Comments on: Selling books at Half Price Books

By: Hari

Hari — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 07:39:12 +0000

I took a box of books to Half Price Books in Houston. I was told by the employee I talked to that they would “give an offer on the whole box, so I wouldn’t have to take any books back home” as if they were doing me a favor. I pointed out that if I brought the books individually, I’d be able to see what the offers were for each book. Another employee joined in the conversation at that point to agree with me, and told me that sometimes one can get better deals that way.

I removed one book from the box that I was particularly interested in (and would have been interested to see what they would offer, even though I knew I would probably try to sell it online on Amazon or half.com), a textbook that I had paid almost $100 for just a few months before.

They offered me 17 dollars for the other books, and I rejected the offer. One of the books in there was another book that I could have gotten a lot more from online. I never asked about the book I had held back.

By: emilyg

emilyg — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:41:43 +0000

Ugh I know what you mean — I sold a HUGE box full of books there earlier this year and was given a mere $3 in return. I was furious…I really should have just kept the books, but I felt like decluttering them. I love buying books there, but they really are ripping people off in the selling department.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:26:15 +0000

I’ve gotten totally ripped off there too, but do use them. They are especially picky about dvds. However, when I went thru all the out-grown kid books and hauled them in along with a few other things I came out with $67–my record!
Half.com etc require a trip to the post office or UPS Store. That pretty much ends if for me! Find [or buy] a padded envelop, remember to go to the post office, etc. Too much time.

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:56:24 +0000

Does Half Price Books offer store credit in return for your books? I try selling my books on half.com, then after a reasonable amount of time I take them into our wonderful, huge used book store. They offer about twice as much in “trade” as they do in cash. Then whenever we’re itching for a new book or movie, we limit ourselves to what we can find there. Of course, we have a serious book addiction…

By: Elizabeth Sue

Elizabeth Sue — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:52:22 +0000

Good idea to go to Half Price. I try Paperback swap first as well. But I never thought to take what no body wanted into the Half Price. Thank you for the tip on Magazines. We get a lot of magzines for free to use up frequent flyer miles. So, I will be dropping those off for some money today for sure!

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:30:30 +0000

I “recycle” most of my old books on Paperbackswap. It often takes a long time–two that I mailed out this week were listed for almost a year! If I’ve had a book listed for a year or more, I give up on it and bring it to Salvation Army, since those books are not usually worth the trouble to sell. Sounds like I’ve had better luck with it than you have…it’s hard to tell what’s going to get taken and what won’t.

By: jay

jay — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:31:00 +0000

Another possible resource:

http://www.cash4books.net/index.php

Just used this, worked like a dream.

By: jessica

jessica — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:47:29 +0000

i buy most of my books from half.com, finding them cheaper than half-price books, and the shipping is a flat fee instead of like ebay where sellers are charging ridiculous shipping fees. Half-price books is a favorite store of my mom and i. She and i used to love going there and spending hours (and lots of her money) on stacks of books. i have very fond memories with that store. But half.com has the absolute cheapest books for buying.
i should sell books. i have so many that i’ll never read again: i think i’ll be taking a trip to half-price soon, as i’m too lazy to list them all and then ship them.

By: Kacie

Kacie — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:36:08 +0000

Looks like a lot of you have had decent success with Half.com. I’ll have to try them before I try Amazon the next time I want to sell my books.

I loooove books but there’s only so many you need to own, right? I have so many that I haven’t even read yet, so I’m going to try to take care of that before I buy more. We’ll see how well that goes.

And Jared, you’re right–libraries are the best!

By: Jared McLaughlin

Jared McLaughlin — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:14:36 +0000

I feel like we’re running the same track here. I was just at Half Priced Books two days ago. I have an “outbox” for books that need to go there. I have a major problem with having too many books, which I noticed last time I moved. This prompted me to maintain my book level at a certain fixed point by getting rid of books before I take in new ones. Combine that with the wonders of public libraries, and you have access to so much near-free education it’s silly.