Selling second hand books 🫤

[shellyleppard]

Trying to sell a book, read it once, published last year. The prices offered by online book sellers are terrible!!! Music magpie....48 pence, world of books £1.48 !!! Tried Facebook marketplace but I'm waiting for them to approve my age 😂😂😂😂 I'm 56 😂😂😂does anyone else think the price is very low on the resale sites?

It depends on the book? I just paid £17 for a secondhand book by Jung that I couldn't find anywhere else at a cheaper price. That was World of Books.

@LilyLillyO i will have a look at those sites, thank you for the advice

Are you delivering? Because if not by the time they’ve paid postage they may as well buy new.

Yeah, people don't bother selling second hand books really. We run a Little Free Library and have a room full of bookshelves of books people have donated; we sort them and put them out in the library as and when.

That's a bit rude.

I've never heard of anyone selling a book before. I give to charity shops or pop the in the book swap bird box thing at the end of the road. Or pass them on to friends and family. Unless you are talking about a collectors edition, first print them maybe eBay is your friend?

You won't get much for them unfortunately.
The second hand book sites have to make a profit and they can't charge a lot for the books because people won't pay much and if it's a book from last year there could be hundreds of them floating around and people wanting to sell them so the sites aren't going to pay much.
With books I accept that I'll get nothing for them but I still need to get rid of them so I either sell them on to a site and accept I might get a tenner for a pile of them and at least that's better than nothing or I put them on facebook marketplace as a job lot and can usually get rid of a big box for thirty euros or so.

If you think you have something of value such as an antique book or first edition then you should first ask an antiquarian book seller. I did that when my Dad died and left 1000s of books behind. The book seller came out to the flat and sorted through everything, took away about 20 books and gave me 300 quid for them.
He said that most of the rest of it wouldn't make any money at all because of supply and demand and recommended I donated them to a local charity which was running a book sale.

I sell books on eBay and it’s generally only specialist non-fiction that does well. Or books that are out of print. I’ve had books be snapped up in ten minutes of posting and others that have taken weeks to sell.

Places like music magpie and ziffit are only really good if you have a lot to get rid of and don’t mind accepting a low price.

Donated mine to the community library

I don't sell many but did a load for a relative. eBay was the best but it was a pain for sod all returns. No first editions or anything but some decent quality. I would suggest buy it now factoring in your p&p expenses otherwise it'll just be the same conversation repeatedly about combining postage when it's often not viable for books to just double up for free when working small scale.

Wow I bought that last week in Waterstones for full price. Good buy! 😅

People give them away free or swap them now.

I don't even bother taking recent 'best seller' type paperbacks to the charity shop. I put them in the recycling. There's always a truckload of Richard Osman/Lee Child/Lisa Jewell etc on chazza shelves. I think of paperbacks as like magazines really - they are meant to be read and enjoyed and then passed on or pulped. They aren't collectors items.

Try olio as well, maybe nextdoor

Do your local charity shops not take paperbacks?? Surely any extra dosh for them is better than pulping /recycling??

Our charity shops are full of Lee Childs/50 shades and Jamie Oliver...

They do sell though!

Most second hand books are effectively worthless, as you have discovered. It will cost at least £2-3 to post them, which has to be factored in for anyone reselling online.

Like a PP says, don't buy new books if don't want to write off the cost.

Either buy second hand, use the library or buy on Kindle when on a deal. I only read fiction on Kindle, and only ever buy the books I want when the're on a 99 p deal. I have hundreds of unread books so I don't need to pay any more. If I want a reference/non fiction/recipe/coffee table book, I'll usually buy it second hand.

I give mine to the National Trust as it's easiest, just put them in the car when we visit and quite a few people seem to use their bookshops, I gave them a boxed set of Game of Thrones books just this last week.

It's usually older non fiction books that you can sell, I had great trouble trying to get a copy of Haynes manual of the 1930s house for less than £20, lots were £40+, it has been reprinted now so the price has dropped to about £15+.

Probably to resell at a car boot

Try vinted but as above posters said delends on the book. You can only try op. Iv sold books £5.00 mostly but can take a while.

I looked at selling a load of books but realised I would make very little for the amount of effort required. You will be in completion with charity book shops as well as book swops etc.

I avoid buying new books now.

@Offtobuttonmoontovisitmrspoon thanks I will pop it to my local library

You've never ever heard of anyone selling a book?
It's really fairly usual.

It's usually older non fiction books that you can sell

Just wanted to say thanks to @shellyleppard for this thread. There was "an older non fiction book" I'd been looking for for years. It's normally listed for between £100 - £200 as it's rare. Periodically I have a look for it in book shops and on abebooks. I googled it as a result of this thread and randomly found a copy fo £15! I actually can't believe it and am SO chuffed.

I sell to WofB, they collect them for free.