Below you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions about our book buyback. If you don’t find your answer below, please contact us!
TextbookRecycling.com provides customers with an easy way to sell their books for the greatest value and find the book they need at a reasonable price. Our goal is to provide a quality service that benefits both our customers directly as well as our communities and environment. To that end, we have chosen to donate a portion of our buybacks and profits to charitable organizations that support literacy, personal development, and basic human needs in both our local as well as national and international communities. We also strongly encourage people to sell or donate their unwanted books: buying and reading used books not only saves trees but gets knowledge into the hands of those who really need it. Besides buying and selling books for great prices, we also ship books to schools and libraries at home and abroad that are in need of more reading materials.
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All kinds! Although textbooks are our specialty, we buy and sell other books including fiction and non-fiction titles. Everything from Harry Potter to books about gardening, history, computer programming, cooking, travel and just about anything else you can think of!
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We understand that your privacy and confidentiality are extremely important. Any personal information that you give us such as your name, e-mail address, mailing address, or any credit card information is kept strictly confidential and is used only to provide you with the best possible online experience. For more information, please read our Privacy & Security Statement.
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There are several ways you may contact us. You may call us toll free at 1-866-483-9826 (1-866-4TEXTBOOKS). You may also send us an e-mail to customerservice@textbookrecycling.com. We typically respond to all inquiries and comments within 24 hours. Written correspondence can be sent to the following address: Textbook Recycling Co., 421 S. Main St., Troy, ID 83871.
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From any page on our website, click the “sell books” button. Once you are on that page, enter the 10 or 13-digit ISBN found on the back of your book for all of the books you are interested in selling. You will receive instant quotes for all of the books you listed that have value. Quotes for books that have no value will either indicate, “Book accepted for donation only,” or “Sorry, we are currently not accepting this title.”
If your book originally included a CD-Rom, DVD, supplemental book or some other accessory, please include this when shipping your book to us. Please note that if you send a book where the book information on your quote indicates that a supplement should be included, you may receive ½ or less of the used value of the original quote or no compensation at all, depending on the book. We will not return books that have no value. Please note that any necessary online access codes (e.g., MyMathLab,MyStatLab,MyEconLab, etc) must be valid, unused, and unopened in order to receive payment.
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A book that is graded as "new" should be in pristine condition. That is, it should look like it just arrived from the publisher- the way you would typically find a book when bought new at a bookstore. Often, if a book is slightly scuffed, the corners are worn or damaged, or if the cover is slightly bent (this is most likely to happen with paperbacks), these will be graded as "used" because they cannot be sold as new. For this reason, it is very important to pack your books carefully when you are shipping! (Please see shipping instructions on prepaid label provided with your quote). We make every effort to grade books as "new" if possible because we want you to receive the highest price possible so you will continue to use our services.
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You are guaranteed to get the price quoted on the website provided that the ISBN for the quoted title is an exact match, any noted accessories are included, and your shipment of books is received within 14 days of your price quote. Books received after 14 days will be priced according to new prices listed in our database; the prices may vary from those in your original quote and in some cases books may no longer have value. We do not return books that have no value. For this reason, we strongly encourage you to send your books to us soon after you receive your quote.
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Yes, as long as no more than 1/3 of the book contains highlighting or pages without writing. The exception to this rule is that study guides, work books and lab manuals sold to us must have no writing OR highlighting in them for you to receive payment. We also will not accept books that have extreme damage such as having a loose binding, cover partially or entirely torn off, mold damage, stuck pages due to water or other liquids, page aberrations due to moisture or other damage, loose or missing pages, or pages with tape or other foreign materials bound to them. You will not receive payment for any books received by us in unacceptable condition and these will not be returned to you.
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We will typically accept these books if they are the current edition. Most of these type books will be college textbooks. If a review copy book is not in our database, you can enter the student edition ISBN and use the following guidelines when sending your books to us:
- Books With Review/Instructor’s/Free Copy Markings On Outside Cover ONLY: we will pay you approximately 92% of the used value of the student edition listed in our database.
- Books With Additional Notes and/or Answers: these are often called “Annotated Instructor’s Editions”; we will NOT purchase these titles unless these are listed as having value in our online database.
- Books With Review/Instructor’s/Free Copy Markings On Outside AND Inside Cover: these books will typically have “Free Copy” markings on the title page or the first 10-20 pages of the book. Unless a particular title is listed as having value in our online database, we are not purchasing these titles.
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We will purchase these titles ONLY if the exact ISBN for the international edition or loose leaf version is included in our database. The ISBNs for these books are typically located on the outside of the book itself (not a sticker placed on the book) or the cover pages of the loose leaf version. These books will typically be listed in our database as "(Loose Leaf)" or "International Edition". Please note that we will NOT return any international editions or loose leaf versions where a direct match cannot be found in our database.
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Yes. We will take up to eight copies of the same book per customer per month without prior approval. If you have more than that, you will need to contact us before sending them. Otherwise you risk being paid less than the quoted total or in some cases no payment at all. If you have more than 8 copies of a particular title, you can request approval by sending a quote via the “Bulk Quantities” link from the Sell Books page. This will allow you to enter ISBNs and quantities for all of the titles you are interested in selling. Prices offered for bulk quantities may be more or less than what is quoted on our web site depending on our need for a particular title at the time of your request.
Typically, you will receive a response to your request by e-mail within 2 business days.
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Yes. We buy many old edition books. However, typically their value will be significantly less than the current edition. We are now buying back all kinds of books including textbooks and trade books (e.g., cooking, gardening, computers, autobiographies, self help, etc.).
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You may have several (or many) books that no longer have any monetary value. We are now accepting many of these for donation through our Books Overseas™ program. The books we accept for donation through our site are either donated directly to our global literacy partners or sold with the net proceeds going to benefit our regional and global literacy partners.
Books that have no value but can be accepted for donation are indicated on the results page of your price quote.
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You will find that the large majority of books you entered into our database will appear in your quote. If the ISBN you entered does not come up in your quote, check that you entered the number correctly. If the book is a current edition review copy (e.g., instructor’s copy, complimentary copy, free copy, examination copy, etc) we are likely interested in purchasing it. Please see our guidelines regarding review copies.
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Packing and shipping instructions are provided on your personalized prepaid merchandise return label provided for you when you check out following your price quote. If you are unable to do this, please follow the instructions below:
Packing Instructions
- Place your book(s) in a box or bubble mailer with as little extra space as possible.
- Any extra space should be filled with non-print paper to keep books from slipping around. PLEASE DO NOT FILL SPACE WITH STYROFOAM PEANUTS OR OTHER STYROFOAM PRODUCTS.
- Close and secure the box using sturdy packing tape.
- Place and tape a prepaid mailing label to each package making sure not to cover any barcodes or postage fee information. Please indicate the number of packages in your buyback order (e.g., 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3, etc.).
Shipping Instructions
- Drop your package(s) off at any U.S. post office. If you are affiliated with a college or university, there is typically at least 1 post office on campus
OR
If you have regular mail pickup/delivery to your location, you may schedule a pickup. To
do this, go to USPS.com and click “schedule a pickup” and then click “carrier pickup.”
You will need to estimate the size and weight of the package(s) you would like to be
picked up. THIS SERVICE IS ONLY AVAILABLE IF YOU ARE NOT PURCHASING
INSURANCE.
- Insurance is NOT covered using our prepaid mailing label. If you have books of higher value, we recommend that you purchase insurance. Although it is rare that books are lost or damaged during shipment, it does happen on rare occasion.
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We sell both “new” and “used” books. We do not sell books that have torn or missing pages, stuck pages, torn covers, or excessive highlighting/writing in them. We do our very best to describe all of the items we have for sale as accurately as possible whether they are new or used. If you find that you are not satisfied with your order for any reason, you may return you purchase for a full refund, provided that you meet the conditions of our return policy.
We are currently offering books for sale through Half.com until this portion of our site is completed. Click on either “Buy Books” or “Search For Books” on the navigation bar. Then click the link on the page, which will take you to our web store on Half.com. Once you are on our Half.com store page, enter the ISBN, author, or title (for the best results, enter the ISBN) for the book you are searching for in the box under “Search This Shop” in the top left of the page. If the book is available, click on the picture of the book or the title to see full details for the book. From there you can choose your method of shipping and click “Buy!” if you wish to put the item into your shopping cart. From there, follow the directions provided on the Half.com website.
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All major credit cards are accepted including American Express, Discover, Master Card, & Visa. Payment is made immediately using Half.com’s secure processing method. Because Half.com processes the transaction, we never view nor have access to your credit card information.
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We typically ship your book within 1 business day from the time of your order. Please be aware that mail services are not available on weekends and holidays, so ordering on such days may delay your order from being processed.
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We use the U.S. Postal Service as our primary shipping service. The most economical method of shipping is Media Mail Standard Shipping. It will take anywhere from 3-10 days for you to receive your package, depending on your location in relation to our Troy, Idaho facility. Customers needing their book within 2-4 days should choose Priority Mail (expedited shipping).
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You will receive an e-mail notifying you when your book(s) have been shipped. Using the delivery confirmation number provided in the e-mail, you may go to the USPS website (www.usps.com) to check the status of your package.
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If you need to cancel an order before it has been shipped, please notify us as soon as possible by sending an e-mail to customerservice@textbookrecycling.com or calling us toll free at 1-866-483-9826. Please keep in mind that we generally process orders within 1 business day. If your order has already been shipped, you will have to follow our return policy.
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We are happy to issue a full refund provided that the book is received back in the condition in which it was sent out within 30 days of the original purchase date. We will not refund the cost of shipping unless we have made an error- in this case we will reimburse you for shipping costs. To return a book, please contact us at customerservice@textbookrecycling.com to receive a return authorization code and instructions for returning the book. Once the returned book is received by us, you will be issued a refund through Half.com using the credit card you used to make the purchase.
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