Comments on: SellBackYourBook.com Review: TextBook SellBack Scam?

By: Beck

Beck — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:54:21 +0000

I received an email informing me that 2 of the books I had sent were “definitely missing” and that there was “no sign of damage to the box.” Well, I know for a fact that I did indeed send out those books in the package because I don’t have them. Sound suspicious? Yes.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:12:00 +0000

Hey Gloria,
Not all college students can afford to give things away which have potential monetary value. I can barely afford gas, food, rent, and you want me to donate an item worth 20-50 bucks? I volunteer at a local humane society as my way of giving back to the community. I encourage you to join me, in the real world, when your done riding that horse.

By: Glen

Glen — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:21:49 +0000

@susan, we sent you an email with more info about the order. It looks like everything went as it should minus the address assosicated with your account does not look correct. If you can reply to the email with a correct address we can send out another check!

By: susan terrents

susan terrents — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:06:33 +0000

I am still waiting for my check for the books I sent to you over a month ago. My order # is 214034 for $67.60.

PLEAse reply to me asap!

By: susan terrents

susan terrents — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:04:02 +0000

I mailed in books t you on 9/28/11. I received a e-mail from you my order was accepted by you. My order #214034. I’m begining to think your site is a scam. If this is not the case can you please advise me when I will receive my check for $67.60.

I would hate to report this site to the Better Business Bureau.

Please respond asap.

By: Maren

Maren — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:03:39 +0000

Gloria: because textbooks are not cheap – my cheapest textbook this semester used was $140. So, excuse me for wanting to make money off a textbook that I paid for. I understanding donating books is nice, but when it comes to college its not cheap and I use the money used from selling back books to buy next semesters.

90% of this sellbacks are meant for people like me college students, so sorry if you do not understand I use this to make sure I can one: eat, and two: afford next semesters ridiculously price book.

Most of the books sold back to sites are then again resold at a lower price for students, so before you judge think about what it is actually used for.

By: Lara

Lara — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 00:21:44 +0000

As a person who is a big believer in passing on books I enjoy (excepting the few I can’t bear to part with) by sharing with friends, donating to my local library for their collection or their used-book fundraiser, or to local nursing homes, hospitals, etc.

Today I am looking into *gasp* selling such books (and maybe other things) and found myself here today because I wanted to verify the legitimacy of the company in question and see if there were any red flags before I go any further.

But before you pass judgement on my motivation, I am doing so because I think it would be a unique and virtually painless fundraising idea to support our world-class high school marching band. The money helps cover the costs for uniforms, instruments, travel and lodging, meals and snacks, private instruction, and summer camp experiences for students who otherwise couldn’t afford to participate without exception.

In other ways, there is more than one way to “donate” a book.

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 04:19:32 +0000

@Gloria: Most people who use sites like sellbackyourbook.com are college students, and use the money that they get from the books to buy their books for the new semester. Not all, of course, but most. I was actually on there to buy a book that looked way too cheap to be a real deal, so I went Googling to see if there were any negative reviews about it and found this page ^.^ I agree that donating books (or anything for that matter) is a great thing, and feel that everyone should do this whenever possible. But, sometimes people’s current circumstances (college, no job, low wages, etc.) force them to sell things rather than give them generously.

By: Glen

Glen — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:00:17 +0000

Marcia,

I am sure the reason we are offering to ship the item back to you is simply not because we do not want to buy it. Usually this happens when the item is an international edition that is not for sale in the US or the physical condition does not meet our quality guidelines. If you could post back your order number I would like to look into this more and see what I could do for you to make your experience better.

Thank you,

Glen Nothnagel
Founder/CEO
SellBackYourBook

By: Marcia

Marcia — Fri, 13 May 2011 21:11:32 +0000

I used sellbackyourbook.com and am sorry to say was scammed! They received my book which was a college text book and instead of paying me like promised are now charging me shipping to get it back as they do not want to purchase it now. If I do not pay shipping they are going to “recycle it”. Yeah right! They are going to resell it to another college student for 4Xs what they offered to pay me. So, not only is it a scam, but also an inconvenience. I highly recommend using other buyback companies. sellbackyourbook.com is a bad choice.

By: Alison

Alison — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:23:08 +0000

@Gloria- You are clearly not a poor college student who was forced in to paying $100-150 for a necessary textbook and needs the mere 16 bucks in return to eat dinner.

By: Kenneth

Kenneth — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:35:28 +0000

I’d like to report in and confirm that my experience so far with sellbackyourbook.com went very smoothly for the titles that sellbackyourbook was the high bidder on bigwords.com. I received my check in roughly the same timeframe as detailed here. I’m sending in a second shipment of textbooks today!

By: Glen

Glen — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 03:07:36 +0000

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

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:10:07 +0000

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.

By: Vic

Vic — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:57:37 +0000

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.

By: teeej

teeej — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:55:01 +0000

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.

By: jim

jim — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:35:54 +0000

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.

By: Jenna

Jenna — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:23:34 +0000

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:07:44 +0000

@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.

By: Ingrid

Ingrid — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:10:06 +0000

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.

By: Gloria

Gloria — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:44:54 +0000

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.

By: Yinna

Yinna — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:53:46 +0000

@Gloria: This is a finance blog, not an altruism blog. Thanks for the suggestion, but please get off that high horse.

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:25:16 +0000

I feel misled. I clicked in wanting to read about a scam. I just read about a successful transaction instead

By: TH

TH — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:30:14 +0000

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.

By: Krishna

Krishna — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:42:01 +0000

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.