Best Ways to Get Money for Your Used Textbooks

On November 15, 2010

I’m a senior at Texas State University this year, and one thing I dread at the beginning of each semester is buying textbooks. I’m going to share a few of the ways I get the most money back for my used textbooks.

Megan Ally
Texas State University


The bookstores charge you an outrageous amount of money for your books, and then when you try to sell them back, they offer you hardly anything. I finally got fed up with only having one option to sell back my textbooks, so I did my research and found that selling textbooks online is a great way to get money back for my used textbooks; however, that’s not the only key to getting money back for your used textbooks. Since college students always need the extra cash, I’m going to share a few of the ways I get the most money back for my used textbooks.

Here are my tips for getting the most money back for your used textbooks:

1. Try to keep your textbooks in good condition. A textbook that is almost as good as new will bring in more money than a textbook that has taken a beating.

2. Limit your highlighting. I know sometimes it helps you study if you highlight important information in your book, but books with a lot of highlighting and dog-eared pages won’t sell for as much.

3. Buy used. If you can find a used version of your textbook, buy it. Your net loss won’t be as much if you pay less for a textbook when you first buy it (a.k.a. buy it used and it’s cheaper). Check sites like Uloop for textbooks for sale.

When you’re ready to sell back your used textbooks, I have one piece of advice: Sell online. I’ve found that when you sell textbooks online, you usually get more money than you would if you sold them back to your university bookstore. There are a lot of sites out there that allow you to list your used textbooks for sale, you just have to look for them. Uloop is a great place to advertise your used textbooks to your fellow students.

If you keep your textbooks in good condition and sell them back online, you can get a decent amount of money back for your used textbooks. Last semester I ended up making money when I sold back one of my books online, and I hope you can be as lucky.

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