As a regular student most of the time you are in the position when you need money to cover up your running costs at the college or to save up some money for vacation traveling. One of the simplest options to earn extra cash available to you as a student is to sell your textbooks to marketplaces and buyback companies. Now it is quite a popular service and a lot of students have heard about it.

The next question is how to make the most money on selling these textbooks? Believe it or not, but your sale proceeds depend on good timing! This means that in order to get the most of this opportunity, you have to sell when the demand is high and buyers are willing to pay their money. You need to bear in mind that if you sell your books at the same time with your course mates, most likely you will not be able to earn much because the demand for your books will be not as high. Below we have prepared some information for you about the best and the worst timing to sell your textbooks.

Best Time To Sell Your Textbooks

Summer is the time when you can make most profit on selling your textbooks. It is the time when textbook companies are stocking up for the new academic year and students are looking for used textbooks to avoid paying the whole price for a new version. July and August are particularly great months to sell because it is the time right before the beginning of the first semester when students will start following the course and will definitely need to have a copy of a textbook at hands. In terms of winter, the best sales month will be January. It is right before the 2^nd semester begins so the companies as well as students will be looking for textbooks.

Bad Timing To Sell Your Textbooks

If you decide to sell your textbooks at the time of final examinations, then you should not expect to earn much. The truth is that you will not be the only one out there trying to get rid of old textbooks. It is the time when everyone finishes the year: once the classes are over, there will be a whole load of textbooks available for purchase. In this case, your textbooks’ prices will be competing with others and in order to attract the customer, you will have to reduce the price. Otherwise, there is a high chance that you will not be able to sell them at all!

If you wait until the flood of books is over and the demand is high again, you will receive more money.

The beginning of the semester is not the best time to sell your books either. It is the time when most students have already purchased their books and the demand for books will be really low. The companies will not be interested to buy your books at this time for the same reason: they understand very well that most students will have stopped looking for books by this time.

If you attempt to sell your textbooks halfway through the semester, you should not expect a lot either. The explanation is simple: 6 weeks into the semester there will be no one buying a book for the remaining month of studies.  

How to Check Demand for Your Textbook

If you are not sure whether the demand for the book you are willing to sell is high or low, you can use the website BooksRun to check if there is a demand for your book. If you think that the offered price is lower than you think the book should be worth or if the book is not even indicated for buyback options, then it means that the demand is low at this particular moment.

BooksRun search is very easy to use:

• You type in the search row the name of the textbook or its ISBN number (the number under the barcode)
• If the book is in demand, you will see that there is a green button “Sell” on the right side of the page.
• You press this green button “Sell”.
• Below the image of the book you would like to sell, you will see the price that BooksRun can pay for this book.
• Make sure you pay attention to the two options associated with the sale of your used book: if you have several books (who knows, maybe you decided to sell some of your friends’ books as well), then you should select the correct number of copies.
• The most important though is to indicate in what condition you are selling your book and you need to be critical and honest about it. You can select between the following options, indicated in our buyback condition guide:
  • Used – very good
  • Used – acceptable
  • New

The better is the condition of your book, the higher the sum of money you will be able to get for it at the end. If you mark that your book is new but in reality, there are pencil writings inside and the text is underlined, your book’s condition will be marked as “Used  – acceptable” and you will receive less money than it was indicated to you at the time of sale to BooksRun.

Therefore, if you keep in mind the hints we have outlined above, then you can easily double the money by selling your textbooks at good times! By checking the demand for the book you want to sell, you will maximise your chances of making the best deal!