How to sell books, textbooks, and media online
Most books and old media aren’t worth the time it takes to list them — but some categories genuinely are. Here’s how to tell which is which, what textbooks, CDs, and vinyl are actually worth right now, and when donating or recycling beats trying to sell.
Last updated September 2026
Is it worth selling old textbooks and books online?
Usually yes, but only if you check two things first: the edition and the timing. A textbook drops sharply in value the moment a new edition ships — often to $5 to $20 regardless of what it originally cost — so a current edition sold right when a semester ends is worth far more than the same book six months later. General fiction and mass-market paperbacks are the opposite problem: they’re usually not worth the listing time at all, since used copies are abundant and sell for a few dollars before fees. The categories worth the effort are current-edition textbooks (especially nursing, medical, law, and engineering titles, which hold value better than general-education texts), specialty and reference books, and anything rare, signed, or out of print — check what a copy in your exact edition and condition actually sold for before assuming either way.
How much are used textbooks actually worth, and why is the market shrinking?
Less than sticker price would suggest, and less than it used to be. The College Board’s 2025 Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid report estimates books and supplies at roughly $2,300 of the average student budget for 2025-26 (a projected allotment, not necessarily what any one student spends) — but that budget increasingly goes to digital access codes rather than physical books. The Student PIRGs’ fall 2025 survey of more than 4,000 students across 107 campuses found publishers have shifted heavily toward these short-term digital licenses bundled with course materials, which don’t exist as a physical object at all and can’t be resold when the semester ends. That shift is the real reason the used-textbook market has been shrinking: fewer courses now require a resellable physical copy in the first place.
Are CDs, DVDs, and vinyl records still worth selling?
It depends heavily on the format. The RIAA’s 2025 year-end revenue report shows vinyl revenue passing $1 billion for the first time since 1983, on 46.8 million units sold — vinyl is a genuinely active resale category now, not just nostalgia. CDs are the opposite trend: CD revenue fell another 11.6% in 2025, though 29.5 million units still sold, so there’s still a real market for the right titles (rare pressings, complete box sets, still-sealed copies), just a smaller and pickier one than a decade ago. DVDs weren’t even broken out separately in the report, which is itself a signal — plan on donating most of a DVD collection rather than listing it. For vinyl specifically, our value guide covers what individual records are actually worth by pressing and condition.
How do you ship books and media without losing your profit?
Use USPS Media Mail — it’s built for exactly this. Per USPS’s own FAQ, Media Mail covers books with at least 8 pages, CDs, DVDs, vinyl records, and similar educational or recorded media, at a rate starting around $4.13 for the first pound in 2026, with one flat nationwide price regardless of distance. The catch: packages must contain no advertising, and USPS can open a package to inspect it — comic books are routinely rejected because most contain ads, so don’t ship those Media Mail. It’s also noticeably slower than other services, typically two to eight business days, so set that delivery window in your listing. For anything too heavy or oversized for Media Mail, our shipping guide covers box and carrier choices that protect your margin.
When should you donate or recycle instead of trying to sell?
Whenever a book has real wear, is a superseded textbook edition, or is a low-demand mass-market title, selling isn’t worth the time. The EPA’s guidance on recycling common household items recommends donating books in usable condition first — libraries, schools, and charities routinely take them — before recycling. If a book truly isn’t sellable or donatable, paperbacks generally go in curbside mixed-paper recycling as-is, but hardcovers need the cover removed first, since the binding often contains cloth, plastic, or glue that isn’t recyclable; check your specific municipal program, since rules vary by city. The same logic applies to scratched CDs, cracked jewel cases, and DVDs with no resale demand — they’re not worth listing, but many municipal e-waste or media-recycling programs will still take them off your hands responsibly. Our guide to what to do with items that don’t sell covers the relist-vs-bundle-vs-donate decision for anything else sitting unsold.
What's the fastest way to actually figure out what a book or media item is worth?
The bottleneck is almost never finding a buyer — it’s checking whether your specific edition, pressing, or condition actually has resale demand before you spend time photographing and listing it. eBay’s own seller guidance recommends entering a book’s ISBN as a product identifier when you list, which pulls in catalog details and helps the listing surface in relevant searches, but you should still verify the details and price from what comparable copies actually sold for, not what other sellers are asking. Reclaim automates that comparison step for anything you’re unsure about: snap a photo and it identifies the item, prices it from real-time eBay sold data instead of a guess, writes the title and description, and publishes to eBay and Facebook Marketplace in one tap — under your own accounts, with everything editable before it goes live.
The short version
Sell current-edition textbooks (especially nursing, medical, law, and engineering titles) right when a semester ends, before the next edition drops their value to $5 –$20. Skip most general paperbacks and DVDs — donate those instead. Vinyl is a real, growing resale category; CDs are a smaller but still-real one for the right titles. Ship qualifying items on USPS Media Mail to keep shipping cheap, and price from what comparable copies actually sold for rather than what other sellers are asking. For everything else you’re trying to sell around the house, see our full library of selling guides.
Found a book or record worth listing? Skip the guesswork.
Free to download. Highly rated on the App Store.