• Multi-book lookup
  • Use this page to look up prices for multiple ISBN’s at a time.
  • OR insert the URL of a web page and we will look up any ISBN’s found on that page
• Historic Buyback Price Lookup
  • This searches for all past price lookups for the given ISBN. It includes results from all vendors and displays the maximum price found on each day.
• Recently Searched High Value Books
• Paperback Swap Bookshelf Value
  • When you enter a URL, the system will fetch that URL and then look for anything that appears to be an ISBN. Often times it finds things that look like an ISBN which actually aren’t
• BookProspector Price Lookup
  • You can use this page to look up multiple prices from BookProspector.com’s site. Enter your bookprospector username and password, and and email address where the results will be sent.

The following sites were the most popular in May and June 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. Powells Books
3. Amazon Buyback
4. FirstClassBooks.com
5. Textbooks.com
6. Sellbackyourbook.com
7. Cash4books.com
8. BookByte.com
9. CKYbooks
10. Better World Books

I had previously been running the mobile site and the iPhone application off of an older server. That server had some problems yesterday and the mobile site was down for some period of time until I got that fixed this morning. I have had plans to move those pieces over to the newer servers, but the problems from yesterday gave it the urgency needed to get that done. The good news is that the mobile site and iPhone apps now use the same infrastructure as the main websites which is more scalable and reliable. Additionally, some of the newer vendors which weren’t available on those platforms are now available as well.

I apologize for the inconvenience caused by those being inaccessible, but they should be working well now along with some other fixes that have been planned as well.

Thanks,
Brandon Checketts
BookScouter.com

What is it for, and where did it come from?

W. H. Smith, who was the largest single book retailer in Great Britain, became computerized and wanted a standard numbering system for all the books it carried. They constructed the Standard Book Numbering system (SBN), it was introduced in 1967. In 1970 the ISO, International Organization for Standardization, which consisted of several countries, adopted this standard system. It then became the ISBN numbering system and is now the standard in approximately 150 countries.

The books that were published prior to 1970 do not have ISBN numbers. These books may be rare and antique. But, just because they are labeled this does not mean that they are valuable. The most basic of our economic terms help us dictate the value of such books, supply and demand. A book found in abundance with little desirability to collectors will normally be worth less than a book that is scarce and in high demand. The demand for less common and more desirable books drives the price up. If you are looking to sell your rare or antique books then look to Abebooks.com or Powellsbooks.com . These are both great places to sell them, or to just price the books. If you think that the books may be of more value than these sites give you then you could try finding an ABBA (Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association of America) near you.

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

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

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

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!

I’m about to release the iPhone app and realized that I kindof need a logo to use as the icon. I’ve started a logo design contest at 99designs.com

View the designs here

If you are creative, feel free to submit a design. Otherwise, let me know if one of the logos really stands out to you.

Thanks,
Brandon Checketts
BookScouter.com

The following sites were the most popular sites last month, according to the number of visitors sent from BookScouter

1. Powell’s Books
2. Textbooksrus.com
3. BookJingle.com
4. Cash4Books
5. CKY Books
6. Book Byte
7. FirstClassBooks.com
8. SellBackYourBook.com
9. Textbooks.com
10. Blue Rocket Books