Selling Academic Books?

[Jelly_Sheffield]

I am having an office clear out and could stand to downsize my reference library.

Can't find anywhere that will offer remotely sensible prices for academic books.



The best I was offered by any of the apps or websites for the current edition of "Lees' Loss Prevention in the Process Industries" was £3 for the three volume set... It's £375 on Amazon right now, and the previous edition is £80 a volume.

Current editions of the 6 Coulson and Richardson books (the defacto texts every ChemEng undergrad in the UK needs, so a commodity book) were offered £0.20 each... Yet they're selling for £35-£50 each used, or around £65 new.

At those price differentials I would rather give them to a uni student or impoverished academic than sell them on for the middle man to make a 99% margin!




Once upon a time you could go to the Blackwell's in the nearest city with a Uni and sell these kind of books for a reasonable fraction of the resale price... But it feels like all the available buyers are online only and don't differentiate price at all.

Any ideas, or do I need to register as an Amazon seller and directly resell them?

 

[Parm]

With most things available on line these days no one really buys books, if they do it’s usually e books

The monetary value of my books is almost probably nothing but thier real value is priceless

 

[Gareth J]

eBay. I sold an industry reference book there back along. It was less than elsewhere but a reasonable price I thought. Had to wait a while though.

 

[bricol]

If its a book every student needs . . then there's already a massive number of them out there in circulation.

Wait until term starts again and stick 'em on ebay or somewhere.

 

[badabec]

Abebooks.co.uk is the site that most booksellers use to price their stock. You can sell through them for a fee.

 

[More Amps]

There are various websites for used books - Abebooks, Just Books, Biblio etc They all offer the same sort of service, i.e. they act as the shopfront and offer a better experience than the likes of ebay etc for both buyer and seller in my experience.

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

Abebooks.co.uk is the site that most booksellers use to price their stock. You can sell through them for a fee.

I did look at going through them, but it's a flat £25/month fee, and I'm selling directly I could be waiting a long time before I shift everything.

 

[badabec]

Oh! I know my brother bought thousands of pounds worth of books through Abe.
The auction house used two Luton vans to transport all the books when he died.

 

[Ross365]

I've sold some books through this guy. Think the most expensive was £1400 and he takes a percentage. He's only about 8 miles from me which helps. Very nice and honest chap

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

I've sold some books through this guy. Think the most expensive was £1400 and he takes a percentage. He's only about 8 miles from me which helps. Very nice and honest chap

I will give him a ring and see if he's interested.

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

With most things available on line these days no one really buys books, if they do it’s usually e books

The monetary value of my books is almost probably nothing but thier real value is priceless

I'm still a big fan of physical reference books, especially with tabs. Even using a well prepared index is far faster than trying to use the search function on a 2000+ page PDF of a book

But I just can't justify the space for books that are rarely used, especially as I seem to do less and less actual engineering with each passing day.

 

[MattF]

I'm still a big fan of physical reference books, especially with tabs. Even using a well prepared index is far faster than trying to use the search function on a 2000+ page PDF of a book

Actual books are far nicer to read through than digital copies. The latter are fine for quick reference, but the former best for any lengthy reading.

 

[Robotstar5]

Actual books are far nicer to read through than digital copies. The latter are fine for quick reference, but the former best for any lengthy reading.

I bought one of those Kindle white things years ago and tried it for a few weeks, it worked as advertised but just wasn't the same as reading a book so it's been gathering dust on the shelf ever since.
Maybe it's a generation thing?, those that grew up in the PC/mobile phone era are used to reading from a screen but give me a book any day.

 

[Domdom]

Actual books are far nicer to read through than digital copies. The latter are fine for quick reference, but the former best for any lengthy reading.

Agreed. I have all my Mum's books (she was a teacher) and a real book is far nicer to read. The only time I prefer an e-book is to use the search and find functions when looking for a specific piece of information.

 

[MattF]

Maybe it's a generation thing?

I believe it probably is.

 

[Parm]

I'm still a big fan of physical reference books, especially with tabs. Even using a well prepared index is far faster than trying to use the search function on a 2000+ page PDF of a book

But I just can't justify the space for books that are rarely used, especially as I seem to do less and less actual engineering with each passing day.

I’ve got a few books tabbed up like that, in my line of work the older the book or guidance the better, comes in very handy when exploring baseline standards from yesteryear

 

[8ob]

Any ideas, or do I need to register as an Amazon seller and directly resell them?

It’s very hard to sell books in any volume unless you have the outlets. I recently helped a friend clear out a distribution depot, there was around twenty tons of very expensive educational books , tried to sell them off and in the end they went for pulp, some of these books in sets were north of £500. Selling them is the hard bit.

Bob

 

[badabec]

When my brother's books went to auction, they lumped in 10 or so other books with the main item.
The books the auction house didn't want went for pulp.

 

[bricol]

I sold a few boxes of books at a local auction for slightly less than the cost fuel getting them there . . . so the next lot went in the recycling.

 

[bricol]

I bought one of those Kindle white things years ago and tried it for a few weeks, it worked as advertised but just wasn't the same as reading a book so it's been gathering dust on the shelf ever since.
Maybe it's a generation thing?, those that grew up in the PC/mobile phone era are used to reading from a screen but give me a book any day.

I was bought one and thought the same.

However I travel a lot for work - and it's a lot easier to load the Kindle with 10, 20 books and slip it in my pocket/bag - lighter, smaller, easier to carry. And when I finish a book, simply on to the next, rather than having to get out to the aisle, fiund my bag in the overhead, swap books, get back to seat . .