Selling Textbooks - Amazon vs. Half.com vs. Ebay
The Fall semester at Johns Hopkins’ MBA program just ended today and I’m going through the usual end-of-the-semester ritual of selling my gently used textbooks for dimes and quarters on the dollar. I never really sat down and investigated which service would give me the most bang for my buck until now and I still think I am making the right choices. While I was pretty sure what their commissions were and how each service operated, having sold items on Amazon, Ebay and Half.com before; I never looked in close detail at the numbers.
Below is a comparison of the fees:
| Site | Fees/Commission | Shipping Stipend | |||
| List | Sale | Standard | Expedited | Fee Schedule | |
| Amazon Marketplace | $0 | 15% | $1.23 | $1.67 | Link |
| Half.com | $0 | <15% | $1.94 | $4.70 | Link |
| Ebay | Varies | ~5.5% | $0 | $0 | Link |
Ebay Disqualification: I’m removing Ebay from seriously being in this comparison simply because you go to Half.com to buy textbooks, not Ebay. Ebay is for everything else and if you try to sell a textbook on Ebay, you’ll most likely be sorely disappointed unless it’s a collectible or something of that nature.
Now onto the comparisons…
Final Sale Fees:
Half.com Wins. The fee schedules, as you may see, aren’t as simple as the table lays them out to be so you might want to delve further into those. For example, Half.com uses an Ebay-esq scale for its fees based on the sale price of the book. If the book is under $50, you pay 15%. If it’s over $50, then every dollar above $50 but under $100 is assessed a fee at a 12.5% rate. Usually your textbooks will fall in the $150 to $50 range, so this final fee will always be less than or equal to the Amazon.com fee.
Shipping Stipend
Half.com Wins (again). You will also see that Half.com’s shipping stipend is significantly higher than Amazon.com’s, especially in the Expedited fee. If you know that your book is going to fit into a USPS Flat Rate Envelope, then expedited will actually net you a few cents (Flat rate is $3.95 as of this writing, to be raised in 2006) whereas it could cost you a few dollars if you sold via Amazon.
Caveat: While Amazon’s stated stipend is relatively stingy, I listed a textbook and the stipend they offered was over $3. Perhaps their actual policy has changed, I would imagine it has, but their policy pages don’t reflect the new values.
How Long Until You’re Paid?
Tied. Amazon pays you 14 days after you sell the book and Half.com pays twice a month. Sometimes the math works out that you get it faster than 14 days, sometimes it takes 14 days. Either way, you can get it direct deposited and I see it as a wash.
I still choose Amazon Marketplace with Half.com winning out on Fees and on the Shipping, and the reason is because the average sale price of the typical book is higher on Amazon. A book that would sell for $10 on Amazon Marketplace might be listed for only $5 at Half.com, in the case of a book I just listed, the difference was that staggering. I’m comparing Brand New books to Brand New books (I didn’t make the mistake of comparing New to Used).
The demand for books on Amazon.com appears to be much higher than at Half.com - that’s why I use Amazon Marketplace to sell my textbooks.
Image from KennethMoyle on Flickr.
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you know for this semester’s listing.. I actually had higher price over at half.com
I notice more listing for the same books over at amazon. my business law’s book price was drastically different.. $70 at half and $60 at amazon (lowest anyway).
but I do notice books always fly off the “shelf” faster over at amazon. some of the prices really tick me off. people go into price wars to get the “lowest price” offer and it drastically brings down the price. some schmuck will put 5-10 off and bam, the entire market goes down. the book was just published this summer, for goodness sake! ahh!
I was so anal this semester, I made book covers for all my books (just like in HS). so I can keep them as mint as possible when it comes time to sell.
yeah I looked pretty cool walking in class with grocery bags as my book cover.
What pisses me off is when a book is listed for a class and then isn’t even used. Some of my classes have the main textbook and then some ancillary books or workbooks that we don’t even touch. The subject material is so basic that you could survive simply studying wikipedia or using google but in order to know what’s in Chapters 4 - 8 for Test 1 forces you to get the stupid book. I borrowed my friend’s book for one class but it was 1 edition old so I just wrote down chapter names and studied for the midterm via wikipedia, scored a 96 to boot so you can imagine my annoyance.
I participate in price wars too though because I want to be rid of the book ASAP (or it sits on my shelf until it is used nowhere in academia) but I usually only undercut the lowest price by a penny. Why cut it by $5-$10 when $0.01 gets you ahead? I doubt anyone reads those Amazon reviews anyway so you’re not “paying” them $5-$10 for the risk of your low feedback scores.
I preffer amazon.com over the others. It is easy to set up books, you can quickly see how much others are charging so that you price your book accordingly.
How about for *buying* books? By the above logic, half.com would be best for buying, right? Used or new (is there a difference?)?
It’s easier to check lowest sale price on either site in a matter of minutes so obviously go with the lower price. Back in my undergrad days, I’d buy the textbook in the bookstore and return it within two weeks while I waited for a copy I bought online to arrive. It’s too much of a pain with Hopkins so I don’t do that anymore.
Usually sellers will tell you what’s ‘used’ about the book (creases, marks, highlighting) and if they don’t, buy from a seller who does.
You can also use Google’s book search if they have your text book listed. Sometimes, the data on a page is not displayed, but in most cases, you can just read straight from the book without buying it.
I suggest searching via http://www.campusi.com to look for books. it farms a list of lowest price from various book selling sites.
just be aware who you’re buying from at the end.
but yeah I participate in price war too. sometimes I dont go super low though, when its just ridiculous.
cant wait till the books are at $200 minimum. I’ve seen a few.