Selling Used Books to Powells.com

Powells.com is a used book store in the Oregon area that will actually buy your used books directly from you - so it is not like e-bay or Amazon where you have to wait around to sell to a buyer and ship. Powells lets you know right away if they are going to be a book or not. You input all the ISBN codes off the back of your books of every book you are interested in selling. I do a stack of books at a time because it takes time to type in all the ISBN codes. You might have to take a sheet of paper and just write them down so you don't have to carry the books from place to place. The good thing about Powells is that they deal in used books so they buy used books. The bad thing is that they are really picky. They only take books in very good condition - no highlighting, no underlining, no broken spines, and no torn pages. However, if you have a very rare book, they will take it in lesser condition because they really want the book.

My experience with Powells.com has been worth it. I have sold several books and never gotten screwed over by them on the price I have been quoted. I have only sold them books in good condition. They don't offer a quote for every book. They buy what they need. For example, if they have a lot of one book in stock at the time than they might not be looking to buy your copy. However, you can check back later to see if they will buy the book. The important thing is to be honest about the condition of your books. They really will not pay you for books in bad condition or with highlights. They won't even pay for books that have what they condition to be a broken spine. When you accept their quotes, you print out the shipping label and ship your books. The only problem is getting an empty box and shipping by the deadline. They usually give you a deadline of a week to postmark your package.

I would suggest that if you love to read and buy books often that you should choose the store credit option over paypal.  Store credit offers you a few dollars more than paypal and you can use that money to buy more books and keep a cycle going of buying books and selling them back.  Also, you could use your store credit to buy gifts for family and friends so that you can give gifts without spending any money out of your pocket.