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Archive for April, 2010

Renting versus Buying

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Online book rental companies are a new alternative for college students in need of textbooks. So the question is, “Is it better to buy or rent?” It really depends on each individuals situation and preference. If you’re the type of person that buys your book at full price and never gets around to selling it, then renting textbooks is definitely for you. But, if you shop around for the best deal, when purchasing a book and then use a site like Bookscouter to sell it back then buying textbooks is the way to go.

Let’s do a case study, I’m going to pretend that I have to buy Molecular Cell Biology (9780716776017), which retails at $131.67. First I am going to find the lowest price I can rent it for at Textbookrenter. Then I am going to see how much I can buy it for at Campusbooks. After that,  I am going find out how much I can sell it for here at Bookscouter. The new historic buyback feature can show you that the price of that book has slowly gone down over time, but today (April 29th) it seems to have jumped back up a bit.

The lowest rental price was $42.21 from Campusbookrentals.com. The lowest buying price was $57.49 from Amazon.com. The highest selling price was $47.12 from Firstclassbooks.com. So if I rented the book it would have cost me a total of $42.21. If I bought the book and sold it, it would cost me a total of $10.37.

The benefit of renting is that you don’t have to worry if all of the sudden the author comes out with a new edition and your book becomes unwanted. Renting also is usually more convenient then buying and selling which saves time.  But at the end of the day if you are willing to buy and sell your books, you will usually end up with a few more dollars in your pockets then if you rented.

Posted in Buyback | 2 Comments »

Five New Vendors Added - 39 Sites Now Searchable

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

I’ve just finished adding 5 new buyback sites in time for the busy season. More competition means higher prices for everybody. That brings the total number of vendors searchable on the site to 39, and 52 sites are available to have feedback submitted.

Posted in Merchants | No Comments »

New user accounts available plus three vendors fixed

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

I’ve just added a few more new features to the site. Users now have the ability to create an account at BookScouter.com and customize the list of vendors that are searched. This should make it so that you only see the vendors that you are actually interested in selling to. You can still click a link to view all of the vendors as well. If you are not logged in, then some of the most reliable sites are shown by default.

I’ve also fixed a few problems that people have let me know about. We Buy Textbooks recently changed their site, so prices weren’t being displayed and that has been corrected.

AbeBooks pricing hasn’t been showing recently because they had blocked my program from accessing their site. I was able to work around that by using TextbooksRus’s price which always matches to the penny. (In case you didn’t know, AbeBooks buyback program is run by TextbooksRus anyway). Their price now showing, but I still recommend that you use TextbooksRus directly and avoid the extra company in the middle.

Finally, I also fixed a problem where pricing from Powells Books sometimes wouldn’t show. I worked with them to get that resolved and it should be working well now.


Thanks,
Brandon Checketts
BookScouter.com

Posted in Announcements | 2 Comments »

BookScouter is faster, cleaner, and has new features

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

I’ve been working for a while on some significant changes to the website. The first thing you’ll notice is that the old template has been replaced with a much cleaner (and I think nicer looking) page. But the changes go much deeper than just a new template. I’ve completely reworked how most of the back-end systems work. The new design should allow for much greater flexibility and scalability. I’ll be able to add new websites quickly and I’ll have the ability to work on some new tools for higher-volume users.

The site should also load faster throughout. Every page should load quicker due to some HTML and CSS changes. I’ve also reconfigured some server settings to better take advantage of browser caching. The actual price comparison page should finish quicker as well. I’m using some different technology to make all of those lookups all happen simultaneously.

Additionally, I’ve made it so that only the most popular websites are listed by default. The full list of pricing is available with an extra click. That should make the initial pricing appear in around 5-7 seconds.

I’ve tried to work on some simple usability issues as well. For example, I’ve added a search box to the header so that you no longer have to go back to the home page to start a new search. Additionally, the cursor should be in that ISBN input box when the page loads, so you can start typing (or scanning) an ISBN immediately without having to click in the box.

And the final change that I’m exited to introduce is that historic pricing information is available. You can now see the book buyback pricing for any searches that the site has done since July 2007. I’ve been collecting that information since then, but never had a way for users to see it until now.

Please feel free to leave feedback about the new design or functionality by commenting on this post, by using the Contact Form or emailing me directly.


Thanks,
Brandon Checketts
BookScouter.com

Posted in Announcements | 5 Comments »

Tips for Packaging Books

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

A lot of people have been asking for the best way to package a book, so here are some tips that we thought would be helpful.

  • Always pack your book in some kind of plastic. You can easily use the plastic bags from your grocery store, or even ClingWrap will do. This is to protect the books from the elements. Not all books are delivered on sunny days, and not all fit into an individuals mailbox. No sense buying books, only to have them be water-damaged because they weren’t protected.
  • Sandwich the book in between two sturdy pieces of cardboard just slightly bigger than the book. This prevents bent corners,
  • A cardboard box is probably going to be the safest way to package a book, but if you are on a budget, you can get by using a padded envelope if you use the above tips.

There are no rules set in stone for the packaging of books. The main thing is to put in a little extra effort and make sure the book is water proofed and able to withstand a little abuse. We are not the authority on packaging books, so we would appreciate tips and comments on how you like to package books.

Thanks for reading and happy shipping!


Posted in Shipping | No Comments »

Top Sellers for January 2010

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

The following sites were the most popular in January 2010 according to the number of visitors sent from BookScouter. This is a good indication of which websites offered the highest prices during the month.

  1. Textbooksrus.com
  2. CKY books
  3. Bookbyte
  4. Powell’s Books
  5. FirstClassBooks.com
  6. Sellbackyourbook.com
  7. Sellyourbooks4cash.com
  8. Textbooks.com
  9. Bookjingle.com
  10. College Textbook Buyers

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

BookScouter iPhone App Now Available

Saturday, April 10th, 2010


I’m happy to announce, that after much work, the BookScouter iPhone App will be available in the App Store within the next 24 hours. This allows you access to the full power of the BookScouter pricing comparisons on your iPhone.

Available in the App Store

Sell your books for the highest price! Simply scan or enter any book ISBN and BookScouter will scour the Internet and identify any websites buying the book and compare their prices.

Perfect for:

  • College students who want to check their textbooks prices before selling them back to the bookstore
  • Anybody who wants to sell some books around their home for some extra cash
  • Individuals who shop a thrift stores and yard sales to find valuable books for a bargain
  • Book retailers wanting to get rid of some inventory

Features:

  • Searches 30+ Book Buyback websites
  • ISBN entry via on-screen keyboard
  • Camera integration to simply take a photo of an ISBN
  • Integration with http://bookscouter.com/
  • The most thorough book buyback app around

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

December 2009 Top Sellers

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

The following sites were the most popular in December 2009 according to the number of visitors sent from BookScouter. This is a good indication of which websites offered the highest prices during the month.

  1. Textbooksrus.com
  2. FirstClassBooks.com
  3. Powell’s Books
  4. Bookbyte
  5. Sellbackyourbook.com
  6. Textbooks.com
  7. Abe Books
  8. CKY books
  9. Chegg.com
  10. Bookjingle.com

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Used books are good for the planet

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Used text books are good for the planet, right? Well that statement seems fairly easy to defend, but when you get down to the hard facts, it really becomes an interesting topic. When proving this hypothesis, the first question I wanted to answer was, “How many books come from one tree?”. I soon realized this was not an easy question to answer, because books and trees come in all different shapes and sizes. Determined not to give up on my quest for the tree book ratio, I dug deeper searching some type of quantitative data to calculate how many averaged sized books come from the average sized tree. Eventually I stumbled across some interesting information, it turns out that most trees are not used for paper. In fact, only the unwanted parts are sent to make paper. The majority of paper is made from recycled materials.

So does the buying and selling of used books do much good for our tall green friends after all? Perhaps not as much as I had originally anticipated, but I still contend that used books are good for the planet, and here’s why. Do you remember the old saying “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”? Well when paper is recycled to create new paper, it goes through a process that requires a lot of energy, and resources including the use of some dangerous chemicals. Not to mention all of the energy and resources that are used to print a copy of a new book that could have been bought “USED” instead. So even if new books are made from recycled paper far more energy and resources are expended in creating them if we simply reused the books we have now. Maybe that is why they put reuse before recycle.

So perhaps buying and selling books on-line isn’t going to make you Captain Planet, but it does make a lot of sense. What makes even more sense is the economic impact buying and selling used books has. In a national, and even global time of economic uncertainty buying and selling used books does a lot more good than you might think. Selling your books on-line, especially text books, provides a low-cost alternative for students to buy the books they need for school. During a time of economic downturn many individuals lose their jobs, and in an effort to make themselves marketable they return to school to learn new skills, which will allow them to gain new employment. Very often these students cannot afford to pay full price for their books. Thus, by selling your books on-line, you are not only earning extra income for yourself, while helping the environment, you’re making it easier for someone out there to get an education, which is definitely good for the planet.

So go ahead and round up all those old books and use http://bookscouter.com to find the best places to sell them. You’ll earn some money and help the planet!

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »