SellBackYourBook.com Review: TextBook SellBack Scam?
The other site I used when selling back my old textbooks online was and SellBackYourBook.com. All the websites I used did indeed eventually pay me for my books.
Reviews on the Web
I did not spend more than couple minutes on this, but a quick search did not find any claims of non-payment or scam reports on SellBackYourBook.com.
I found two Better Business Bureau listings for this site. One gave No Rating and the other gave an A- rating. SellBackYourBook.com does advertise that it is an BBB Accredited Business, so if you do have issues I would file a complaint.
My Personal Experience
After typing in my ISBN numbers into BigWords.com, SellBackYourBook was the highest bidder for certain textbooks. Although I found their site lacking polish, I went ahead and agreed to their price and terms, and they provided me with a printable packing slip and prepaid shipping label. Here’s part of the email sent to me:
This confirms that your order has been placed with Sell Back Your Book. Please print a copy of your packing slip and include a copy of it in the box with your books. A link to print your packing slip can be found at the bottom of this email. Please mark your order number on the outside of your box so that we can quickly check in your books and pay you (order number is listed below).
It took me a couple of days to get around to going to the post office, and mail it out via USPS Media Mail (formerly known as Book Rate). 20 days later, I received a confirmation email, partial text below. There was no 2nd email confirming payment was sent.
Thank you for your order. We have received your books and payment will be processed with in three business days.
A check was made the same day, and three days later it was in my mailbox for the exact amount the promised me for my books. It was from “Ez Book Recycle Inc.”, for which SellBackYourBook.com is the sourcing arm. In total, 23 days went by from mailing out to receiving the check.
Summary Timeline
Day 1 – Sent out book via USPS Media Mail
Day 20 – Email confirmation of arrival
Day 20 – Check printed and mailed out
Day 23 – Check received successfully
Find more in Frugal Living, Reviews | 3/8/10, 1:32am | Trackback
March 8th, 2010 at 7:23 am
I used cash4books.net…real quick and easy. Just had to find a cardboard box and some packing tape. They didn’t have a $10-$15 minimum, so that’s what made me use this site. Looked into this after your initial post on this matter, and I’ve already received the $$.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:57 am
Why don’t all of you folks donate the books to a local library instead? There’s more to life than trying to make a buck on every single thing, you know!
March 8th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Gloria, good thinking! You could make more money by donating the books and using it as a tax deduction.
March 8th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Shannon and Gloria, do you know how I can calculate the fair value of books donated to the local library? I have over 50 books (regular reading and college) that I want to get rid off.
March 8th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Why does the title of this post question about a scam? Jonathan, it sounds like you received your money, and in a reasonable amount of time as well. Am I missing something?
March 8th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Shannon: You are missing the point. I am solely talking about performing an altrusitic action here. Tax deduction is irrelevant to the point I was making.
Krishna: I never claim a tax deduction for the books that I donate or for that matter for any of my non-cash donations to charities. I donate because I want to do my part of helping out the unprivileged; not to earn any brownie points or tax deductions.
March 8th, 2010 at 11:44 am
@Shannon lol! Well played, good lady.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Gloria, you don’t know the current circumstances of other people. For example, it’s possible that people will benefit from getting a tax deduction for the simple reason that they might have been laid off recently.
March 8th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Yeah, the title definitely does not match up with the review. I thought you were going to say how it’s a scam, but there seems to be no scam. Confusing.
March 8th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
I feel misled. I clicked in wanting to read about a scam. I just read about a successful transaction instead
March 8th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
@Gloria: This is a finance blog, not an altruism blog. Thanks for the suggestion, but please get off that high horse.
March 9th, 2010 at 7:44 am
yinna and krishna: ok, i’m stopping it here RIGHT NOW. i hope the pennies you save, help you on your way down. My horse, however, will take me where the sensible belong. i’m outta here.
March 9th, 2010 at 9:10 am
My public library doesn’t accept textbook donations. They have a big sign saying “NO TEXTBOOKS!”
I’m confused about the scam also. Are other people saying that the site reviewed is a scam and your experience disproves it. (Did they know you are a widely read blogger?) I’d be reluctant to deal with a place that has a whiff of scam about it.
March 9th, 2010 at 11:07 am
@Gloria – Saving a dollar and donating to charity are not mutually exclusive. Does donating an old nuclear physics textbook to a neighborhood library really help that much? My library has stacks and stacks of donated books, most of which are old and useless and from people who simply wanted to throw them away but now have some lame tax deduction. The library will probably take years to sort through it all, and most of it will end up being recycled for bulk paper or thrown away anyway.
My library also has a big sign that says “no textbooks”.
By selling a used textbook, you are allowing another college student to buy one at less than new price, thus saving paper and fuel needed for production, and money for them as well. Every time I could find a used book for one of my classes as a student, I was ecstatic!
Finally, imagine donating the $20 you got for your textbook on top of that. In my opinion, the net positive is much greater.
—-
There is no scam here, just the question of whether there is a scam initially to a website with such a barebones look. I am simply running an experiment between two posts reviewing similar sites to see how putting “Scam” in the title affects both search engine visitors and regular visitors. I am sorry if anyone felt misled.
March 9th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
March 9th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
I agree that selling books online is more efficient.
Generally the local library has no use for used textbooks. If they do accept them as donations then they’ll most likely be sold at a ‘friends of the library book sale’ for a flat $1. And its unlikely that a local library will find a buyer who is taking a class for any given textbook. Textbooks are not good sellers at library book sales.
Reselling books online helps poor college students much more. Looking at one specific book it costs $140 at the university book store. You can buy it online for $60-70 and the online sellers will pay $30-40 for it.
March 9th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
I hope Gloria did not really leave, as she made good points that led to important discussion.
I think donating books is best done at betterworldbooks.com, which has the goal of eradicating illiteracy in third world countries. Most universities have bwb clubs that organize book drives and have drop boxes for books. You can buy books from them online and they offer free shipping, as well as carbon offsets for the fuel used to ship them.
I donate books to bwbs, after I have failed to receive money for them. This is one of my sources of income, and I don’t feel bad for not donating, As others mentioned previously.
I also used a book buyer from bigwords.com and received prompt payment. Sorry I can’t recall which company I used, but they had no minimum and they covered shipping costs. one of them didn’t offer paid shipping, so I cancelled that sale by not shipping the books.
March 9th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
Hmmm. Donating may be done without expecting a return (tax deduction). But at least, if you really want to clean up your book room with your useless books, the clean-up is already a benefit. Then if you will monetarily earn, it’s just a bonus.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:10 am
First I was confused about where the scam was; now I feel a bit misled. However, I do appreciate you being upfront about it in the comments. You may want to consider doing such experiments in a way that won’t confuse your readers and devalue your content.
March 20th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Hey John,
Thanks for writing about your experience with us! I am glad that you received your payment and everything went well. Although the heading worried me initially thank you for putting
“I did not spend more than couple minutes on this, but a quick search did not find any claims of non-payment or scam reports on SellBackYourBook.com.”
As we try to make sure everyone that sells books to us is happy.
As to it taking about 23 days this is pretty normal when using media mail, that is why I am pleased to announce we are rolling out a fedex option in the next two weeks!
Fedex will cut out the lengthy time it takes to get us the books and this will help ensure our customers get paid as quickly as possible. We are expecting all Fed Ex packages to only take 2-5 days to get to us opposed to the 7-14 days media mail takes.
Once again thank you for writing about your experience and I hope we earn your business in the future when you have books to sell.
Glen Nothnagel
Founder/CEO
SellBackYourBook