This is a paid article for Webuybooks.co.uk.
Now I am not a book hoarder per se… but at my last count I had several thousand. Accrued since birth, through Uni, combined with my partner’s collection – we’re both avid readers – they soon mount up – and in truth this number ain’t gonna go down. Short of moving house to support this habit, I would rather let someone else enjoy the ones I haven’t so much as looked at in a while.
Enter this week’s Sponsor: Webuybooks.co.uk and The WeBuyBooks App. What started as a work advertorial has fast become my new favourite hobby and has forced me to look through my many many book cases & piles and be absolutely brutal and honest: “Do I really need these?” – when the answer was no. I scanned them all and am now using the money I have made to go in my “winter fuel budget” – without really doing anything.
To help others see quite how easy this is, let me talk you through how the product works.
How WeBuyBooks Works
It’s genuinely really simple, and if you’ve ever sold your CDs online, it’s the same principle.
After making a pile of books that I wished to sell, I downloaded the App HERE and created an account for myself. Inside of a minute, I was using the app’s scanner on my phone to zap the barcodes on my unwanted books, and watching them pile up in the WeBuyBooks basket.
Scanning Your Books
Now, there were quite a few books that the app didn’t want, and this is because all the books you put online are being crossed off against an enormous existing catalogue that knows what’s in demand, what’s in need of stock and what isn’t: so don’t be discouraged if your first few tries come up with the ‘Sorry, this title isn’t required’ notification. About a third of the books I zapped fell into this category. Also stumped by books that didn’t have barcodes, I actually found a quick solution as they can be searched through on the app. There is a catalogue full of books on there.
After a few minutes, I had a pile of books I will have to box up and sell somewhere else (or take to my local charity shop) and a thankfully higher pile of books that WeBuyBooks wanted. And even though half of them were only being offered a small amount (a few pennies), the odd title netted me a few quid, and one or two even more than that: these titles were clearly in demand.
Packaging and Sending
Once I’d decided to stop scanning for the time being, and had cleared myself a whole shelf of space for something else (more books, if I’m honest) I found a sturdy cardboard box (make sure it’s got all its parts and can be safely taped up with strong parcel or sellotape) and packaged up my books carefully, adding some foam padding I’d had lying around in a cupboard from an old appliance.
I then hit the ‘sell my books’ option from the checkout and made sure my printer was ready to go. The app sent a label to print out, which I did, and slapped it onto the package. It did however specify that if I hadn’t had a printer, I can drop the parcel off at a parcelshop and they will also print the label for me.
Collection
I selected the option within the app for the package to be collected from my garden shed, as Webuybooks specified an 8am-8pm collection time the next day.
Sure enough, at 10am the following morning, the package was collected from my shed and a receipt left, without me having to do much else other than lift the box into the shed.
And voila, that’s it. A week later, the money I made from this very small selection of books (in this case, a dozen or so books sold for just under £29) appeared in my account and was transferred into my winter fuel fund.
Repeating the Process
Since the app was so easy to use, I’ll be digging out another couple of shelves of books this week and repeating the process. I know I have another few piles of literature that could net me at least the same amount, so let’s say I do that another three times, that’s about £60 I’ve made from old books taking up space.
I promise I won’t spend the money I get on more books…
Get started selling your books here.
