Proudly marketed as "an eBay company," Half.com offers users a platform for selling all types of media, including movies, CDs, books, and, of course, textbooks. Unlike eBay, however, Half.com does not employ the Internet auction format to help sell your used items. Instead, Half.com has a traditional "click now to purchase" configuration, listing products by ISBN number, subject, title or author. To sell on Half.com, you will need to create a free user account. Half.com does not charge listing fees or closing fees. Listing your items is easy with the "quick sell" and "multiple item listing" features, which require the ISBN number of the textbooks for sale.
Promising to help you sell your books in "four easy steps," Cash4Books.net seems to be one of the most popular used book-selling websites available. The steps begin as you enter the ISBN numbers of your "good condition" textbooks. "Good condition" is specifically defined by Cash4Books, and they will only accept books that meet certain criteria. Next, you will be required to provide your contact information and preferred method of payment. Payment is made via check or PayPal, seller's choice. Once you have decided on your preferred method of payment, you can ship your used books to Cash4Books, using the provided pre-paid shipping labels. After your used textbooks are received and processed, you will be paid for the books within three business days.
The Cash4Books.net website has many user testimonials, and it is also listed as a Better Business Bureau Accredited Business. They do, however, state that they typically only purchase books with a publishing date of 2006 or newer.
Another popular online resource for used textbook-selling is the Amazon Marketplace. A user must create an Amazon.com account before selling at the Amazon Marketplace. Textbooks can be listed by ISBN, as with other similar websites. Amazon does differ, however, in the fact that they do charge fees, but a fee will only be charged if your textbook sells. After the textbook sells, funds will be placed into a Marketplace Payments account, which is set up by Amazon. A $.99 transaction fee is applied to every sale, as well as a commission fee and a closing fee. Much like eBay, Amazon allows sellers access to lots of exposure and a good name, but those extra "services" do not come free.
Selling used textbooks requires some detailed research. Check that the company that you sell to has good reputation. You can find information about most businesses through the Better Business Bureau, which provides business ratings and customer reviews. If you're careful and smart, you can make some of that money back that you've dished out on expensive textbooks over the years.