Would students be interested in this? (Textbook website)

[ISUCyclones2015]

I have a friend that is having a hard time selling their book and the refuse to sell it back to the bookstore because it's the biggest rip off ever. So that gave me an idea, a spin on the whole textbook buying and selling (used).

Would students be interested in a site where it would connect people who are buying and selling textbooks and just pay a nominal fee (I was thinking $2 each way per book) for that service? So selling, you would get back way more than selling it to Amazon, Chegg, Bookstore etc but buying it would still be pretty cheap. The buyer would send the money to the website and the seller wouldn't get the money into their account until the buyer says they received the book.

Then students who sold books wouldn't even have to withdraw their money, they could buy books with the money that is in their account. If they have any leftover then they could request a withdrawal.

Just some musings of a Business Major and Entrepreneurial Studies minor. Oh and if there are any websites that are like this, then do please tell me.

 

[ISUAgronomist]

Craigslist/Amazon/Half all pretty much do this in a format that is easy to use. Sell your own books at a price you deem reasonable.

 

[benjay]

I think Amazon already has a service pretty much exactly like this. You set the price and wait for someone to buy it.

I have not used it myself so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[ISUAgronomist]

I think Amazon already has a service pretty much exactly like this. You set the price and wait for someone to buy it.

I have not used it myself so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

They do. It works well. I've sold many books through Amazon Marketplace and Half.com. Nothing better than a retiring professor having an office give-a-way. $$$$

 

[ISUCyclones2015]

Craigslist/Amazon/Half all pretty much do this in a format that is easy to use. Sell your own books at a price you deem reasonable.

Those websites (with the exception of craigslist) all make you send the book to a middle man, thus raising costs for the book and lowering buyback rates. Craigslist is obviously nice but a lot of people don't actually want to meet the person because of sketchiness.

 

[ISUAgronomist]

Those websites (with the exception of craigslist) all make you send the book to a middle man, thus raising costs for the book and lowering buyback rates. Craigslist is obviously nice but a lot of people don't actually want to meet the person because of sketchiness.

No they do not. You can set a price on Amazon Marketplace or Half.com and wait for it to sell. Yes, they get a commission but that's part of using a website to sell it (as I assume your friend would need to turn a profit too). You then send it to the person that purchased it.

 

[CloneAggie]

Those websites (with the exception of craigslist) all make you send the book to a middle man, thus raising costs for the book and lowering buyback rates. Craigslist is obviously nice but a lot of people don't actually want to meet the person because of sketchiness.

No they don't. Half.com you can sell your books directly to the people buying them.

 

[ISUAgronomist]

Half.com / Sell / Books

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/ezdpc-gui/seamless-listing-start.html/ref=im_list1item_smap_home

 

[IcSyU]

The market is saturated with low cost (Chegg) and name-brand (Amazon) options. It's going to be tough to penetrate.

For the majority of people, Chegg is your best friend.

I do think in the very near future everything is going to be eBooks and the publishing companies are going to price themselves out of the market.

 

[ISUCyclones2015]

No they do not. You can set a price on Amazon Marketplace or Half.com and wait for it to sell. Yes, they get a commission but that's part of using a website to sell it (as I assume your friend would need to turn a profit too). You then send it to the person that purchased it.

No they don't. Half.com you can sell your books directly to the people buying them.

Looking into it more, Half.com takes out 10-15% depending on the cost of the item and Amazon.com takes out $0.99 + 15%. But you can sell them back to Amazon/Half.com themselves and receive "store" credit.

So the idea is the same but at a much cheaper cost. Fair enough. I was just thinking about it on my walk back to my dorm. Carry on gentlemen.

 

[motorCYcle]

Looking into it more, Half.com takes out 10-15% depending on the cost of the item and Amazon.com takes out $0.99 + 15%. But you can sell them back to Amazon/Half.com themselves and receive "store" credit.

So the idea is the same but at a much cheaper cost. Fair enough. I was just thinking about it on my walk back to my dorm. Carry on gentlemen.

While there are sites like this already, it could be handy to do on campus. Really, you could make it into a "club" (not sure if you could charge a fee for each sale then??). If it was on campus, some people may offer the book + previous tests for certain classes and charge a bit more than other books. Same goes for pdf solution manuals or even lab manuals, which are usually around $10-15 and non returnable.

I have already thought about this some, just didn't want to put the work into it.

 

[CYdTracked]

I would suggest using Chegg. I just went to the bookstore and wrote down what prices they sold the book used then just undercut them a reasonable ammount and sold most of my books to other students that way. Best of both worlds, got more money than the bookstore would have given to buy them and someone else saved some money. Thought their used to be a localized chegg site just for ISU called cheggpost or something but I've been out of college for 10 years now that I don't know if it still exists or not.

 

[RING4CY]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/forgetthebookstores/

 

[longtimeclone]

I agree with quite a bit that had already been said. I probably bought almost all of my books from Half.com and sold most of them back when I was in school.

 

[RING4CY]

I bought a textbook for an ethics class last semester off of Amazon for $20. Sold it to the university bookstore for $37.

 

[longtimeclone]

I bought a textbook for an ethics class last semester off of Amazon for $20. Sold it to the university bookstore for $37.

I actually found that I could buy a book at the bookstore for around $20 and I could have sold it on half.com for around $50. If I would have had more cash I would have sold a bunch online, but I was a poor college student and didn't do it.

Goes to show that students should look online and at the book store when buying and selling books.

 

[3TrueFans]

I see you can also rent books from Half.com now, not all of them are a great deal, but some of them look like it would make sense.