Back in April, I wrote a two part post discussing how to choose textbooks for resale. I've been thinking about it recently and I've thought of a few red flags you should avoid when buying textbooks.
First of all, don't buy custom editions. They're easy enough to spot because they usually say "CUSTOM EDITION FOR X SCHOOL" on the cover. They don't hold resale value like non-school specific books because the market is too small. Rather than being able to sell to the entire country on Amazon, you're stuck selling to students at one particular school or, more likely, students taking one particular class at one particular school.
The most important rule is to research a book before you buy it. Even if the copyright date is only two years in the past, there's still a decent chance there's a new edition. Use your smart phone to make sure it's worth spending the money on a book. Remember, Amazon takes $2.34 plus 15% of the cover price and media mail typically comes to almost $4 (your full shipping credit) for medium to large textbooks. If I'm not sure a book is worth it, I won't buy it unless I can get eight for a dollar or equivalent.
The good thing about buying textbooks is that people don't know their books retain value. A lot of people seem to think that because their university bookstore won't buy the book back it's worthless. Capitalize on this. When I bought three textbooks last week, I worked the seller down by suggesting they were worthless to her. Very few people seem to know you can sell items on Amazon so use their ignorance to your advantage.
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