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Selling used book
Summary: olwen711 is seeking advice on selling used books. tressygirl and tobiasd4 suggest that rare, vintage, or niche books might sell more easily compared to mass-produced ones, as large sellers dominate the market with low prices. *vyolla* advises that a specific criminology book is unlikely to be profitable due to low resale value. red_magpie recommends specializing in niche markets and shares a story about a relative who successfully sold cricket books but with significant effort in sourcing stock.
Getting started selling used books
7 comments
olwen711
OPJul 20, 2026 at 6:09 PMWhat about 1901 Pears cyclopedia in vgc
red_magpie
MentorJul 20, 2026 at 8:52 AM · EditedWhat sort of books? And where would you get your stock?
People are literally giving away used books today. To make any money, you would probably have to specialise in a niche or collectors' market. I had a relative who built up an international following by selling books on cricket. But to achieve this he spent weeks every year travelling around the country to visit second-hand bookshops to buy stock.
olwen711
OPJul 19, 2026 at 4:23 PMWhat ab Criminology ed by Chris Hale
KIETH Haywards, azrini Wahadin.ZEmm
*vyolla*
MentorJul 19, 2026 at 4:38 PMIf you check to see what's available on eBay you'll see that the lowest price that particular book sells for is £3.54 with free delivery, so there's little value there, it'll be hard to compete with that.
tobiasd4
Mentor1 month agoTo add.
If you want to sell mass produced books, you are up against big sellers who can sell them for very cheap with free postage.
Look for similar sold books to see the prices.
tressygirl
Mentor1 month agoDepends what type of books to sell you had in mind to sell.
Rare, vintage or niche subject books might be easier to sell than standard / usual reads.
Then, it's a hard category as some of the biggest sellers on eBay sell books and can get away with little or no postage costs and sometimes 1p profit on one book so beating competitors hands down for the cheapest book on site, as they sell in such vast volumes.
Check them out not sure if I name them here they might be removed but they're easy to spot, see if you can compete with their prices.
@olwen711
olwen711
OPJul 20, 2026 at 6:31 PMWho are the main sellers of older cyclopedias etc?