If you’ve been looking at book reselling as a business idea, know you are not alone. Thousands of book scouts purchase books for the sole purpose of reselling them. Why is that? There is a massive market for book reselling. The profitability of it, however, is different for everyone. How much you make depends on two key things:
Your goals
Your interests
At the start, you’ll see low returns, but as you gain experience and knowledge, you can turn it into a steady passive source of income. For example, if you’re searching for first-edition books of classics (often found at the library and estate sales), you can make some good money reselling them. Books like Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged or Ray D. Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 are considered classics in the first edition.
However, the income may be enough to cover the monthly household expenses if you’re looking to sell old books or used textbooks with BookScouter.
Six Places to Find Books You Can Sell
If book reselling is a venture you want to get into, you’ll be glad to know there are several places you can turn to make your profit.
Your Book Collection
The first place you can turn is your book collection. These can be your textbooks, kid or comic books you have collected over the years or even books friends have given you.
Local Book Sales
Once you’ve reviewed your book collection, keep your ears open for local book sales. For example, your local library may set up a place to give away books they no longer have space for. Garage sales are another place to find common and rare books. Often, people will sell books here because it’s taking up much-needed space in their home, or they will be moving and don’t want to take the books with them.
Estate Sales
You can also go to estate sales and spend pennies on old and priceless books. When a loved one has passed away, the family usually tries to get rid of their stuff quickly. In most cases, there is no haggling over any offered price.
Social Media
People often turn to their social media pages to remove items they no longer need or want. They may sell these items in bulk on social media or another platform at a low price. You can purchase the lot, selling those you believe will make you money while donating or recycling the rest.
Free Giveaways
When people want to declutter their homes, they get rid of things for free to anybody willing to pick them up. Usually, this involves giving away a whole bunch of books at one time. You may or may not find the gem in the bunch, but you’re liable to come across something that can turn a profit for you.
Online Arbitrage
Online arbitrage is one of the laziest ways to find books you can resell. In the comfort of your home, you can browse through an array of book-selling websites and price match against sites such as Amazon. When you find a book cheaper than the ones sold on Amazon, you can purchase it and create an Amazon listing after it arrives to resell.
BookScouter App Makes it Easier to Compare Book Prices
Turn a profit with your used or old books and textbooks with the help of the BookScouter app. The app isn’t a reselling platform but a place to compare prices from over 40 book buyback retailers. There’s no fee to use the user-friendly app. How does it work?
Download the BookScouter app for your Android or iOS device and scan the book’s ISBN. You’ll receive a quote and place an order with the preferred vendor. You can also visit BookScouter.com to search for an ISBN to find real-time price quotes quickly. Pick the one you want, pack, send the book out, and receive your payment.
BookScouter will connect you with vendors willing to pay more than offerings on Amazon. The option also includes Pro Tools (at $29.99 a month) for getting the best deals, checking offers in bulk, and seeing historical buyback prices since, for textbooks, there’s high volatility in prices depending on the educational season.
