I don’t know about you but I love to read and I have quite a collection of books. Recently I decided that I really didn’t need to have so many and I should take the time to go through my bookshelves and weed out those books that we no longer want. However, before I just make a large pile to donate to the library, I check to see if any of the books are worth anything.
The first place I check is Amazon.com. It is quite easy to re-sell books on Amazon. You have to have a seller’s account which just means setting up an account, which is then linked to your bank account, so that when you sell a book Amazon can deposit your money directly into your bank account. They take a small percentage but also give you a shipping credit. You can also buy your postage directly from Amazon. Every two weeks they deposit a check directly into your account for the books you have sold. You can list the books in your sellers account, sometimes you can even sell the books directly to Amazon, they will tell you what they will pay you and even let you download the postage for free to ship the book to them. Usually this service is just for textbooks.
Another option for selling books online is through MyBookBuyer.com. I believe this site started out with buying textbooks but you can now sell any books to them. It is very easy, you list your books by the ISBN and immediately they tell you what they will pay you for the book. Once you get your quote you package up your books and ship them for free. They will pay you within three days of receiving the books either by a direct deposit into a PayPal account or they will mail you a check. It took me less than a half an hour to go through my pile of books, find out which ones were worth anything and within a week I had a check in the mail for almost $30. Not bad for a half an hours worth of work.
If some of the books you have are more valuable you can also try selling them on eBay. I have found that it is well worth my time to check these web sites to find out who will give me the most money. I’ve sometimes sold books on one web site for quite a bit of money while on another web site they are not worth much. It surprises me that folks don’t do more Internet searching.
Perhaps you have books you have read and aren’t going to read them again. Did you know you can exchange them for new reading material? PaperBackSwap.com is such a site, this web site allows you to swap, trade and exchange books for free. You just list the books you’d like to swap with other members. You do have to pay for the postage for the books that are requested from you but in exchange you receive a credit. Each credit is worth a book, books you request are mailed to you for free. Our nearest library is a twenty-minute drive from my house. This is a wonderful way for me to have a steady supply of reading material. Just for posting your first 10 books you will receive two book credits. You can use those two credits to request your two books right away. You use the Search page, and browse the search PaperBackSwap Library by title, author or genre. When you find a book you want, just click the “Order This Book” button. The books you receive are free and yours to keep. When another member requests one of your books an email comes directly into your inbox from PaperBackSwap. You then accept the request and mail the book. It is very easy to print out your wrapper, wrap the book and add postage. Then just pop the book in the mail. Postage is by media mail and is usually only $2-$3.00. When the member gets your book you get a credit. I have been using this website for over a year and it has worked so well. You can even add books to a wish list and when they become available you are notified.
Your local library is also a wonderful place to donate used books; usually they have book sales where they will sell your books to raise money for the library. So take some time and go through your bookshelves, you may be able to make some money or exchange the books for new reading material.
Linked to Frugal Tip Tuesday. 
Nancy on the Home Front 