Hello! Enjoy this post about how to make money selling books from a blog friend of mine. You can check out other ideas in my side hustles series here.

I like books. In graduate school, I read a lot of books.

For seven years, I worked at a couple of bookstores and now for at least the past decade I have purchased books at clearance sales, library sales and garage sales and then flipped them on Amazon for profit.

Another strategy that has also proven quite rewarding is by selling books, CD’s and DVD’s at chain bookstores. I know that several franchises, with stores in multiple cities, purchase used books. Half Price Books is one of them. But my experience and specific tips are based upon sales to Hastings Entertainment, although I suspect that most of the strategies I’ll share are applicable to other establishments as well.

While I do buy used books at garage sales, library sales and such, the better deals may occasionally be found at retail establishments.

For a couple of years, I purchased books at one franchise with a local store which would discount new books to as low as 47 cents each. I would purchase a shopping cart load, resell the more valuable books on Amazon, donate certain needed titles to a university library being developed elsewhere, and trade in the majority of the others at Hastings Entertainment.

Then for several years another bookstore, that has since gone out of business (understandably), would discount their new books that had been in stock for a couple of years. They would gradually lower the prices until they would sell a sack full for $15.00. [Read more…]