There comes a time in an online book business when you come across an undiscovered jewel; a service that has the potential to monetize those books that you were once treating as junk.  You know what I’m talking about!  I’m talking about the penny books that we all know and love.  These are the books that if we take a glimpse of another mass market paperback romance novel, a 90s fiction hardcover novel or an older Dr. Phil book we want to scream!  These kinds of books wreak terror in a bookseller’s eyes.

Continue Reading…

Pennies from book buy back sites

Have you ever went to your favorite search engine and searched for the term “book buy back“?  There are dozens of sites that pop up that are specifically created to buy back books.   How do you think that these sites can hire people to get them so high up on Google rankings as well as maintain websites?  This is because they are making a killing off of the unsuspecting or lazy consumer.

If you’re not familiar with book buy back sites, they exist to attract people with used books that want a simple process to sell their unwanted books.  These sites offer a low price for books, offer to pay the shipping to them and then offer some way of payment either by check, Paypal or other methods.  It’s a pretty simple concept and that’s why I think so many people are taking them up on their offer.

First off, let me explain to you why I don’t like these sites at all.  I’m well aware that a lot of people would probably disagree with me but as an online bookseller, I’m probably coming from a totally different angle because I know the online book business, how easy it is and know the potential sales someone could make instead of getting pennies for books that could bring in tens or hundreds of dollars with just a little extra work.

Why do I dislike book buy back sites?

The #1 reason and probably one of the only reasons is that they don’t give you hardly anything for books.  Books that are selling left and right on Amazon for $50 could be sold to these book buy back sites for $10 or less, for example.  I know the reason for this is because they are resellers and they are in it to make money.  If they gave the market price for books, they wouldn’t make any money, but why would someone volunteer to get much, much less for their books?  Do they not see the value that they possess or simply don’t care?

Why do book buy back sites exist?

Book buy back sites exist simply because people want to get quick money for books that they believe aren’t worth much anyway.  I’ve found that most regular people don’t consider books as something of value.  Since books in general are more of a commodity, the value to them is somewhat nil.  This is exactly the reason these sites are popping up and apparently are being pretty successful.  Dangle a few bucks in front of some unsuspecting schmuck’s face for long enough and he’ll eventually spit out some books that can be resold for 10x the amount.  This is why these sites exist to take advantage of these people.

How do you blow past these sites and make the money you deserve from your books?

The best way you can get the money you deserve from your books is to not use these sites!  Teach yourself the value of the books you have and how to go about selling them online either through this blog, individual marketplace help sections, etc.  It’s really not that hard!  It has a small learning curve up front but after that, it’s very easy.  Once you learn the ropes of selling books on Amazon, selling books on eBay, Alibris, etc you’ll easily make 5x more money than selling to book buy back sites like Blue Rectangle.

If you really want to make a business from selling books online and get the money you deserve, pick up a copy of my eBook Used Books Big Business – The Secrets to Selling Books Online for Big Profits. With a no questions asked money back guarantee, even if you think you’d be better off selling your books to book buy back sites after reading it, I’ll give you your money back!