Selling Books online

**Telephus44** · 06-11-2005, 03:52 PM

I have been selling books on Half.com for about a year and half now. I basically went through my bookshelves and sold what I no longer wanted. I have recently begun to think of maybe buying books at yard sales just to sell them. Another book site I use is BooksintoCash.com - its mostly for textbooks, but a lot of fiction books are used in English classes.

Well, I stopped at a local town yard sale today, and picked through the libary's books. They were 10 for $1. I picked out 10. I could immediately sell 3 of them on BooksintoCash for $5.56! I have all of the others listed on Half.com. I'm going to really work at figuring out what type of books sell best, and hopefully I can turn this into some kind of part-time income (right now I make about $10 a month - good for the EF, but not really what I'm hoping for).

Right now I'm going to sit down and start getting serious about organizing the books I have listed, setting up a timetable to review my pricing, etc.

**Emerald_Mommy** · 06-11-2005, 05:07 PM

Great work!

I haven't been to any yard sales yet this year. My dh sometimes uses your strategy with Star Wars toys or G.I Joes. I've never thought about selling books though. After my haul at the Library sale I really ought to consider it.

**Mom23boys** · 06-11-2005, 07:28 PM

Sounds to me like you will have a part time business going before you know it.

Good luck with the book sales!

**crdurham** · 06-11-2005, 08:10 PM

Sounds like a good plan, let us know how it works out for you.

**jlxian** · 06-14-2005, 03:38 PM

Great job! This intrigues me a lot.

I've got several very nice books I bought during a unfrugal spell from one of those Home Decorating/Crafts book clubs. Most of them I never look at and I would do better to liquidate them in some sort of a sale -- but not a yard sale.

Must investigate!

**Mom23boys** · 06-14-2005, 08:06 PM

Thank you for listing the Booksintocash site. I found some textbooks I no longer use and checked it out. I will be sending them in and receiving a check.

Thank you Sara!

**waterlover** · 06-15-2005, 08:03 AM

Hi Telephus44 -
Books are great to sell because of easy packing and using media mail to ship keeps the expense down. Garage sales are a good place to to buy books. I sell books, CD's and other items on ebay. The books that I found the hardest to sell were travel books.
The ones that have sold the best are craft books. I can find these in pretty good condition, like new, at garage sales.
I have never sold anything on half.com, I'll check that out.
I have a friend that has sold books on ebay but prefers to sell on Amazon, she feels she makes more money.

**kaykwilts** · 06-15-2005, 11:18 AM

I sell books on half.com and amazon too. We need to exchange tips on the best books to buy to resell. On the frugal living site at about.com here are some books that people posted that they got big bucks for on ebay, half.com, and amazon.

Farm Journal Cookbook~ Canning, Freezing, Cooking and Storing
Published 1936, original hardback copy

Hi, Pizza Man

books on the narrow guage railroad
Two Feet by the Rails

Children's books by Dorothy Lyons

Bright Wampum; Red Embers; Copper Khan and first editions of Silver Birch and Midnight Moon

Modular Crochet

Rage by Richard Bachman (Stephen King) originally published in paperback

Psycho by Robert Bloch hardback first edition
Blanc Mont

Bird books can do well, big ones with color plates..... my copy of Rex Brasher's Treasury of Bird Paintings sold for $31.00

Make Your Own Groceries by Daphne Metaxas Hartwig
Tramp Art
Knitting From the Top, $20.
Japanese Embroidery, $20.
Basic Wax Modeling (Jewely-making), $30.
Authentic Georgian Doll's House, $20. New copies still pop up for $7.
Love Is... books. I got $73 for a set of 3.
Making Shoes and Handbags $25.
The Best Littl;e Bead Book $21.
No Strings Attached (Muppets) $20.
Collecting Thimbles $20.
Flameworking (Glass blowing) $25.

Here is a posting from a lady on books she selects:

The best books to buy used are how-to books for unusual crafts, and a few common ones. I can usually make a profit on books on knitting, leathercrafts, polymer clay, stained glass, origami, Wilton cake yearbooks, weaving, tatting, woodcarving, making dollhouses and their furniture, paper making, fine art painting, gemstone carving (I've actually found that one twice), metalwork (even blacksmithing) and jewelry design. The most unusual one I sold last year was on making custom shoes. (Made $25 on it.) I don't bother with books on crewel embroidery, quilting, stenciling, faux painting, needlepoint, macrame, cross stitch in hard cover books or anything from Better Homes and Gardens or Southern Living. Most of my buying mistakes fell into these categories and you may see me listing them in lots soon.

**Telephus44** · 06-15-2005, 06:39 PM

Wow, thanks for the advice on what sells!

So far, all I've discovered that doesn't sell (because there are a million copies out there!) are popular fiction (especially paperbacks and Oprah's Book of the Month). I have had the most success with non-fiction sciencey kind of paperbacks. The one I got the worst deal on was "The Missing Nose Flute" - it's a postcard book. Mine was given to me by an ex-uncle and I sold it for $8 without doing much research - it should have sold for $40 or $50. Live and learn, I guess.

I will have to keep my eyes open for craft books.

**pamy** · 06-29-2005, 02:32 PM

Sara and Kay,
If you don't mind sharing. . . could you explain how you decided to use the websites you use? I'm not usually a dense person but start looking at the rules and get so confused.

Thanks!
Patti

**mom2matty** · 06-29-2005, 02:58 PM

Good luck with your sales......I have heard of half.com and have always been curious about how well it works for selling books.........I have tons of them I would love to get rid of!!!

**annieacid** · 06-30-2005, 06:59 PM

I also sell books. I use half.com, because amazon charges WAY more selling fees. If you go to booksalefinder.com, you'll be able to look up book sales in your area. That's what we do, we check out library book sales, and they usually have bag sales (1 bag for $3 - $5). Now I'm not always able to sell everything I buy, because I'm at the stage where I just kind of get what looks like it might sell, but what I don't sell I figure I will trade in at used book places and get some credit, or sell them in a big lot for cheap. I still make a profit. Last week I bought a bag for $3.00, and already sold 3, and made a bit of a profit. Add in there all the stuff that I'm selling that is mine and I don't want anymore, and it's a pretty good profit for way part-time time investment. Plus I make soaps seasonally, so that helps too, but I digress!!

I've found my best sellers have been certain self-help books and especially books on specific medical conditions. Make sure those are as up to date as possible, though, because health info updates often.

I usually use craigslist.org to post items that won't sell for anything on half.com or ebay, and I list them there really cheap. Sometimes they sell, sometimes they don't, but I exhaust all avenues and give it some time before I decide the thing isn't going to sell.

I guess I go a little overboard because I have a spreadsheet including lots of different places to post sales and such. It keeps growing. I also have a spreadsheet that shows my profit after all expenses and such, and I keep a little envelope of what I call "free money" in my purse. I keep adding to it when I sell random things, but don't add that money to my actual spreadsheet budget. We're using a teeny bit of it, but saving the rest for Christmas gifts when that comes up, so we don't have to worry about the expense. We have 250+ bucks saved from our soap selling at last year's Christmas season, plus about 60-70 from recent sales of books and random stuff.

I wish everyone luck in their selling endeavors!

**Telephus44** · 06-30-2005, 08:44 PM

Wow! What a great site! I bookmarked it and wrote down a couple of sales I want to go to. Since I bought my last batch at a town library sale, I was wondering if there wasn't some way to figure out when other towns are having them.

And yes, I'm anal about my records too - even though most of the stuff I've sold has just been decluttering my shelves, I've started to keep track of expenses and income - I'm going to treat this as a part-time business.

**annieacid** · 07-01-2005, 07:59 AM

Oh, one thing I forgot to say is that since not all book sales may be posted there on booksalefinder, you should try checking your library's website (and the neighboring county's library websites) for sales.

Can you tell I spend A TON of time searching for stuff on the net? It's crazy