How do I: Get money for used textbooks
By Constance Dillon
March 17, 2008 9:05 p.m.
Each quarter, students spend hundreds of dollars for books that will only be used for a couple of months or sometimes never be opened at all.
But once finals have passed and classes have ended, a few extra dollars can be made by selling textbooks, if you’re brave enough to part with the hallowed texts.
Selling back to the UCLA Store is easiest because of its location on-campus.
“You always get more money than you think you will,” said Mattie Pasion, a fourth-year sociology student, who has been selling books back on campus since her first year.
“If I know I’ll never use (a book) again, I’d rather have the cash in my pocket,” Pasion said.
If you are going to sell back to the UCLA Store, you can maximize your profit by timing your selling when the best prices are offered.
The highest prices are available to students between tenth week and the first week of the next quarter because the bookstore is restocking, said John LoMonaco, manager of used textbooks for the UCLA Store.
Books that are needed for the next quarter are given high prices because they are in demand, he said. Students can sell back books anytime throughout the quarter, but may receive lower prices because UCLA may no longer need the books, LoMonaco said.
It’s also easy to sell to the UCLA Store because buyback tents are set up around campus during finals week, in addition to the Ackerman location, a location on the Hill and another by the apartments on Gayley.
If prices offered by the UCLA Store are a little too low for your taste, Textbook Plus, located in Westwood, may offer a higher selling price.
Dani Beckman, a fourth-year English student, said selling on campus is easier for students than going to Westwood, especially since Textbook Plus generally offers similar prices to those offered by the UCLA Store.
But if you’re too tired from cramming for finals to lug your books to campus or down to Westwood, you can sell books online from the comfort of your room.
Students can receive more competitive prices online, in addition to its convenience.
Beckman said though she has sold books to the UCLA Store in the past, she plans on selling books online at Amazon.com because she can make more money than the store offered her this year.
Beckman said she has bought several books through the Web site and thinks she will have no problem selling.
Other online sites offer ways for students to get rid of books and make money, such as bruinwalk.com.
After posting an ad on bruinwalk.com, fourth-year physiological science student Samantha Suey said she easily communicated via e-mail with a student buyer and met on campus to complete the transaction.
Facebook also recently added a marketplace application, where students can sell a variety of items, including textbooks.
If your books are collecting dust on a shelf, the incentive of making some cash should convince you to rid yourself of those yellowed pages, even if you only make a couple of dollars.
“I took home all my books my first couple years and planned on having a collection of my collegiate library, but I realized I’m not going to read them,” said Evan Marshall, a fifth-year political science student who sold an entire duffel bag of books to the UCLA Store.
