Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Works For Me Wednesday: Extra Books = Extra Bucks


I listed a stack of books on Half.com last week and I've already sold four of them. Yeah!

Half.com is a part of eBay. To sell books, after creating an account, you just type in the ISBN number and follow instructions for writing a description and picking a price. Once it's up for sale, you just wait until you get an email stating that you've made a sale. All you have to do then is ship the book(s). Half.com pays you directly according to their pay schedule.

I've sold books this way off and on for years, starting in college. I would buy the books I needed this way; there are often much better prices than the campus bookstore! Then after a semester or two, I'd sell them again to make money to purchase the next semester's textbooks.

Ok, so I'm not making hundreds of dollars each month by selling books this way.(You could if you had lots of popular items to sell, I guess!) But every little bit counts. This would be a great way to make a little extra Christmas money or to help pay for a weekend away. This can be a great avenue to bumping your savings account up a bit too.

I make some extra money for only about 15 minutes of my time, declutter my bookshelves and let someone else enjoy a great book at an excellent price!

That works for me!

10 comments:

Searching For Simplicity said...

Great idea!! I honestly am going to try this!

Arlene said...

This is a great idea; I will have to try this soon! Thanks, Mary Ann!

P.S. I have been a lurker for quite a while, but I thought I would (finally) pop in and say something! I don't remember how I found your blog, but I'm glad I did. :o)

DarcyLee said...

This is my first time visiting your blog. I found your through Lady Lydia's Homeliving Helper. I have been looking for a way to unload my books and you have given me that final push to do it. What materials do you use to mail out your books? How do you determine postage costs? Thanks for your help.

Lines From The Vine said...

Great idea...I have purchased through half.com, but never thought of selling myself. I'm going to have to go through and see what I have! Thanks for sharing this great tip....

Mary Ann said...

Darcylee-
I use padded envelopes or boxes for shipping.

You don't need to estimate shipping costs. Half.com reimburses you for shipping which is usually media mail(cheap). They automatically charge the customer for shipping when they checkout and then reimburse you for a pre-calculated amount when you get your paycheck. Details are on the site as well.

Thanks for visiting!

gail said...

great idea. we have alot of textbooks we need to sell and you're right, the campus bookstore doesn't give you much for them, but sure charge alot for new and used ones!

Leslie said...

I like this idea...I have about 10 I need to do this with today! Thanks for the info!

DarcyLee said...

Mary Ann,

Thanks for the information. It sounds really easy (translate: even I can do it!). I sure could use some extra money for Christmas.
I'll be coming back.

Serenity Now said...

A friend of mine just recommended a site called bookmooch - it's a book exchange site where you get points for books you ship and can use the points towards books you want. Same idea but instead of getting money - you get more books (I swear I have like a 3 page list of books I want to read - so this is perfect for people like me).
Just thought I'd mention it!

*carrie* said...

Mary Ann,

We've been selling books on half.com for a couple years ago, and have had quite a bit of success. My husband usually does the listing and transaction details, and I package and ship them. We've even had a friend give us a box of books because they didn't want to take the time to list them, and we split the earnings!