Proving the Textbook Reselling Hypothesis
Hello, Anon!
Today, we’re going to take a 10,000 foot view at the strategy we’re trying to play when it comes to college textbook reselling.
It’s always helpful to pause and reassess the broader strategy every once in a while. Remember, a good hunter will put themselves in a position to have the highest probability for success, so let’s do the same.
Quick Note: for anyone who did not get a chance to read Guide to Reselling College Textbooks, we’re going to quickly recap our strategy.
The Strategy
Let me start by using an illustrative college student, Tristan.
A native of Connecticut, Tristan goes to Kenyon College, a small liberal arts school in Gambier, OH to get an undergraduate degree in Gender Studies. His dad worked in Investment Banking, so unfortunately Tristan didn’t qualify for any grants / funding; he’s paying $66,490 per year…
The timeframe is August and his mom, Karen, is getting ready to drive him back to beautiful Gambier for the fall semester. Before she hits the road, she packs up the Suburban with all of his clothes, toiletries, and snacks.
Tristan asks, “Mom, did you buy my books for the semester?”
Karen, always prepared responds, “of course, I just ordered them off Amazon this week! They’ll be shipped to your dorm.”
Note: Karen, completely indifferent to price, wants Tristan to succeed so she finds a Used-Like New listing on Amazon so Tristan has all of the tools he needs to excel (Fun Fact: she bought BowTiedBookSeller’s listing)
Like most parents, Karen found the title to each class on Amazon Prime and had them shipped to Tristan’s dorm.
A few months after dropping Tristan off at school and returning home to Connecticut, Karen finds Tristan’s books from last semester sitting in his bedroom.
Thinking to herself, “oh we don’t need these anymore,” Karen decides to list Tristan’s old books on eBay for some other college student to hopefully use. Not realizing there’s a market for college textbooks, Karen lists the book for $50 and has no sales price in mind.
She leaves the listing on eBay until someone (BowTiedBookSeller) sends her a DM, “Good morning! Are you willing to sell the book for $20 (50% off)?”
Without hesitation, Karen says, “of course, I’d love to get rid of this. Enjoy the book!”
Karen goes to USPS, ships the package (via Media Mail at BowTiedBookSeller’s request), and gets ready to repeat the cycle when Tristan goes back in January for the fall semester.
Breakdown
So what did we just read?
We saw a parent who, who does not care about price, purchase a book during peak time of demand and then sell books from the previous semester during the lull in demand.
If you’re not following my logic, here’s a Keepa chart that’ll better explain:
As you can see, the Used Textbook Price (Black Line) Goes from ~$30 - ~$80 during the months of August to September.
Also, you’ll see the Green Line (Sales Rank, a.k.a. Demand) goes skyrocketing during August and January.
Then, during the time when Karen was selling (October / November) the price of the books comes back to ~$30 as there’s no demand.
Not only do we see this play out in the Keepa chart, which informs our decision to buy and at what price, but every day on eBay this plays out. Don’t believe me?
Nearly everyday I submit low-ball offers and get responses from people who clearly are just trying to get rid of their books.
Targeting the Right Seller
How do you find the Karens of eBay to buy from?
I look at a few things:
Feedback Score < 1,000: as you’ll see above isgoe_80, has a score of 134. Anything over 2,000 and they’re probably a reseller.
Personal Photo: you can quickly tell if someone used an iPhone to create the thumbnail for their listing. If it’s anything other than a thumbnail, they’re probably a serious reseller.
An Honest Description: Most people who only have a few eBay listings, will take the time to write a description; a reseller will use eBay’s AI-generated text.
Again, submitting offers for college textbooks is like duck hunting. You put yourself in the stand and send out offers.
Some days you’ll get 10 offers that meet your criteria and other days you’ll get 0; it’s part of the game.
Conclusion
Today I provided a real-life scenario that tends to play itself out year-after-year with not much changing.
Colleges still require textbooks, parents still pay for everything, and people are lazy so they want Amazon Prime.
eBay isn’t flooded with just Karen’s offloading books; there are legit book resellers there too (Pro Tip: The resellers often will offer deals if you bundle… e.g., I’ll buy all 5 of your books for $100).
Once you spin up your college textbook reselling business, you’ll be shocked at how many people don’t realize the market they’re in.
Goodluck, Anon.
Need help getting started?
Guide to Reselling College Textbooks - Step-by-step process to starting your college textbook reselling business from the equipment needed to generating your first sale
Book List - I’ve created a list of 1,000 College Textbook ISBNs for you to use to get started setting alerts in Keepa
Great breakdown of actual use cases