Flipping books is one of the best ways to make extra money, especially if you have numerous sources of used books. And the good thing about flipping books is you don’t need a huge amount to start.
Just get access to yard sales, thrift stores, antique shops, or Facebook Marketplace, and you’ll get books for reduced prices. In this guide, you’ll know the tips, insights, and relevant tips to help you start flipping your books for money.
What Books Should You Buy?
One crucial factor you shouldn’t ignore is searching for the correct type of books to flip. Type “book” on eBay, and you’ll get thousands of search results from novels to video game manuals. For your flipping process to be efficient and profitable, you need to focus on textbooks. Here’s why:
- Textbooks sell at a higher price compared to other books. That means you can find a price with significant variation. For example, if you buy additional books for $3, you might not be able to mark it up that much. So you might make a dollar or two, and when you factor in time, you’re losing money.
- Textbooks are always in demand. Students rush to purchase books at the beginning of every semester, at the end of every quarter. Assuming the version you buy is up-to-date, you can always sell your textbooks online. That way, you won’t have to worry about any price reduction.
How To Compare Book Prices
Before you buy a book, you have to know if you can profit from it. That’s why you need to compare the prices first. Unfortunately, you can’t get an accurate price when you sell on sites like eBay. That’s why we recommend BookDeal.com.
With BookDeal, all you have to do is type in your book’s ISBN. When you do that, you’ll get different quotes for you to choose from. From there, you can proceed to check out after selecting your preferred quote.
You also get to ship your textbooks for free.
How To Pick Books To Sell
Here are some books you need to look out for:
Textbooks
We’ve already talked about how essential textbooks are in the previous section. Yet, you can buy books at a low price from students and sell them high to new students. That’s because over 19 million students enroll in colleges every year. So you can make a decent profit out of it.
Some of the best places to sell your books include:
- BookDeal.com
- BookScouter.com
- Textbooks.com
- eCampus.com
- TextbookRush.com
First Edition & Rare Books
First edition books have the potential of bringing you massive profits because of the low supply. So you can get more profits than textbooks. However, remember that not all first editions can get you a higher price. So you’ll need to do your research before you buy such books.
You can know if a book is the first edition by checking the copyright date or looking for the words “first edition.” However, paperback and hardback editions can have different “first edition” dates, so be on the lookout.
It can make huge profits with rare books, but you have to keep them in good condition. You can search for rare books on sites like:
- Bilio.com
- eBay
- Abebooks
- Amazon
- Local used bookstores
What You Need To Be Careful About
If you decide to flip your books, you need to be careful about a few things. So let’s go through them:
- It’s not advisable to buy textbooks at the end of the school or calendar year. That’s because usually, new versions come out during this period, and older versions decrease in price.
- Don’t buy international textbook versions. It’s more challenging to sell international versions, and it always sells at a lower price. So read the description before you confirm any purchase.
- Check The Book’s condition. We’ve highlighted this, but it’s good to mention it again. Some sites will reject your books if it’s not per their book condition requirement. Regardless, it’s always best to keep your textbooks in good condition.
Final Thoughts
If you want more places to buy books to flip, you can ask your friends, family, and neighbors. They may have books they don’t need. You can also check antique stores, thrift stores, garage sales, etc., to find books to buy.
