How to Sell Your Textbooks at ASU (and Actually Get Good Money)

Every semester ends the same way. Finals are done, you're exhausted, and you've got a stack of textbooks sitting on your desk that you spent $400–600 on and now need to offload. The ASU Bookstore buyback table is right there, convenient and staffed and ready to take your books.

It will also pay you about 20 cents on the dollar if you're lucky.

Here's what actually works.

Why the Bookstore Buyback Is Almost Always a Bad Deal

The ASU Bookstore buyback program isn't a scam — it's just a business. They buy books low because they resell them as "used" copies, and they have no reason to pay you market rate when students will sell to them out of convenience.

The typical buyback offer looks like this: you bought a book for $180, they offer you $25. Sometimes less. If a new edition is coming out (which publishers do constantly, specifically to kill the used textbook market), they may offer you nothing at all.

High-cost textbook subjects at ASU where this hurts most:

• Engineering (Fulton Schools courses routinely use $200+ textbooks)
• Nursing (ASU's nursing program has some of the most expensive course materials on campus)
• Business (W. P. Carey courses use expensive case-study bundles and access codes)
• Pre-med and biology (intro bio textbooks from publishers like Pearson run $250+ new)
• Architecture — materials are a different problem, but software subscription costs are brutal

The point is: if you spent serious money on a book, don't let the bookstore give you $15 for it. You can do better.

Option 1: Sell Directly to Another ASU Student

This is the best option most of the time. Another student who needs the same book next semester will pay more than the bookstore because they're still getting a deal compared to buying new or used through the bookstore.

The math works for everyone:

• Bookstore sells used for $130
• You sell directly for $80
• Buyer saves $50, you make $55 more than the bookstore would have offered
• Everyone wins except the bookstore

Where to list:

• ASU List — built specifically for ASU students, so buyers are right on campus and already looking for textbooks. You can meet on campus, no shipping, no strangers.
• ASU-specific Facebook groups (search "ASU Textbooks" or your college's specific group)
• Nextdoor-style groups for specific dorms or apartment complexes

The key advantage of selling on ASU List or campus Facebook groups is logistics. You can meet someone at the MU, outside Hayden Library, or in the courtyard of whatever building the class is held in. No shipping, no waiting, no packaging.

Option 2: Amazon

Amazon is the best national platform for selling textbooks, but it requires more effort than people expect.

How it works:

• You can list as a third-party seller on Amazon Marketplace
• You set the price, Amazon takes a referral fee (usually 15% for books)
• You ship the book when it sells (use Amazon's prepaid label or USPS Media Mail, which is cheap for books)

What you need to know:

• Look up your ISBN on Amazon before listing anywhere. Amazon's pricing data is the most accurate indicator of true market value.
• If Amazon used copies are selling for $40, you can probably get $50–60 from a local student who wants it immediately without waiting for shipping.
• Media Mail through USPS is around $3–5 for a standard textbook. Factor that into your pricing.
• Amazon pays out every two weeks, not immediately.

When Amazon is the better choice:

• Your book is from a course that's not offered at ASU this semester (no local demand)
• You're leaving Tempe and can't meet locally
• The book has high national demand (common intro courses used at many universities)

Option 3: Chegg and BookScouter

Chegg and BookScouter are worth checking, but rarely worth using exclusively.

BookScouter is actually useful as a price comparison tool — enter your ISBN and it shows you what 30+ buyback vendors will pay. Use this to see if the ASU Bookstore is offering anything close to reasonable (spoiler: usually not).

Chegg's buyback can be decent for popular titles. They send you a prepaid shipping label, you send the book, they pay via check or PayPal. It's easy, but the prices are similar to or slightly better than the bookstore. Not as good as selling directly.

How to Price Your Textbook

1. Look up the ISBN on Amazon. Find the lowest used price from a third-party seller.
2. Subtract 20–30% — that's your target price for a local sale (the buyer gets a discount, you still beat the bookstore).
3. List it at the higher end first. You can always drop the price; you can't raise it after someone's already interested.
4. Include the edition, condition (be honest), and whether any access codes or supplemental materials are included.

Access codes are complicated. If your book came with a one-time-use online access code (common in business and math courses), and it's been used, your book is worth significantly less. Be upfront about this. Used access codes are worthless to a buyer. Price accordingly.

Timing Is Everything

The window for selling textbooks is short. Students are actively looking for books in the two weeks before and the first week of a semester. After the first week of class, demand drops off fast — students have already found their copies elsewhere.

Ideal timeline:

• End of fall semester: List in early December, before winter break
• End of spring semester: List in late April and early May, before finals end

The worst time to list is the week after finals. Students are gone, demand has collapsed, and you'll be competing with everyone else who waited too long.

What If Your Book Doesn't Sell?

Some books just won't move — old editions, obscure upper-division courses, books where a PDF has basically replaced the physical copy. If you've tried for a few weeks and gotten no bites:

• Drop the price significantly (sometimes $5–10 is worth it to not carry it home)
• Donate to the ASU library — they sometimes accept textbook donations
• Keep it if there's any chance you'll reference it in future courses (this is rare but occasionally true in your major)
• Accept the loss and recycle if none of the above work

The textbook market is a real racket, but with a little effort, you can get meaningfully more money than the bookstore will ever offer you. List early, price it right, and meet locally if you can.