Monday, March 26, 2007

Flashback

This blog is sponsored by Southeastern Textbooks, a used textbook company in Georgia. We started this blog to spread the word about buying used textbooks.

Most people out there know about websites like Amazon and Half.com. Some of you may even know about Alibris, ecampus.com and bookbyte. How much do you know about other used textbook places? Do you know about the companies out there that sell textbooks to your son's or daughter's schools? No? Have you ever thought about where the textbooks come from that students use in school? Many people haven't.

The truth is that the textbooks that your children use come from companies like ours. Companies that provide quality new and used textbooks to schools all over the country. We provide all subjects, kindergarten through twelfth grade to public, private and home schooled children everywhere. We provide an important service to schools, especially those who suffer from budget cuts and crises. By buying used books schools can save more than 50% off the publishers list price and thus use that money in other areas where it is needed.

www.southeasterntextbooks.com
866-872-6657
866-952-6657
k12@southeasterntextbooks.com

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Our Year

We are just starting our busy season now. In the spring is when used textbook companies really get started. It is important for used textbook companies to contact the correct person in school district or school. In the spring is when many companies start calling schools to contact the correct person. Usually, schools don't start ordering books until sometime in the summer so it is important to make sure they know the companies name before they start looking for books. In the summer, our roles reverse and schools start calling us. We work very hard all summer to find the books that schools need. Orders are shipped in time for school to start. After the schools have received their books, the season starts to come to a close after invoices are paid.

www.southeasterntextbooks.com
866-872-6657
fax: 866-952-6657
k12@southeasterntextbooks.com

Monday, March 12, 2007

Recycling Used Books

In a college setting, once a professor stops using a particular book that book looses all it's value to the university. The same goes for k-12 books. Often a school system will require teachers to use a specific book, but on occasion teachers can choose the books they would like to teach with. Once a teacher stops using that particular book, the school no longer wants them and can sell them to companies like ours. In turn, we resell them to schools that are still using them. If the book is too old, and we can not find schools that are still using them we sell them to a recycle unit to be made into something new. Once a book has become "recyclable material" it has pretty much lost all of it's value. Most often this happens to older books that schools simply do not use anymore. Sometimes it happens because of damage to the book that can not be repaired by rebinding. Recycling is important because it keeps prices low and helps our environment.

www.southeasterntextbooks.com
866-872-6657
Fax: 866-952-6657
k12@southeasterntextbooks.com

Friday, March 9, 2007

Things that affect the value of used books

The most obvious thing that affects the value of a book is damage. There are many types of damage that are considered in the value of a book. Water damage, highlighting, missing pages, and loose binding are the most common.

Water damage tends to be the most common. How many times have you seen a student use their textbook as an umbrella or as a coaster for their drink? So many books that come from schools have sticky rings on the covers from leaky cokes. Everyone knows what happens to paper when it gets wet. When a textbook gets wet the pages stick together, the cover warps and changes shape and the book basically becomes unusable. If the damage is not too bad, sometimes the book can still be used but lets face it, who wants to read a book with smudged wrinkly pages?

Highlighting is another common problem with books. A college textbook losses little value when it is highlighted, but a k-12 textbook losses most of it's value when highlighted. Public schools frown on students writing in their books and do no like buying books that have been highlighted or written in. Missing pages is also a large issue. If a book is missing a page it automatically losses all of it's value.

After several years of being shoved into lockers and bookbags, the binding on hardback books loosens. The pages pull away from the cover and sometimes the cover comes off completely. If the pages start to pull away a book can often be fixed with a some hot glue to hold the spine in place. If the cover has come off completely, the book can be rebound with a new cover.

To summarize:
Damage to the cover can often be fixed with a little glue or some cleaner and a paper towel. Damage to the pages can not be fixed. A little highlighting can take a book down from a Like New quality to a Very Good Quality. Always make sure to watch for missing pages.

www.southeasterntextbooks.com
866-872-6657
fax: 866-952-6657
k12@southeasterntextbooks.com

Thursday, March 8, 2007

State or National Editions

Often, when buying used textbooks online books are described as a North Carolina edition, or a Texas edition. Many people avoid buying these, not knowing how the book may differ from the national edition. A state edition book was created by the publishers to cater to specific states. It is also a way for them to control the resale of such books. A state edition is exactly the same as a national edition with one exception. There is a small section in the front of a state edition book that applies the concepts in the book to the local area. For example, if it is a biology book the section in the front may talk about the biology of the local animals of that particular state. Many school systems require schools to use state editions of specific books. The states you tend to see this happening the most with are North Carolina, New York, Texas and California. Once the schools stop using these books it is hard to resell them because schools in other states don't want a state edition that is not their own.

Buying these books is no different than buying a national edition. If you don't mind the extra section in the front, the rest of the book is exactly the same. You may even learn something from the extra material. Publishers say there is a major difference to avoid resale that they do not profit from. Don't be afraid to buy state editions!

www.southeasterntextbooks.com
866-872-6657
fax: 866-952-6657
k12@southeasterntextbooks.com

Friday, March 2, 2007

Buying used online

Hopefully many people are familiar with buying items online through websites such as Half.com, Amazon and E-Bay. Used book sales are a huge part of this trend. All of these sites, and others offer used books from private sellers at a fraction of what you would pay at the bookstore for a new book. Many school systems in this country are requiring their students to locate and purchase their own books, not to mention the thousands of home schooled children in the U.S. Buying used books online is often the only way for these families to get the materials their children need. This is evident by the large increase in our online sales at the beginning of the school year. We also sell quite a few at the beginning of the spring semester as well.

For those of you who are not familiar with buying used online, here is a brief overview. First, make sure you have the title, author's name, date published, publisher and the ISBN of the book you are looking for. The ISBN is a set of numbers, usually ten digits long, that identifies that specific edition of that specific book. It's kind of like a social security number for a book. It is located on the back of the book above the bar code, and on the back of the title page. For example the ISBN number for Prentice Hall Biology 2002 is 013050730x. If there were 10,000 Prentice Hall Biology books printed in 2002, they would all have that same ISBN. The next edition printed in 2003 would have a different ISBN. Teacher's editions and state editions also have different ISBNs. It is much easier to search for a book with the ISBN number. If you try just searching Prentice Hall Biology on Amazon you would get three+ pages of matching books. If you do not have the book's ISBN, make sure you have the author's name and the year the book was published. Often one book by the same author is printed several times in several editions. Make sure the year is correct so your student or child doesn't run into problems where his page numbers don't quite match up or the math problems are a little different.

It's better to Google search for websites to buy used books, rather than Google the actual book. If you do this, your top hits will probably be for the publishing company. Once you have chosen a site to buy from, it's a simple process to find the book. Most websites have a basic book search engine where you can enter the title or ISBN. If you have the ISBN you will almost always be directed to the correct book. If you do not have the ISBN, sreach by Title and author then go through the list and find the correct year. Once you have found the correct book, you can then look through the sellers and choose the quality of book you would like to purchase. Book qualities on most websites are New, Like New, Very Good, Good and Acceptable. Once you have found the quality you like at a price you are willing to pay, check the feedback of the person who is selling the book. Sites like Amazon, E-bay and Half.com use feedback as a way to rate sellers and buyers and to make sure they are abiding by the websites standards. Make sure they don't have a lot of negative feedback. Also keep an eye out for feedback that involves issues with shipping or refunds. You don't want to order a book from a seller that is slow with shipping or refunds. Most websites have a standard amount of time in which a seller has to ship an item.

After you have done all this, you can now buy your book. This usually involves entering your information and a credit card to pay with. If you already have an account with that website, that information will already be there. Choose a shipping method, usually standard or expedited. Standard mail is usually United States Post Office (USPS) media mail and expedited is usually USPS priority mail. Many sellers choose to ship with other carriers, but most use basic USPS shipping. When you order remember: media mail can take up to 14 business days to arrive and priority up to 4. Before you order make sure you know exactly how long you have until you will need your book and choose a shipping method accordingly. Many times customers choose media mail and don't realize how long it can actually take. This also becomes an issue if you live far from the seller you are buying from. If you live in California and order from us in Georgia, you can guarantee it will take those 14 business days. Keep all this in mind when ordering.

Suggested sites: Amazon, Half.com, E-Bay, Campusbooks.com, Alibris, eCampus.com. Some of these sell both lower grades and college texts and some focus only on college texts.

www.southeastertextbooks.com
866-872-6657
fax: 866-952-6657
k12@southeasterntextbooks.com