With the average student spending over $1200 on textbooks yearly, it’s no wonder book swapping is becoming more popular amongst college-goers.
As living costs continue to soar, book swapping is becoming the new way to save on textbooks, and many colleges and universities have their book exchange system in place.
Book swapping is a great way to acquire much-needed textbooks and help the environment by keeping books out of landfills. It involves in-person or online trading of books you don’t need for books you want.
Do Your Bit for the Environment
By participating in book swapping, you are lowering the energy and resources it takes to make new books. Knowing it can take one tree to make 24 pages of a book, imagine how many trees it has taken to make some of the big, heavy textbooks used in your classes.
Swapping books also saves on other resources such as ink, transportation, and packaging, all of which leave a footprint on the environment.
Why Take Part in a Book Exchange
Don’t waste time and energy trying to sell your old books, as the profit-to-time ratio may not be worth it. Instead, participate in book swapping, where you will receive a ‘new to you’ book when trading in one of your old books.
Book exchange websites help simplify the process; some even pay the postage for you, too!
Book Exchange Websites
Here are some of the most popular book-swapping websites.
- PaperBackSwap: choose from over 1 ½ million books to swap with
- BookCrossing: Register your book online, then leave it in a public place to find a new home.
- BookMooch: Collect points when you send your books to other users. Use those points to buy books from others.
- BooksFreeSwap: Easygoing swaps, the buyer pays the postage
Alternatively, buy your textbooks for the lowest price on DirectTextbook.com.
Run a Book Swapping Event
Are you sick of having no money and spending it all on textbooks for the next semester? Why not organize a book swap? Find a good location on campus, promote your event, and help your fellow students save money. Make it a regular event, and you will save hundreds of dollars every year.
How To Organize a Book Swap
- Book a room and choose a date and time for your book swap. Try to plan for when students have got their new book lists or plan it for the beginning of the semester. Advertise your event at the end of the previous semester, before everyone has sold their books back to the bookstore.
- Create flyers to display around campus and include a date you need donations by so you have time to sort everything out.
- Ask students to drop off their donations at a specific location. Students who donate should receive a voucher to spend during the book swap. This should equal its ‘resale value’
- Before your events, sort your donations by subject or class.
What To Do With Leftover Books
Be sure to plan what you will do with any leftover books. You could:
- Allow other students to purchase them at a discounted price.
- Donate them to the bookstore, library, or school.
- Give any cash earned to a good cause on campus or a charity.
However, you chose to take part in book swapping. You are guaranteed to save money and be part of a movement of cool, popular people who are becoming more sustainable and thinking more about their impact on the environment.
