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How to sell used books on the Internet – Activity, identification and tips

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Buy and sell used books

Even with the digital world we live in today, books are still one of the most purchased and appreciated items in many countries of the world, especially by reading lovers, students and people who cannot help but enjoy a book in physical form that they can feel and even smell.

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This business idea allows you, with the purchase and sale of books, to make money and continue to spread the importance of this great tool for today’s world.

Let’s see how this business idea works to undertake it today:

Get to know the activity: Buying and selling books

Its name basically explains what we will do, buy used books (they can also be new but will cost more money), acquire them from neighbors, friends or family who no longer use them and even add those that are in our library and that we already want to let go to put them on sale on the Internet. For this business idea not all books have the same opportunities.

Get used books

You can find used books in various places, as we have mentioned, either in your home where you store books that you will never read again and that you prefer to sell, books from friends, books given to you by family and people you know who definitely do not want to have in their homes anymore. However, there is also the possibility of buying them and the truth is that we can get them at a very low cost in used book stores, auctions and stores of this style where many people leave the books they no longer want to sell them.

Identify your target audience

One of the great advantages of this type of business is that being on the Internet, we can sell books to a fairly wide range, so if you find books that are too cheap in your area that in another city or even country, it is very difficult to get, here you can sell them at a better value and we will talk about this in the point ‘Establish the monetary value of used books’.

Your target audience depends on the category the book belongs to, so classic literature books could be aimed at students of literature and philosophy, for example, cookbooks at chefs, students of gastronomy, women or men dedicated to the preparation of food at home, etc.

Select the books you are going to sell

Classic literature never goes out of style, so you can easily get them at auctions or second-hand book stores at very low prices. There are also novels, short stories, chronicles and history books, biographies and others. However, in the first instance we must discard books like encyclopedias, because all this information is already on the Internet and has received constant updates, so their information may be quite behind.

Check the status and conditions of each book to sell

Now that you have chosen the books you are going to sell, it is necessary to review each one of them to identify any damage they have that we can repair, as well as if they have missing pages or other conditions that we and the potential buyer should know and be aware of. We can increase the value of a used book as long as its condition is not deteriorated, however, there are some damages that have a solution, such as the tips of folded sheets, sticky notes, worn out edges that we can erase, among others.

Establish the monetary value of used books

This is one step where we recommend that you take the time to research very thoroughly before you place it. Look for a considerable price range considering the state the book is in, how difficult or easy it is to get, among other factors. You can search for the same book on Internet sites to find out the average value that exists and thus determine your own.

Choose the sales platforms

We have the information we need ready to start publishing the book, so we can choose either stores or sales platforms, or also sell them through social networks. Among the most used sites to sell are Amazon, eBay, Mercado Libre and in social networks Facebook and Instagram. Keep in mind that social networks can be very helpful if the books you sell are targeted to a young audience, as they will have a better reach.

Set up ads to sell the books

It is extremely important that in the book ad we select, if this is how the site works, the category that each book we put up for sale meets, that is if they are cookbooks, fiction books, textbooks, classic literature, horror books, novel books, etc, this will help us to make it easier for our potential buyers to find the book for sale.

Promoting the sale of used books

To publicize the sale of books used social networks are a great tool that allows us to reach a large part of the public interested in acquiring the books. As well as groups, blogs and forums where we can leave information about the books we are selling according to the platform.