Dumping His GMAT Study Books on Amazon

Six months after taking the test, I’ve finally sold all of my GMAT books to Amazon. Selling these books was just one of those tasks that was difficult to prioritize with essays and interviews hanging over my head. I now no longer have that stack of GMAT books sitting in my apartment staring back at me.

Initially, I created a Craigslist ad to try and offload my books. The problem with this strategy was that there was a ton of competition in my area. People were offering the exact same thing I had (MGMAT Strategy Guides + Official Guide Books) for $100 or less. I failed to get anyone to bite.

Anyway, as I was perusing Amazon a few weeks ago, I noticed they had a textbook buyback program that included the MGMAT books. Note that the end date to this offer is May 31 of this year. I buy from Amazon at least once a month, so getting Amazon credit for my books is as good as cash.

You’ll see that for most of the books, I only got a small fraction of the retail cost. However, for the MGMAT Strategy Guides, Amazon was willing to pay $78 for a product that had a retail listing of $114. That’s almost 70% for books I’ve had out for nearly a year. I was a little concerned about returning the MGMAT Strategy Guide set because each book has a different ISBN, which are all different from the one that Amazon has listed on the product page. This week I got confirmation that my trade-in was accepted, so don’t worry if the ISBNs aren’t exactly the same – as long as you have the right books and the right edition you should be fine.

This post is adapted from Random Wok, a blog written by Mark Wong from Silicon Valley. You can read all of his posts at Random Wok.

Selected posts by Wong at PoetsandQuants:

Why I Want an MBA

Climbing the GMAT Mountain: 630 to 710 on a Practice Test

Do Consultants Have An Unfair Edge Over Other Applicants?

Falling Behind & Stressed Out

My New Critical Reasoning Strategy

Figuring Out My Odds of Getting Into Harvard, Stanford, Wharton

With My GMAT Classes Over, It’s Now Just Me and the Test

Making a GMAT Test Taker Feel Like A Complete Pansy

With a Month to Go Before His GMAT Test, It’s Time to Focus

Is The GMAT Really Designed To Break You?