As most of you know, BookVolume is a great tool for buying books online, but even the best tools are limited by how and when they’re used. Before buying season really starts to get underway, we want to make sure that you’re fully prepared with all the information and strategy you’ll need to take full advantage of buying online with BookVolume.

Take a moment to look at the graph below (I’ll wait). As you can see, textbook prices fluctuate greatly depending on the time of the year. Hopefully, no one just threw their monitor out the window at the idea of trying to buy books while simultaneously handling buyback. But I want you to take another look at the graph, because it’s telling us that the stock that’s available below wholesale online in May will be very profitable and worth the extra effort.

Before we move on, I want to point out that while it’s less opportunistic to buy around the beginning of fall and winter semesters, when students are rushing to get their books, it’s by no means a bad time to buy. There are still books online that are below wholesale prices and BookVolume was explicitly designed to find them for you, so don’t stop searching.

Now that we’ve covered when to buy efficiently, let’s talk about how:

• Early Adoptions – Try incentives to get those stubborn professors on-board. Maybe offer store credit, cash, or baked goodies to the first 5 professors who get their adoptions in.
• Don’t Wait – As soon as you get an adoption, you should be searching for that book through BookVolume. Not only will you pick up a cheaper book, but by ordering in smaller doses, you’ll make your life much easier on the receiving end.
• Look Again – Remember that when you’re using BookVolume, you’re searching on live marketplaces. Inventory is changing by the minute and the more often you search, the more books you can buy to fulfill as much of your shelf limits as possible below wholesale.

Prices are starting to drop online, and in a few weeks, they’re going to bottom out. If you need any assistance, training, or just want to discuss strategy, BookVolume is here to help. We want to make sure you get the most out of your buying time, so don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and give us a call.

Special thanks to our friends at Verba for sharing their data with us. We first saw this data at an ed session at CAMEX, featuring Verba, about the importance of textbook price comparison. I encourage you to take a look at the topics discussed at the ed session here.