You no doubt have tried textbook buy back at your university - or you soon will. It involves waiting in line, hoping that the statistics you barely passed in class will still help you get some cash out of the book you paid $80 to buy. But have you ever seen textbook buy back with a guarantee? A guarantee lets you avoid keeping a book you don't need, and you don't have wonder if you can sell it to the bookstore.

Textbook Buy Back Pains

I hated that feeling, as I stood in line to sell back my books. Know the feeling? You wait. You look around to see who else has your same books. You ask yourself, Will they still need my book? And finally, you arrive at the register, and they only need 1 of the 5 books you have. You get your $35 bucks, out of $250 or so you spent on books this semester, and you carry the other ones home.

A New Way for Textbook Buy Back: The Guarantee

For many books, you can avoid this now by getting books through websites and stores that will guarantee to buy back your book. Some campus stores and some online stores will guarantee to buy back certain books, and they will even tell you how much they will pay you. You still have some limitations, as you might expect.

End of Semester Time Saver

At the end of the semester, you will just take your books to a drop off point and pick up your cash - but you may have a line still. The difference is that you will also have a guaranteed return. With online stores, you will usually get a prepaid postage sticker you have to keep until the end of the term, and then you'll mail them back for a check.

The companies that provide this service will tell you how much they will pay. Many university bookstores also offer this service. The books included in the program will typically have a sticker or an icon, if online, to show you that they have a guaranteed textbook buy back amount.

Be careful to leave the stickers on the books! They serve as your guarantee! Campus bookstores usually require that their sticker still be on the book.

Which Textbooks Are Included
Not all textbooks will have the guarantee, regardless of where you buy them. Even if some of yours don't, you can still do it the old way during buy back week. And of course you can also try to sell it online.

Ask at your school bookstore if they offer guaranteed textbook buy back. And online, you can check out your favorite stores for guaranteed offers.

Good luck!