Amazon.com Textbook Buyback Program

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I noticed that Amazon.com has started up their own Textbook Buyback Program as the school year comes to an end. I should have also tried Amazon back when I was getting rid of some old textbooks earlier this year. I just ended up selling to whomever offered me the most dough. Check out my SellBackYourTextBook.com review and ValoreBooks.com review. If you end up using Chegg.com, you can get an additional $5 back with the promotional code CC125998.

Just type in your ISBN numbers into the BigWords.com comparison engine and see what they’ll offer you. Amazon seems to have the same buyback system, where you print out a pre-paid mailing label, send it back, and get paid. The main differences are that they offer free UPS shipping (some places only offer USPS Media Mail), and they only pay you back in Amazon.com gift certificates and not cash.

Oh, and you can also sell back video games and movies. I see that they will actually offer me $1.50 for my copy of Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo! Suckers…

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Comments

  1. Or you can just simply sell your book directly to another person on amazon and I’m guessing get more money (and real cash). It’s not really that hard to sell on Amazon and there is no listing fee or limited period like on ebay.

  2. Rick in San Francisco says

    Thanks, Jonathan! Just got rid of five textbooks and am waiting for Amazon to send me a credit for $83.02. Not bad for about fifteen minutes of work researching trade-in value, packing it up, and taking it to the post office.

  3. I did the Amazon buy-back for my textbooks this week because it was super easy, no time involved, and they seemed to offer a higher price than what I could get on Half.com/eBay. It was double or triple what Textbooks.com would offer me for my books. I usually buy my books through Amazon anyway for school, so the credit will go to good use.

    The only drawback is that one book I sent in was too damaged and they won’t give me anything for it. Part of the terms says they won’t mail back a damaged book, but part says they will return incorrect items, so I’m not sure if I get the book back or not. It’s still in decent shape so I can probably still sell it online directly.

  4. ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number, so when you say “ISBN number,” well, I’ll leave it at that.

    Also, I’m a little leery about their terms where they keep your book if it’s too badly damaged or the wrong item. Where do you draw the line between good and acceptable? And I could see it being very easy to send in the wrong item, what with all the different used book re-sellers slapping on their very own UPC stickers.

  5. I’m curious, Laura, if you ever got your book back. I have highlighted in a couple books and don’t know how much is too much. I don’t mind sending for them to check but don’t want to just lose the book totally if they reject it.

  6. Hey, you might consider RentScouter.com – I have been using them to figure out if buying or renting my next textbook is cheaper, and they help me find the best price when selling a book, CD, DVD, or even video game – Amazon included.

  7. Can books being sold back to Amazon be highlighted or do are they rejected if they are highlighted?

  8. Does this work for Canadian residents? Or do you have to be residing in the United States to sell your textbooks to Amazon.

  9. Shirley, I just had an online chat with Amazon’s customer service and NO, they will not accept books that have been highlighted.

  10. I was wondering how long it takes to get the gift card sell back $$ from amazon once you mail out your books.

  11. A little over a year ago I sent Amazon my books that were in very good condition and should have brought me a $133.00 gift card. It took 3 months before they even admitted that they had received them. To this day, I still have not received anything for them. And have never been told why not. Because of the run around I was getting, I did a little research, and discovered that there are ALOT of people who have been ripped off by this company! BEWARE!

  12. In January 2011 I sent in 5 textbooks for trade in. One was deemed damaged and returned to me, one was processed and the value applied towards my account, while the other 3 became expired. Customer service has no explanation as to why 3 of my textbooks vanished without being returned or myself being credited. After a short chat with customer service they credited my account for the “lost” items, and i am currently trading in more text books through amazon’s service.

  13. I have done a trade in with amazon and it worked out fine. But mistakes always happen with any company. They pay for the shipping you just print out the label and drop it off to the carrier you choose. They provide you a tracking number so you can track the item and see when it arrives. Usually takes 5 days to a week to get there. Takes about a day or two for them to check out the book then you get a gift card in your email and its applied to your amazon account. The only downfall is they only give gift cards rather than cash, but you can buy useful stuff on amazon such as more textbooks or whatever you wanna apply that credit to.

  14. I have nothing but negative experiences. My two books sent out on on June 12. Received by third-party on June 16 and processed on 26. On 30 I called Amazon. They said one was sent back to me. ( no any update on my website)Today July, 11 I still not have received it back. The other one had been processes for 25 days that update change to Expired ???? What. Of course Amazon has no clue what does mean. And because they do not know what to say. They told me to wait for few more days. bal bla . Never again!!!!

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