Thrifty Thursday - Week 2 - Use Books to Buy Books

Thrifty Thursday - Week 2

Use Books to Buy Books

Last week I shared some top tips on minimising book spending where possible. This week I will be sharing my experience using my own bookshelves to support my habit, save money, and keep my bookshelves under some sort of control. 

I have four types of books at home. The "keepers" are the beautiful books, gifted books, graphic novels, and ones I will read over again. The "TBRs", as you know, are the books still waiting patiently to be read. The third book type I have is the "Studiers", which are the ones related to or linked to my studies in some way, mainly non-fiction, some textbooks, and other books that I can use as reference material when writing essays (there are a lot of true crime in there, which on the surface appears to be slightly concerning, I am studying Criminology after all). My final book type is my "completed" books. These are books I have read, and for the most part, enjoyed, and stowed away. 

These completed books are where the magic happens. A few times a year, or when my completed shelf looks like it may burst from the weight of the tomes, I settle down for some retail therapy. 

There are many ways to vacate these shelves to earn a little money. 

EBay is a good option, especially if the books you're selling are in high demand or of a collectible nature. On the other hand, it is time-consuming to take pictures, note quality issues, list the item, and wait. Add this to the fees, postage costs, and dealing with lost or missing items. The hassle is much bigger than the reward in my view, and I'm too impatient for all that!

Car boot sales are also an option, particularly when having a general clearout and a range of other things to sell. This is very much down to luck though, I've had weeks where nearly all of my books have been snapped up and others when I've had to cart them all back home again!

My go-to option is to use book resale apps and websites. There are three main ones that I use. We Buy Books, Ziffit, and Music Magpie (there may be others available, and I have no affiliation with any of these providers, just a normal consumer!). 

They are all very similar in the way that they operate. Download the App, create an account, and then scan the barcodes of the books you would like to sell to them (some of them also buy DVDs, CDs, and small electrical items like mobile phones, though my experience in utilising the additional services is limited). 

Scan the barcode and receive an indication of whether they want to buy from you, along with a price. I'll be honest, selling directly to the consumer using Ebay or car boot sales will earn you more money, but with additional costs, fees, and hassle. Some books attract tiny monetary amounts (1p in some cases) whereas others will generate a few pounds or more. This is balanced out if you sell multiple books at once. 50p per book on average has been a fairly achievable amount for me. 

My top tip for doing this is to use multiple apps at once to get the best offer. I'll scan each book three times, once with each app. The app that offers me the most, wins. I remove items from the basket if the value is less than I want, or if another app offers more. This trick helps to sell as many books as possible, as not all apps take all books, and get the best price for them. 

When I'm happy with the amount offered and have scanned and sorted all of my books, I usually have three piles, one for each app. I then complete the transaction through the app (this usually involves printing some sort of shipping label for self-posting, or arranging courier collection, but is generally free of charge). 

I then box up the books, post them, and wait for them to be checked. Sold books are checked for quality, and to ensure that everything is as it should be. Once that's been done, the funds are released by bank transfer. The process is quick and straightforward, and communications from the above sites are good. 

The next part is the fun part. Using the money I've earned from my completed shelf, I wander off to the nearest charity shop to pick up more for the TBR shelf! If I have something on my Amazon Wishlist, I may use the money towards that, or even use websites selling second-hand books if there's a particular title I'm after. 

I've popped some screenshots below, from the Ziffit App, to give you an idea of how quick and easy it is to set up an order. 

Suppose after a few rotations, a book remains unwanted on these apps (usually if they already have plenty available, or low demand). In that case, I bring them with me on a charity shop visit and make a donation. 

It feels good to be putting my books to some use rather than growing dusty on a shelf. Books are made to be read, and I enjoy the idea that someone else will have the opportunity to read mine. 

Some people prefer to keep their books and display or store them. If I had more space, I would want to do that too (a home library sounds EPIC!).  That's not practical for me as my space is limited, so this keeps a good rotation, nice-looking shelves, a little task for a rainy weekend, and allows me to make space for more without having an obstacle course of books strewn around the house!

Do you have experience with using these apps? Do you have any other ways I can use in my endeavours to be thrifty with my book habits? Please leave a comment and let me know!

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