Having a huge stack of used, unneeded textbooks is not a great feeling. Clutter aside, those books are expensive, and not used much – keeping them around feels like literally throwing money into a trash can. The solution? Sell those textbooks to others who need them.
Selling your textbooks is a pretty obvious answer to a very easy question. Where things might get a little more difficult is how to go about doing that. As I see it, there are two main ways to go about this. This post will work through how to set up selling your textbook, so when the time is right, you’re able to do it. The first is through the bookstore. The second is through a facebook group.
Through the UTM Bookstore
First, head to the UofT Bookstore website, and go to the heading “Textbooks.” Once you’re there, scroll down, and find this:
Option one is just getting the idea of what price you can currently sell your book at. This will, of course, depend on the demand for the book and time of year. Click “go” for getting a quote, and you’ll come to this page:
Once you’ve put in the ISBN code for the textbook you want to sell and clicked “check price” (I used a Writing History textbook), you’ll be brought to this page. What you click doesn’t affect the price.
Finally, after hitting “continue,” you’ll be shown the price on a page like this:
The price probably won’t be very high, full disclaimer – I’ve tried this with a few textbooks, and it’s not much. Of course, having only social science textbooks that weren’t that expensive in the first place, it’s fair to say this may vary.
Now, going back to that page for selling textbooks. Option two will give you email alerts. Click “go” for buyback alerts, and it will bring you to this page:
You can sign up for alerts if you like, and you’ll get email notifications when they’re buying back the books you enter the ISBN for.
Throughout the year, the UTM bookstore will buy back used books whenever they are open. When you bring your textbook to the store to sell, remember to bring a valid debit card – they’ll put the money on that. Also, be sure your textbooks are in fairly good condition (all pages present, no excessive highlighting/writing, etc.)
Through Facebook
If you’re maybe looking to make a little more money in selling your textbooks is to do it through the UTM Textbook Exchange on Facebook. Type in “UTM Textbook Exchange” on facebook, and you’ll find it. It’s a public group, but you’ll have to request to join – someone in the group will let you in!
You’ll get all kinds of UTM posts here – from events, to apartment spaces for sale, to people looking to buy and sell textbooks. To sell your textbooks, make a post like this:
The picture is not necessary, by the way. Anyhow, hopefully, someone will message you, and you two can work out a price and a meeting spot to exchange!
Note for selling stuff: remember that timing will be important when selling on facebook – right now, it’s unlikely someone is going to be looking to buy a textbook a course that only ran last term. So, if you must, time your sales for the beginning of next term, or for the summer – then, you will be more likely to find people willing to buy.
And that’s all there is to it – hopefully you’ll be able to clear some of those textbooks out, and make room for next year’s books – both in your bag and your wallet!
(Disclaimer: I would recommend the first way, through the Bookstore, if you want your book sold for sure.)
Experience UTM 