Online, there are a ton of companies that want to buy your books/textbooks instantly.  So many so, I actually wrote about what you could do with your old textbooks.

Today, I wanted to review yet another popular book buying company, Cash4Books.  The company was founded in 2004 and believe in providing outstanding customer service and getting you paid as much as possible.  To date, they have bought back more 1.5+ million books.

As yet another book buying option, is it really worth your time?  Can you get the most for your money?

I decided to see how well they stacked up in comparison to their competitors.

Let’s explore…

Cash4Books Review:  A Legit Option?

Selling on Cash4Books

Cash4Books makes it easy to sell on their website, both via the desktop version as well as the app.   To get a quote, all you need to find is the 10 or 13 digit ISBN, which can usually be found on the book’s back.

Once you find it, you can enter up to five of these at a time, and in doing so, you will either get a quote or they will just let you know that they are not interested.  This is usually the standard protocol with most of these book buying websites.

Again, selling couldn’t be easier, but do you want to sell to them?

Why Should You Sell Books to Them?

Before I get into what they offered me, I figured I would let you know why you sell to them, at least according to the company’s official website.  Of course, it will be biased, but they did offer some perks in comparison to what other textbook buyback companies had to offer.

Looking at the official website, they note the following reasons…

• They make extremely easy to use as it’s only three steps.
• Depending on how much you sell, it’s free shipping via the US Post Office or FedEx.
• On average, payment is issued within 13 days from the day you mail out the book, either via a check or PayPal.  This can be faster, however, if you live on the West Coast and if you use FedEx as your shipping provider.
• And lastly, their customers have given the company a solid five-star rating on TrustPilot.com.  Take it for what you will, but their third-party ratings seem to be pretty good!

So, How Did They Compare?

Playing around with the website, it appeared they only wanted to buy textbooks, not any non-fiction/fiction books, no matter how popular they are.  They recommend you take a look at the most recent 500 books they bought, most of which were textbooks.   This seems to be the case for most companies like this, so it’s not a big deal.  As long as you have textbooks that aren’t too old, you should have some luck.  Just be prepared for a denial message if you’re trying to sell a non-textbook.

So, what I did was take five random textbooks from Amazon and went ahead and put the ISBN to see how much Cash4Books was willing to get me.  These were the books I took at random along with the price they offered…

You’re looking at the numbers and are probably wondering, “Well, is it a great deal or not?”

Thankfully, I can answer it for you as there are some awesome textbook buyback services that do the dirty work for you, essentially taking your ISBN and comparing it to more than 35+ providers, one of which includes one of my favorites, BookScouter.  This process only takes seconds and really shows you if you’re getting a good deal if you want to use this type of website.

Using BookScouter and taking the numbers into account, here’s how they ranked in comparison to one of its 35+ competitors…

Sadly, in my small sample size, Cash4Books did not even come close to ranking at the top, but it doesn’t mean they will always rank on the bottom.  In my scenario, Cash4Books would offer me $69.93 in total, but if I sold my textbooks to the highest bidder for each book, I would have made a grand total of $302.96, a $233.03 difference!  That’s quite a bit.

It’s one of the many reasons I recommend using tools like BookScouter to always ensure that you’re getting the best rate from a third-party company.

What Happens If You Want to Sell?

So, let’s say that Cash4Books offers the most lucrative offer.   Yes, it can happen in some circumstances, so I will walk you through as to what the buyback process looks like.

Using my example above, if I wanted to sell all four textbooks back, I would click on the “Sell My Books Now” button, or if you so choose, you can set a reminder for a later date.

In doing this, you will then be asked to create an account, which is said to take all of 55 seconds, at least according to the website.  They just ask for all of your typical personal information.  It’s not much.  At this time, you can already log in if you already have an account.

Once you do that, you can then land on a page which looks like this…

On this page, just make sure the information is all correct, including how you want to get paid.  At the time of this review, the company paid either via a physical check or PayPal, with PayPal being the fastest option.  You can also enter a Cash4Books bonus code, which can usually be found online or through their social media channels.

If everything looks great, click on that “Sell My Books” button and proceed to print your labels, in which you will slap on a shipping box of your choice.

You can either print your labels, email them or have them mail the labels to your home for a small $3 fee.  Shipping will always be free.

When Do You Get Paid?

The minute you send out your books, the company states that it can take anywhere from five to 12 business days to receive your books, all of which depends on where you live and which shipping service you use.  Of course, your books also need to be in good condition in order to be accepted, so it’s very important your books abide by the used book condition policy so that you’re not wasting any one’s time.

As a safety net, they claim that you should be prepared to wait 13 days from the day you click on the “sell my books” button.  However, the closer you live to Hillsboro, Oregon, the quicker you can receive your cash, so it can be much shorter than that.  You’re just going to want to pay attention to the dashboard as they will keep you updated along the way.

Once your order confirms, they will either mail out the check out or pay you via PayPal.  This, of course, is dependent on your choice upon signing up.

The Other Reviews

In all of my reviews, I try to include as many outside sources as possible, so in this section, let’s take a look at what others are saying.

Cash4Books loves to promote the fact that their Trustpilot.com ratings are fantastic, but I’m leery to list them here as they have been known to have biased reviews due to the fact that some people have claimed that this review service will display good reviews for businesses that pay.  It’s not 100% certain, but I did read it a lot online.  I wouldn’t trust Trustpilot too much, but it’s one to consider, I suppose.

As for other reviews, the Google reviews were mediocre at a 3.7 out of 5.  People mostly complained that they didn’t want their book, but I feel this isn’t a reason to bash them.  Honestly, I couldn’t find many poor reviews.

As for the positive, there were quite a few.  People loved the fast payment, good customer service and sometimes, the cash offer.  There were definitely more positive reviews than negative, so that’s a huge plus.

Final Thoughts

Cash4Books is 100% legitimate and is not a scam, I can promise that much.  However, I wouldn’t recommend it as my first choice as many of the books I have researched over the months never get a high offer on this website.  While some do, it’s going to be quite rare.  Most of the time, their rate falls at the bottom of the list, even if you have a cash4books promo code.

Instead, what I recommend you do is refer to BookScouter.com and make sure you choose the highest offer.  They all work in the same way and usually even offer free shipping, so this shouldn’t be a problem as well.

But, if you want the highest deal possible, it’s always wise to sell the book on Amazon as this will get you the market value.  It only takes a couple of extra minutes to list, and in some cases, your book could sell in less than 24 hours if it’s hot enough.  I recommend you check out my how to sell books on Amazon post in the past to see how it’s done.  It’s very easy!

In the meantime, always use a comparison textbook search engine or even compare them individually with the many companies I listed here.  As long as your books aren’t too old, there should be a buyer for it.