Selling books online vs used book shops?

BostonB

Out of curiosity how do people rate selling old books online vs used books stores?

I've never found selling books in used books stores that worth it. They cherry pick the best stuff, give you a pittance, then you end up giving away the stuff they don't take and having to carry it all home again. I've not sold anything online like books, I'm wondering it worth the hassle?

Nody

Depends on why you're selling it; selling online is not going to make you rich and you need to add in the whole deal with mailing off books to individuals etc. as well to the process.

Grievous

I'v never sold anything online, nevermind books but I can imagine that people will cherry-pick there too. I'd say the best thing about selling online is it gives you greater control over the product. You set a price and that's that.

hooplah

I would say it depends on what you're selling. People give mainstream paperbacks away to charity shops and if you're trying to sell the same thing I would say that whatever you try will be frustrating - unless you're willing to sell for very little.

If you're selling course books or graphic novels you might have better luck selling online yourself I reckon.

In general for selling online you could check out the different sites and see what people are looking for, and whether they get it. On adverts.ie people seem to look for quite a lot, but most of it doesn't move. Bookfinder.com is good for searching accross a bunch of sites. If you see a book online selling for loads its probably a specific edition. Even then the booksellers on something like abebooks,com might keep a book on sale for years before they get rid of it.

If selling to shops its important to realise that they probably won't want anything they have multiple copies of already, they probably won't touch major sellers that have now gone out of fashion (Twilight series for example) and that they are likely to give you about a small fraction of what you spent for general fiction.

Im_That_Girl

I've found you don't get much money for them either way. Have you considered using book swap sites like paperbackswap.com? Swap the books you don't want for the ones you do.

Zeek12

I've occassionally sold books online. It probably works out slightly better (pricewise) than bringing to a second hand store, but only a little; the postage can be pretty costly, especially for large or hardbound books.

Bookmooch is the only bookswap site I've used. But again, postage costs can be high, as the members are based worldwide, and predominately in the USA.
And you need to give away a few books first, before you earn enough points to get some books back for yourself. Still, its a fun experience. Your books will go to someone who really wants them, and you may occassionally find some little gems for yourself:)