29 October 2011

Best way to sell old university textbooks?

| rbw
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Hey gang,

I’m moving overseas so I’m trying to find a way to sell some of my old university textbooks. I have a lot on IT, Economics and Marketing that are still relevant to this day.

So what are the best methods of selling them?

I’m not a member of either of the Universities here so I can’t sell on their classifieds. Any other ideas?

Thanks

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I would just sell them online. That is obviously where you’re going to make the most money from selling. Try and check out places like eCampus.com where you can get some great deals on any kind of textbooks you have.

Bateman’s Bay Library sounds like a better deal – ACT public libraries won’t touch donations. They just give everything to Lifeline. They have no staff to catalogue them and they don’t want anything more than 5 years old anyway (and that includes the history books… 🙂 )

watto23 said :

They may be current in what info the textbooks contain, but if they are not the current versions used for any courses then you’d be lucky to sell them for anything. Lifeline accepts these kinds of books as a donation also.
They really won’t be worth the money and time spent trying to sell them IMO.

While I left university 10 years ago i’ve also bought texts that are current and relevant that were needed for self education for my job. Those I will try to sell on ebay or textbook exchange.

as for the rest…

i’ve decided i’ll donate them to a public library. but not in Canberra – since people have access to material readily. I’ll donate them to probably the Batemens Bay public library when I am down there next week.

They may be current in what info the textbooks contain, but if they are not the current versions used for any courses then you’d be lucky to sell them for anything. Lifeline accepts these kinds of books as a donation also.
They really won’t be worth the money and time spent trying to sell them IMO.

I’d be interested in the IT books. If you can provide us a link to the textbook exchange page or add the book listing to a google speadsheet and post it up here. If you are a member of OCAU, put it up on the forums there and see what response you get

krats said :

Donate Them To Library.

Sorry, unless they’re classics, the uni libraries won’t want them – their user base need the current edition of textbooks, not older editions, and if they already have copies which aren’t heavily used they don’t have the shelf space to take on more. (Processing donations is actually much more expensive than you’d think.) They’ll already have a lot of relevant old texts in marketing, IT and economics.

Thanks to everyone who has responded. I’ll give textbook exchange a go. If I don’t get very far with them, then the days before I leave I will donate to the local libraries.

Cheers

screaming banshee said :

I’ve never understood people that sell off their reference texts for far less than they paid. For the few dollars they are worth why don’t you keep them both for future reference as the start of your reference library and for the history they hold.

maybe you didn’t read my original post. I’m moving overseas. I can’t take 60kg of books with me. I held onto them for a long time as reference books. Sadly people move around the world and we can’t take everything with us as much as I would hope to.

screaming banshee said :

I’ve never understood people that sell off their reference texts for far less than they paid. For the few dollars they are worth why don’t you keep them both for future reference as the start of your reference library and for the history they hold.

Depends how “advanced” they are to be honest. First year (and some second year stuff) is basically a hard copy wikipedia of your subject area, and would have no purpose in the work force.

poetix said :

Classified said :

How about considering the environment? Burn them!

Sorry, I don’t follow your logic here…

Sorry, just a bit of shoit stirrage…

Classified said :

How about considering the environment? Burn them!

Sorry, I don’t follow your logic here…

You’ll get a big audience from Text Book Exchange.

How about considering the environment? Burn them!

creative_canberran said :

A lot of books can still be useful but I’ve found lecturers updated the actually course texts yearly.

That would be because lecturers are often authors too.

They will happily release a new edition just so the page numbers change and you then spend half your time trying to track down the correct texts in your old edition (references always quoted in page numbers)… so you purchase the latest edition.

The other great spinoff from this is that lecturers often become top/best selling authors.

Or maybe i’m just a cynic and/or conspiracy theorist? 😐

screaming banshee10:17 pm 29 Oct 11

I’ve never understood people that sell off their reference texts for far less than they paid. For the few dollars they are worth why don’t you keep them both for future reference as the start of your reference library and for the history they hold.

Exchange them for money.

creative_canberran7:34 pm 29 Oct 11

Also an idea to check if the books are still recommended readings for the courses: http://www.coop-bookshop.com.au/bookshop/action/DataSubjSelect

A lot of books can still be useful but I’ve found lecturers updated the actually course texts yearly.

neanderthalsis said :

EBay. But best to wait for the start of the semester because no-one buys their text books six months in advance.

i’m not going to be in Australia then. Thanks anyway

krats said :

Donate Them To Library.

Thanks. That will be my last resort.

neanderthalsis6:32 pm 29 Oct 11

EBay. But best to wait for the start of the semester because no-one buys their text books six months in advance.

Find an ANU friend who will take them to the second hand book store (part of ANUSA).

http://sa.anu.edu.au/book-shop

Otherwise i’d work out what courses they’re suitable for. Print off many A4 signs (course, text book and a good cheap price), and put them up around the lecture halls for the year below. Do it now before we have exams. Oh, and watch out for time wasters. I’ll put money on the fact you’ll get calls from a certain demographic asking for you to hold onto it for them until next year.

AFAIK some of the residential colleges may have a library where the college will buy textbooks for their collection. This would be via a resident though.

I think you’ll need to be realistic in terms of price for any of the ideas to work.

Donate Them To Library.

textbookexchange.com.au
ebay.com.au

Do you know anyone that is still a student (or staff) at ANU? If yes you could always ask them to post the ad for you but put your contact information so that prospective buyers contact you directly. I have sold heaps of things using the ANU classifieds.

Alternatively try allclassifieds or gumtree? Depending on how much time and energy you want to spend you could also print some ads on paper and post them around the IT and Economics departments?

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