resell to other college students

For many, this method of getting rid of last semester’s textbooks is the most effective and wallet-friendly. When you are the one making a post (or several) to advertise your old textbooks, you are going to be the one that has control of setting the price – whether it’s to make sure you profit off of selling your textbook or being able to negotiate a price that won’t have you facing a complete loss of money.

When setting the initial price you are going to list in your post, it’s important to be strategic. While you want to make as much money to buy next semester’s textbooks without worry, you don’t want to start out with an unrealistically high price that college students will automatically scroll past. Try to put yourselves in their shoes and consider if you would be willing to shell out that same money or give up and try looking elsewhere for a more affordable option.

Instead, try thinking of a price that would be the lowest price you would be willing to go when selling the textbook (or the price that you originally bought the textbook for). Set the initial listed price a little bit higher than the lowest price. For example, if the lowest you would be willing to go is $100, try listing your textbook at $115 or $120. Doing this method will allow negotiations to go more smoothly as when people ask you to go lower, you can easily do so while maintaining a profit.

Selling to other college students will also be more helpful if you sell textbooks in a bundle if you have all of the necessary textbooks for a class. Students would be willing to shell out money for a textbook bundle if it means that they get to skip out on the trouble of searching for individual textbooks.

Sell them to sites that buy used textbooks

Websites like Chegg and Uloop will buy back students’ used textbooks, giving you the perfect opportunity to get rid of last semester’s textbooks for extra cash. While these sites won’t buy back every textbook, they take many textbooks and will help you get rid of textbooks that aren’t used for current classes at your college campus.

A possible downside to using this method to getting rid of last semester’s textbooks is going through the process of packaging and mailing out your used textbooks. If you have mailing supplies around, you don’t have this step as you don’t need to worry about spending money on packaging materials. The process, however, is relatively easy. Just package your textbook(s) up, attach a prepaid shipping label (sites will provide this for you), and send the package on its way. Your money should follow shortly after.

If you have the time, make sure to shop around different textbook sites to get yourself the best and most convenient deal.

Buying college textbooks is nowhere near the best part of college, but getting rid of last semester’s textbooks doesn’t need to be as hard as acquiring them. Find out a method that works best for you to clear off your bookshelf while, hopefully, getting back some cash at the same time.

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