Sell Books Online: 10 Best Websites

Are you searching for the best websites to sell books in the US?

Or are you looking for textbook buyback stores near your area?

If yes, you’ve come to the right place!

You can sell textbooks, mainly college textbooks from your previous semesters on sites like BookDeal.

You can get instant quotes and free shipment for your college textbooks.

Alternatively, if you’re looking to sell books, mainly old, rare, fiction or non-fiction books, you may list them on sites like AbeBooks and Amazon.

The following websites and bookstores are the greatest options if you’re looking for the best buyback deals, fast payment, and good customer service!

Best websites to sell books & textbooks

1. BookDeal ↓ – Best Overall and for Comparing Offers
2. BooksRun ↓ – Best for Getting Higher Prices
3. AbeBooks ↓ – Best for Selling Rare Books, Maps and Collectibles
4. Amazon ↓ – Best for Selling Books of All Types and Conditions
5. SellBackYourBooks ↓ – Good for selling textbooks
6. TextbookRush ↓ – Good for selling textbooks
7. BookFinder ↓ – Solid Alternative
8. eCampus ↓ – Solid Alternative
9. GoTextbooks ↓ – Solid Alternative
10. CampusBooks ↓ – Solid Alternative

#1 BookDeal.com – Best Overall and for Comparing Offers

BookDeal is the best place to sell books. The platform has the best and numerous textbook buyback vendors. So you can compare offers on one page and choose the one with the highest price!

Just enter the ISBN below and get instant quotes. ISBN is 10-13 digits and can be found on the back of the book next to the barcode or copyright page.

Here’s how the selling process works: 

• Enter your book’s ISBN on the Home Page

• Choose your preferred quote 

• You’ll find different options in the sections that follow.

• Go through the Deal Summary, which only takes a few minutes of your time. Then, ship your textbooks for free. 

When the vendor receives your package, you get paid through Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle.

BookDeal has a guarantee policy that ensures you always get paid the amount you quoted. So you have nothing to worry about. 

Watch our quick tutorial guide on how to sell your textbooks on BookDeal.

Related: How to Get the Most Out of BookDeal

Pro tip: You can also get the quotes from our partner Sell Textbooks Online. They launched in 2023 and have many buyback options for used books and textbooks.

#2 BooksRun – For Getting The Best Deals

BooksRun is one of the best websites to sell books. You can buy, sell, or even rent used and new textbooks through them. 

They usually offer great deals for used books; however, from our experience, their support team takes some time to reach out via email.

Enter the book’s ISBN you want to sell and hit search to begin selling your college textbooks. The “seller cart” page will open, where you can check out the books. 

You’ll be able to print the prepaid mailing label and ship your books within five days of placing your order after checking out the book.

#3 AbeBooks.com – Sell All Types of Books including Rare Books and Collectibles

Think of AbeBooks.com as an alternative to eBay, but it’s only for buying and selling books. Most of the websites in this list are great for selling relevant college textbooks. So you can use them for a reasonable price.

But that’s not the case with AbeBooks. You can sell almost any book on AbeBooks.com, including your Harry Potter novels.

All you have to do is register as a seller, fill in all the required info, list your books for sale, and wait for the order!
If you don’t know your books’ worth, you can use the AbeBooks search system to check the price.

#4 Amazon – Sell Used & New Books of Any Type

Even though Amazon closed its trade-in program, Amazon is still an ideal platform for selling books online, either college textbooks, rare books, or flip books for profit. 

If you can get good deals on used books at local bookshops, you can resell them on Amazon and keep the difference.

Amazon allows you to sell different books, from new and used textbooks to rare or collectible ones. And you can also sell in different formats like paperbacks, hardcovers, or ebooks. 

If you want to make successful sales on Amazon, follow the below steps:

You can use Amazon’s Buy Shipping services if you’re fulfilling the orders yourself. 

This service offers automatic confirmation. And you can label, ship your books, and confirm and track your orders in one place.

If you want to make successful sales on Amazon, follow the below steps: 

a. Create An Amazon Seller Account 

Amazon gives you two options to create a seller account: Individual and professional. Choosing any of these options will depend on whether: 

• You want to sell less or more than 40 items each month, or 
• You prefer a monthly fee

The individual seller plan doesn’t come with a monthly fee. But you pay $0.99 for every sale you make. So it’s an ideal plan if you’re just starting to sell textbooks. 

But if you’re confident you can sell more than 40 items monthly, you can choose the professional plan for $39.99. 

b. Choose Your Order Fulfillment Plan 

Amazon offers two ways to fulfill your orders: Merchant Fulfilled Network (MFN) and Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA). If you want to handle the fulfillment process (inventory, packing, and shipping,) consider the MFN. 

The MFN gives room to customize your packaging, and it’s cheaper than the FBA. But it can be time-consuming to handle the logistics of fulfilling orders. 

If you don’t have that time, you can use the FBA, and Amazon will take care of everything for you. You even get Prime shipping, and it’s ideal if you don’t have enough space for inventory. But the charges can be expensive. 

So find out what option works for you before proceeding. 

c. List Your Textbooks On Amazon

Follow the below steps to list your textbooks on Amazon: 

• Enter the textbook’s ISBNs into Amazon’s search bar. (You’ll have to ISBN manually if it was published before 1970.) 
• Click on the “Sell on Amazon” button on the product listing page. Then, generate your SKU or leave it blank, and Amazon will automatically generate one. 
• Choose your price and enter the total quantity. 
• Select the book’s condition. (Be honest with the textbook’s quality) 
• Pick a fulfillment method (MFN or FBA).

d. Ship Your Textbooks 

How you fulfill your orders (FBA or MFN) will determine how you ship your textbooks. 

Here’s how the process works for the FBA method: 

• Use your Amazon Seller Central account to create your shipment. To send or restock merchandise to Amazon, see the detailed procedure.
• Pack your textbooks to have them delivered to an Amazon Fulfillment Center. You can check the packaging and preparation requirements for more details. 
• After checking the shipment label requirements, label the packages before sending them. 

Using the MFN Method: 

• Use your seller account to manage your orders 
• Package the books properly and securely 
• Print off and get ready your packing slip. Amazon will create a product and shipping label in PDF format.
• Use the carrier you want to send your package. But you can use Amazon’s shipping to send to a fulfillment center at a discounted price. 

You can use Amazon’s Buy Shipping services if you’re fulfilling the orders yourself. This service offers automatic confirmation. And you can label, ship your books, and confirm and track your orders in one place.

#5 Sellbackyourbook.com – Best for its Customer Support

SellBackYourBooks is also a great site to sell textbooks and get great value.

Based on our research, this website offers the best deals across the web, and their customer support team reaches back out almost instantly via the live chat on their website.

The selling process is very similar to the other websites on the list, such as BookDeal or BooksRun. 

Remember, though, SellBackYourBook doesn’t buy multiple books of the same title. That means if you have more than one identical textbook you want to sell, you won’t be able to do so on this platform.

#6 TextbookRush – Good for Selling Textbooks

TextbookRush is another good website to sell your textbooks, and they offer fast free shipping via FedEx, which takes up to 5 days. 

According to their website, if you ship via FedEx and select Paypal, you should get your quoted money within six days.

Check out their FAQs before sending your books to ensure you adhere to all their guidelines. So, if you want to know where to sell books, consider TextbookRush.

More Options to Sell Books Online

#7 BookFinder

BookFinder is also a popular comparison site for selling books online. It searches multiple websites to get the top deals, and it’s convenient for locating the highest buyback offers. 

However, selling regular books isn’t a great place, as you wouldn’t find desirable results. If you want the best place to sell books, specifically textbooks, consider BookFinder.

#8 eCampus

If you want to know where to sell used books, consider eCampus. From my research, eCampus does not buy all the popular textbooks, so don’t expect to sell all of your textbooks here. You can get good prices for them, though. 

They pay hard cash via direct deposit, PayPal, or check and offer store credit options! You can check out eCampus if you want to sell books online.

#9 GoTextbooks

Gotextbooks.com is also a sweet option if you want to know where to sell books. The site is super user-friendly and easy to sell used textbooks. People seem to dig it, but I must say, it’s a bit sketchy that there’s no contact info on the site!

I ran the same ISBNs and got offers for only two textbooks – the same ones on eCampus. However, the prices on eCampus are slightly higher at around.

#10 CampusBooks

If you want the best place to sell books, consider CampusBooks.com because it lets you compare buyback offers from different places. So you’re sure to get the best prices for your used textbooks. 

I’ve used it before, and their platform is easy to navigate. Also, their customer support is on point, making the whole process smooth sailing.

I tested their customer support response time via email, and it was 14 hours, which is decent but not as good as BookDeal or SellBackYourBook!

I ran the same ISBNs and got quotes for all but one. The offers are decent and let you compare offers from several buyback vendors. 

You can sell on CampusBooks without worrying about getting bad deals!

Tips for selling textbooks online

Here’s a few more tips:

➡️ Make sure to read every textbook buyback website’s guidelines before sending your books.

➡️ Select PayPal for the fastest payment

➡️ Keep in mind that shipping delays are not in the buyback websites’ control

The pros of selling textbooks online

There are a few advantages of selling your textbooks, and the primary one is the convenience. 

Get instant quotes

Whether you sell through BookDeal, Bookscouter or any other platform, you can get instant quotes for your books within mere seconds.

All you have to do is enter the ISBN into the search bar, and that’s it!

Choose from multiple vendors

Another benefit is that you will get prices from not one, but multiple vendors. This gives you a lot of options to choose from. 

So, instead of walking around the city, and trying to figure out who will pay the most for your books, you can just select one of the online vendors who offers the highest price for your textbooks.

Get higher prices for your used books

Since traditional brick and mortar bookstores have a lot more expenses such as rent, traditional bookstores can offer a lot more bucks for your books. 

The same is true for buying books as well.

Ship your books for free

Textbook buyback websites usually offer free shipping once you have reached the minimum buyback price. 

Once you accept one of the offers, whether you’re selling one book, or multiple, you can print the free USPS shipping label, and ship textbooks at absolutely zero cost.

Then all you have to do is to pack your books properly and ship!

The cons of selling textbooks online

Although the advantages of selling books online outweighs the disadvantages, there are still a couple of things to consider.

Shipping and processing takes time

It can take up to a week, and in some cases more for your books to arrive at the vendors’ doors. 

Once they do arrive, it will take a couple days more to get the books processed, check their conditions and issue your payment.

Initial quotes may vary in rare cases

Let’s say you’re selling your textbook ‘’Principles of Floral Design’’ and decide that the book is in a ‘’Good’’ condition and choose the appropriate price which is $32.27:

However, when your book arrives at a vendor, they check that your book apparently has a few missing pages, and some highlighting marks.

Yikes! Maybe you didn’t take a look at the condition guidelines.

But that’s okay… The vendor will check your book thoroughly and assign the correct condition and the price. They will also let you know about it.

If you want to avoid disputes over book’s condition, it’s recommended that you take the pictures of your books in advance and upload it to the website.

BookDeal has such a feature:

Where to sell back textbooks across USA

Half Price Books is your #1 option as it has book stores across the US, and chances are they might be near your area too. Their shops are located in 15+ states including 

• California
• Texas
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Washington
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Idaho
• Kentucky
• Kansas
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• Tennessee
• Wisconsin

Check out this link for the exact addresses.

All you have to do is to take your books to their store so they evaluate your books’ conditions, market value and give you a quote. 

The upside of this option is that you won’t have to wait several days for the books to get shipped and your payment to get processed.

Check out other textbook buyback locations across USA:

Sell Textbooks in Boston

Sell Textbooks in Charlotte

Sell Textbooks in Chicago

Sell Textbooks in Denver

Sell Textbooks in Indianapolis

Sell Textbooks in Jacksonville

Sell Textbooks in Las Vegas

Sell Textbooks in Nashville

Sell Textbooks in New Orleans

Sell Textbooks in Oklahoma

Sell Textbooks in Philadelphia

Sell Textbooks in San Diego

Sell Textbooks in San Francisco

Sell Textbooks in Tampa

Sell Textbooks in Tulsa

Where to Sell Books in New York

Strand BookStore is one of the best places to sell used books in New York. They are also one of the best book buyers in NYC.

All you need to do is show up with your books at the shop.

An employee will take and give them to people who will analyze the book’s condition, how much it is worth, the demand for the book and give you a final quote.

Strand Books Address: 828 Broadway, New York, NY 10003

Looking for other options? Check out this post:

Where to Sell Used Books in New York

Where to Sell Textbooks in Los Angeles, California

Angel City Books is one of the best textbook buyback stores in Los Angeles.

You can drop your textbooks in the store 7 days a week, from 11:30am to 5pm.

Angel City Books Address: 218 Pier Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90405

Looking for other options? Check out this post:

Where to Sell Used Books in Los Angeles

Where to Sell College Textbooks in Houston, Texas

Kaboom Books is your best bet, if you’re looking for another option alongside Half-price Books. 

It’s a very friendly place judging from its Instagram account, and they buy and sell a lot of second hand books. 

Kaboom Books Address: 3116 Houston Av., Houston, TX 77009

Looking for other options? Check out this post:

Where to Sell Books in Houston

Final thoughts 

You can find numerous sites if you’re looking for the best website to sell books. 

However, not everyone will give you the profit you need, and some will not be willing to buy your books. 

Fortunately, the list discussed in this guide helps you know how to sell books online, giving you a good head start. 

But before you proceed, make sure to read the terms and conditions. 

Reading the terms and conditions will give you the information to make your bookselling successful. 

If you want the best website to sell books, we recommend BookDeal.com. 

Visit BookDeal.com to sell your textbooks, enter your ISBN, secure your books, send it to us for free, and get paid!

FAQ

Is selling books online profitable?

Yes. You can make a decent income from selling books online. But, of course, you probably shouldn’t count on it to fund your retirement. Paperback books in good condition often fetch a few dollars. But rare editions and hardback can earn you much more. 

What is an acceptable condition for books?

The acceptable book condition largely depends on where you sell your books. But generally, the books shouldn’t have water damage, and all the pages must be included. Also, the books shouldn’t have any odors like mold or cigarette smell. For BookDeal, highlighting and notes should be less than 10 pages. 

What is the best place to sell used books?

The best place to sell used books is BookDeal. You can sell your textbooks in a few minutes, and the selling process is straightforward. Just enter your ISBN, select your preferred quote, complete the deal summary, and ship the books for free. We have a guarantee policy to secure your payment. 

What is the most effective way to sell a book?

The best way to sell your books is through bookselling sites like BookDeal or Amazon. Using these platforms saves you time, money, and energy. For example, you don’t have to pay for shipping when you sell on BookDeal. However, that’s not how all bookselling sites are. So you’ll have to do your research before selling your books. 

Does Amazon buy second-hand books?

Yes. You can sell your second-hand books at Amazon using any of their fulfilling orders (FBA or MFN). And depending on how many used books you want to sell in a month, you may have to choose an individual or professional selling plan. 

How much do Amazon booksellers make?

The average monthly sales for an Amazon seller is over $1,000, with some super-sellers bringing in over $100,000. Fifty percent of Amazon sellers make between $1,000 and $25,000 per month, which translates to between $12,000 and $300,000 in annual revenue.

How do I sell used college textbooks?

There are several ways to sell used college textbooks. You can sell them online, at bookstores, or directly to college students. But some methods can generate more revenue for you. So you’ll have to do your research to find the best option. Check out this guide for more details: How to Sell College Books In 2022. 

Does Chegg buy used textbooks?

Yes. Chegg’s “sell textbooks” page buys back and sells used textbooks online. The method of selling textbooks through Chegg is simple. Simply type your ISBN into the search bar to get a quote and sell your books if you’re happy with them.

How much do college books sell for?

As of the 2021-2022 academic year, the average cost of books and supplies for college students was between $628 and $1,471. Hard copy textbooks often cost between $80 to $150, with some selling for as much as $400. On average, a textbook’s price goes up by 12% when a new edition is released.

How do I find the ISBN of a book?

The ISBN is usually found next to the barcode on the back of a book. If you can’t find the ISBN there, check the page with the publisher and copyright information. 

Can I sell my book without ISBN? (not on BD)

Yes. You can sell textbooks on sites like Bookscouter and Amazon without an ISBN. But remember that you’ll require an exemption when selling on Amazon. BooksDeal doesn’t accept textbooks without ISBN.

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