Where to sell books?

[Anonymous]

I have 2 boxes and could use some cash. Who buys used books?

[Anonymous]

Have you been to the thrift store lately?
Rows and rows of books.
Just donate them OP, or have a book swap with friends.

[Anonymous]

Unless they are current textbooks or have been published in the last year, they won't be worth much. I don't think there are any local used bookstores in the DC area that buy books.

You can try one of the book buying sites where you enter an ISBN and they give you a quote.

[Anonymous]

Unless they’re old, rare, first editions or otherwise collectible, I agree with PP you’re probably better off donating them.

[Anonymous]

McKay's in Manassas. I've sold hundreds of dollars of books there over the years.

They will offer you cash/check or a combo of cash/check and store credit or store credit.

[Anonymous]

Wonder books buys books, movies, music. I see their ads all the time but have never been.

They have locations in Frederick, Gaithersburg and Hagerstown. Maybe I will plan a visit over winter break myself!

[Anonymous]

You can barely even give books away…you are not going to make money off of this.

[Anonymous]

Lol lol no one anymore. And save your time McKay's will pay you 18 cents after driving that far away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol lol no one anymore. And save your time McKay's will pay you 18 cents after driving that far away.

Not necessarily true. I've often had surprisingly big checks from them -- between $30 and $60, for three bins of books (I think that's the max they will take in at one time. You won't get rich doing it, but if you are looking to get rid of books anyway, it can be worth it.

[Anonymous]

Thriftbooks.com! You scan the barcode and they’ll tell you what they’ll offer. They send you a paid packing slip and shipping label that you affix to the box and they deposit the money in PayPal. Or maybe a check I think I just chose PayPal. I buy tons of books and was facing massive piles I couldn’t get rid of when I discovered this, I cleared out like 4 boxes alone this summer.

[Anonymous]

Second Story Books (Dupont Circle and Rockville) buy books, but don't expect much unless it's a signed first edition or the like.

https://www.secondstorybooks.com/

[Anonymous]

Also, Wonder Books in Gaithersburg. They buy books, CDs, vinyl, etc. Just be warned—they won’t give you much at all unless you have a signed first edition, but they are more generous in their offer if you are willing to take store credit (which never expires). We offloaded a lot of boxes of books left over from grad school x2 and got a solid store credit which we’ve been happily using.

[Anonymous]

Just donate them to the library and get the tax write off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thriftbooks.com! You scan the barcode and they’ll tell you what they’ll offer. They send you a paid packing slip and shipping label that you affix to the box and they deposit the money in PayPal. Or maybe a check I think I just chose PayPal. I buy tons of books and was facing massive piles I couldn’t get rid of when I discovered this, I cleared out like 4 boxes alone this summer.

Upon reading this comment, I went to Thriftbook.com. Here's my review.

I'll start by saying I've never attempted to sell books at Wonderbooks, but I've heard their offers are really low. (I have bought at Wonderbooks before.)

You must create an account to find out what they'll "pay" for a book. So that was kind of a bummer. I was hoping I could enter ISBNs and get estimates.

Unless the books are fairly new, chances are they won't want it. I got more 0s than anything, and the others were from $0.60 to about $1.50 (for paperbacks), and about $3 for a hardback copy of The Wedding People.

You need to get to $7 total in order to ship them the books.

For someone with only a couple dozen books of my own, this isn't going to get a huge return, but you could also use the credits from them to get a cheap book.

Depending on the "newness" of your books, it may just be simpler to donate to your favorite thrift store.