Book Scouting
You can get free money by book scouting. Book scouting is one form of arbitrage or controlled wholesaling which are both ways of getting free money and free stuff.
I found out about book scouting a few years ago while I was having a garage sale. A man had a hand-held scanner that he borrowed from a local book store and scanned all the bar codes to the books I was selling. Book scouts make money by buying books at yard sales, library sales, surplus sales, thrift stores, or anywhere books are sold, and then they resell the books for a profit. They use a scanning device to find out what the book sells for online. If the book sells for more online than the price at the book sale then they buy it immediately. The book scanning devices can work in one of two ways. They either have a database downloaded to the device or they access real time prices with an internet connection. There are tons of scanning devices available, including independent devices and smart phone apps which turn your smart phone camera into a scanning device. Some book scouters also scout for DVDs and CDs.
Cash 4 Books is one of the original used book buyers online and they make it super easy to sell your books. They offer a free book scouting app for Android and iPhone. You use the camera on the phone to take a picture of the bar code, the software scans it and then it tells you what Cash 4 Books will offer if they are buying the book. If you go to a yard sale where all books are for sale at $1 each, and you find a book listed at Cash 4 Books for $5, then you get $4 for free, since Cash 4 Books will pay for shipping.
Is Free Money From Book Scouting Actually Free?
If you already have a smart phone, then yes. The app is free. The method of selling the books to a place like Cash4Books is free. So the money you get for selling the books is actually free. You might need some temporary funds to purchase the books at yard sales and other places. But since you’ve already scanned the book with the app, you know it will sell for more than what you paid. This is a type of arbitrage or controlled wholesaling, which is the practice of buying something that already comes with equity. You can immediately sell the item you purchased in the same market or a different market for a profit.
Read more about Arbitrage and Wholesaling.
If you don’t already have a smart phone, then there are other ways to get free money so that you can buy one just so that you can become a book scouter and tap into the used book goldmine. Or you can use an alternate, independent scanner that doesn’t require a smart phone.
Free Money From Selling Free Books
Books are one of the many items that you can get for free from Craigslist, dumpster diving, yard sale leftovers and other freebie hunter strategies. See also Sell Stuff For Cash.
If your local library has a book store, then you can possibly get cheap books there or even free books.
If the books are free, then you’re not just making money from arbitrage or controlled wholesaling. You’re getting free books which means the money you get for those books is actually free.
Book Scouting Tips And Resources
Textbooks are a very specific book niche that becomes more popular at the beginning and end of college semesters.
Book Scouter is a website and an app that will compare book prices across multiple buyers. They do not buy books themselves, they are a price comparison tool.
There are apps that you can use to scout items to sell on Amazon, and they aren’t always just for books. One example is FBAScan which allows you to scan anything with a bar code. It stores information for use offline so it doesn’t use your data when scouting. The FBA stands for Fulfillment By Amazon. ScoutIQ (in beta) is another possible app that you could use.
Use Book Sale Finder to find book sales all over the country. (The site looks old but it was listing current book sales when I checked it on 9/15/17). See also 5 Ways To Find Book Sales No One Knows About.
Find many other resources on the Sell Stuff For Cash Directory.
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