Where to Sell Your Books Online: Best 20 Places

Recently, we have talked about how you can buy books online with international shipping and we have featured the best services that you can use to do so. But what if you want to sell your books online, be it for a profit or just because you have too many and you feel now is the right moment to refresh your personal library?

Some of the websites that we mentioned in our list with places where you can buy books online also let you sell books on the Internet. I should mention that this guide isn’t aimed at those who want to make a real business out of selling books online but it is rather a guide for the casual online book seller, to say so. But, of course, you can start your business research following the tips featured here and analyze the complete offer of the websites that we’re going to feature.

Table of Contents

Sell books online to make space in your library

You will definitely have more success selling books online written in the English language than in your own language. Therefore, we will compile a list of websites that are mainly focused at English speaking countries here (U.S. mainly), but we will also talk about some international services that will let you sell your books safely and for a good price. Of course, if you’re not looking to gain any profits from selling your books, you can always donate them and the website selling them will give a part of its funds to charity.

However, the are different types of online services where you can sell your books. The most common and reliable are the fixed price online marketplaces which we will focus on. But you can also sell your books through auction websites (like eBay), online book buyback services (like Powell’s Books) or classified advertising websites (like Craigslist). There are different reasons on why you might opt for one service over another.

The InternetBookSelling website explains it quite well:

Online market place websites – this is a great deal when you sell your used books on these venues because it’s where to sell used books to maximize your profit on each sale.
Auction websites – for selling books in bulk lots; fir bidding up prices when you sell out of print books; alternative way of making money online; to sell collector sets of authors or genres.
Classified advertising – sell used books when working in your local market
Online buyback services – save yourself a great deal of work packing and shipping orders by selling your used books to bulk book buyers

Tips to consider before selling your books online

What kind of service will you use? Just like we talked above, every website that lets you sell books online has a specific feature, so decide what kind of service you want to use by analyzing the above mentioned.
What are the fees? You need to carefully check what are the fees and commissions that the websites have. In some cases, there might be a flat fee for each book, in other situation, there might be a commission, like 15% of the entire selling price.
How will you get your money? This is very important and we have covered in the past solutions on how to send & receive money online safe and for cheap. Check if you are eligible for the payment methods that the book seller supports. Usually, these are bank wires, PayPal or checks. Also, check at what are the time intervals when they pay, is it once per month or twice per month?
Shipping your books. Do you have to deal with the shipping on your own or the book seller will do it for you? And if you have to ship it, what is the cost. Are you required to use a tracking service or the book seller will come and pick it up? Also, check if the shipping price is deduced from the fee, as that may happen sometimes or if it is free.
Easiness of listing your books. Always look for the online book sellers that will allow you to enter only the ISBN and the condition of your book. These options will save you time and effort
Price your book right. This is a tricky one, because it lets you be subjective. But be honest and price your bo0k accordingly to its value and condition. If you think it’s not in the best shape and it’s not quite durable, then it’s a good idea to price it as low as possible to get a good sale. If it’s a rare book and is still in good shape, you can price it high and wait for the right customer to get it. Also,search for your ISBN or on Google for its title to get suggestions for the price.

Best places where to sell your books online

Amazon

Amazon is a mamoth online company and it does what it can do to remain on top of the food chain. The single disadvantage with selling your books on Amazon is that you will get gift cards instead of cash, which is definitely a drawback for those looking to make a business out of this. But like I said earlier, for the “casual book seller”, it’s not such a bad deal, after all. Amazon and eBay (listed lower) have one of the biggest amount of possible clients, so it should be among your first options for selling your book online.

BetterWorldBooks

BetterWorldBooks is one of my favorite online services when it comes to buying/selling/donating books. Just like Amazon and many other respectable services, they pay for the shipping of the books you want to sell (after they are sold, of course). You can add more ISBN codes in the quoting tab and see the price for them all. You can then choose to sell or donate them.

Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble is another well-known name in the “book business”. You will need to check with as many online book sellers as possible before you get the right price. BookFinder and BookScouter are your most needed tools for this. There will be many situations when by using these services you will land on Barnes & Noble’s page, because they tend to have agressive price offers, probably thanks to their position on the market.

Alibris

Alibris is the right choice for those looking to sell some books they no longer need and for those looking to transform it into a business. That’s why they have come up with different programs, for casual and professional sellers. The advantage (some might perceive it as a drawback) is that you have a really low $19.99 annual fee.

Cash4Books

The Cash4books website (and name, for that matter) might look and feel like it has an amateur design, but believe me when I say that they know their way around the online book selling business. They even have iOS and Android applications so you could scan directly the ISBN and get a price quote. You get free shipping with Cash4books’ prepaid label, so be sure not to lose it!

Of course, there are many, many other places where you could sell your books online, but what we have compiled above represents the best of the best. At least, that’s according to our research. Have a look at some other reliable online bookseller names in the list below. If you have found and used a reliable online bookseller, no matter in what country you are, let us know in the comments section.

Websites where you can sell your books online (Canada, UK, India)

We know that not only folks in the United States are interested in selling their books or textbooks online, used or even brand new, but also those from other countries. Below we are including some reliable website where you can sell your books if you are living in the United Kingdom, Canada or India.