Textbooks

Textbooks

Smith Family Bookstore has thousands of used textbooks for sale. We buy texts from students all year at both our stores and stock them at our CAMPUS store near the UO campus. If you want to buy or sell used textbooks, Smith Family Bookstore is the essential place to come in Lane County.

Selling Textbooks

Here’s what you need to know about selling texts:

We buy texts all year at both the CAMPUS and the DOWNTOWN store.
We only pay cash for books we buy (no trade or credit).
You need current student identification or Oregon photo identification (driver’s license, provisional license, permit, state issued ID card). Passports, photocopied identification, out-of-state identification, or expired Oregon ID are not accepted.
We do not pay a set percentage for texts. The price we offer is based on many factors, including the book’s retail value, how often the book is used both locally and nationally, our own inventory, the book’s condition, and whether future revisions or editions are pending.
You need to bring your texts to our stores to find out how much they are worth. We can not quote prices over the phone nor give you an estimate of their value. We need to check all texts against a database of information to tell you exactly how much we pay.

Smith Family Bookstore has been buying and selling used texts for almost 30 years. We are confident that the prices we pay are a fair value according to the criteria we use and our business needs and goals. We understand the frustration students feel because texts are expensive and sometimes of limited use. These are not factors we can control. We offer the following advice about selling texts:

Don’t wait too long. Textbooks never increase in value over time. The longer you wait, the more likely the book will be revised. Once a publisher announces a new edition, the price begins to fall and eventually, the text will have no buyback value.

Compare prices. Take your texts to your school’s bookstore and get a buyback quote, then check with us. Sell your books to whoever offers the most.

Consider keeping your texts if they are meaningful or valuable as references in your field. Keep in mind that undergraduate survey texts (Introduction to Sociology, for example) probably will not seem very interesting as you advance towards your degree. But if the buyback value is low and you like the text, keep it.

Try selling your texts directly to other students. There are several Internet sites linking students looking for texts to students selling texts. This requires more effort and patience but could be worthwhile.

Buying Texts

Textbooks are integrated into our CAMPUS store’s general inventory. We do not separate texts out for specific classes unless a faculty person has asked us to stock books for a particular class. To find used texts at our store, we recommend the following steps:

Begin the process early. Our texts cost less than elsewhere, and they sell quickly. We suggest you begin looking for texts before classes start and ask us to hold them until you go to your classes.
Make sure you have the authors’ last name, title, and edition before you call or visit our CAMPUS store. UO students can use the BOOK HUNT link on the UO Bookstore’s web site to access this information. Lane Community College students have to call the LCC Bookstore or contact the instructor before class. If you have a syllabus, bring it.
Ask for help if you can’t find the textbooks in our CAMPUS store. Sometimes we shelve books in sections that are different from the subject your class studies. For example, an African American history course might use books that we keep in Ethnic Studies, Labor Studies, or Women’s Studies.
Always save your receipts and make sure you understand the deadlines and requirements for refunds on textbooks.