I Have Used Books to Sell: Get Money for Books

Where the heck did all these books come from?! They're everywhere - in the closet, under the bed, in the car trunk - everywhere. It just never ends.

Do you ever catch yourself looking around, saying, "I have books to sell, but I just don't feel like it. I want to get money for books, but it seems like such a hassle."?

Don't give up on selling your old books just yet. Selling your books online is easy, and some places even offer free shipping. Can't beat that, right?

Oh, and you can sell any book online - not just your textbooks. Many places focus on giving you money for textbooks, but there are a few ways to get money for regular books, too.

In case you weren't paying attention earlier, textbooks aren't the only things that you can sell for money.

Cash4Books buys all types of books - textbooks, cookbooks, chick lit, nonfiction, and everything in between. They even have an iPhone app where you can scan the barcodes rather than entering them in online. I have the iPhone app, and I love it.

If you're trying to get money for books, you probably want your money fast. Cash4Books totally understands that, and they pay via PayPal - fast. I received my last payment of $20.68 within a week of shipping the books.

Oh, and speaking of shipping, it's free. Just print the label from your computer and take it to your nearest post office. If you don't have a printer, contact Cash4Books - they'll mail you a set of labels. I did this once, and received them pretty quickly.

Just a warning: Cash4Books is best for regular books, not textbooks. You'll usually get more money for textbooks from one of the other sites listed below.

Did you know that you can sell books on Amazon?

I've made hundreds of dollars over the years, selling everything from my Gossip Girl collection to my old textbooks. It's free to list your items, but you are charged a fee once you sell. The fee is clearly outlined ahead of time, so you can decide whether or not you want to proceed with your listing.

If you sell books for money on Amazon, you get to set your own price. As bad as it sounds, I usually look for the cheapest price and then make my book .01 lower. I often sell books within an hour or two of listing them, so it seems to work.

People on Amazon want things cheap and fast, and you only have 2 days to ship the books that you sell. If you're planning on having a busy week, don't sell your books until you're ready. Otherwise, you run the risk of receiving bad feedback - and that makes it harder to sell books in the future.

I used to love Chegg.

I don't use Chegg much anymore, but that's because I'm not a full-time student at the moment. Chegg is best for students who want to get money for their textbooks. They don't buy regular books.

I'm not sure how Chegg pays, but they used to pay via check or Visa card, depending on how much your books were worth. You know how much you're going to get before you mail them in -there's a spot to enter your ISBN numbers on the site.

Shipping isn't free, but they pay more for textbooks that Cash4Books. You can also rent textbooks from Chegg instead of buying them at your campus bookstore, and I saved $400 one semester by doing that.

Craigslist is a great place to sell books for money. It's free to list your books, and no fees are taken out of your final selling price.

Oh, and did I mention that you don't have to mail your books? The people bring money to YOU. If you are worried about potential safety issues, meet in a public place or have somebody wait at your house with you.

All you do is list your item, confirm the ad, and sit back and wait. I've sold things in less than 15 minutes on Craigslist, so your books will sell fast if you price them reasonably.