Is selling used books worth it?
As part of the whole process of moving, I took a look at the various books that I had on my bookshelves and stacked in various boxes and thinned out to a shelf of books that I really enjoy and want to keep. That means I have about 8 boxes worth of books that I am not so in love with. Some I would probably never read, so I enjoyed the first time but once was enough and some I can part with if I don’t dwell on it (the bandage effect).
I have been going through the boxes and inputting the ISBN numbers into an spreadsheet as an inventory method. I then have been searching places like Amazon and Half.com to get idea of the prices and what I find is depressing from a seller’s prespective. So many of them are going for $0.75 or less, lot of times a penny. The sheer amount of volume only would have to sell to make a decent rate when you consider postage and envelope costs along with commissions. As a buyer, it of course is nice to get a bargain like that. Of course whenever I am looking for a book though, it seems like noone is selling it for a penny.
Of course money is money and if you watch your costs, you’ll come out with a little extra from selling assuming someone buys your book eventually, but running some quick calcuations it looks like a lot of effort for very little return.