Sell your used textbooks for beer

http://www.beerfortextbooks.com/

by DerekH • 15 years ago

37 30 15 years ago

beerfortextbooks.com

mattsornson• 15 years ago

this is awesome! My calc book is worth two kegs of heineken

ryanboucher4• 15 years ago

how much is keystone?

nkassis• 15 years ago

I have a feeling that fraternities will become the biggest buyers of used calc text books.

phwd• 15 years ago

Sounds like an idea but I don't think it will happen. Normally one can get a discount on kegs so no need for that. Kegs are only bought during public events (rush week, house parties ..etc) when they are an abundance of people at the bar. The same happens at Freshman Events.

Also the older groups have good backings (alumni, club owners/promoters, student fundraisers)... definitely no need to cut corners like that for delayed cheques.

Student Clubs' Stores (http://www.havenbooks.ca/) are more likely to buy used text books.

ryanboucher4• 15 years ago

this is great. I am going to use it to sell my books right now.

Newmind• 15 years ago

Bio book worth 1 keg of sam adams

prawn• 15 years ago

I chose some random physics book that was good for all of one bottle ($3.08)!

Columns of kegs, cases, bottles need titles (icons are shockers), get a designer to help out in general too. I think the concept has potential as a viral gimmick that makes people think about selling old books, but your execution will need to look a little better before I passed the link around.

Maybe suggest a fake book title for those who just want to kick the tires and see how it works?

cvg• 15 years ago

Really creative affiliate marketing.

citricsquid• 15 years ago

The expanding images on rollover is awful usability, the site idea is clever.

Does anyone have an example number I can use to see how it works? I don't have any text books and don't know what to search for on Amazon.

DerekH4• 15 years ago

We meant to post a Show HN. We'll work on the usability. We built this out of a startup weekend. Not exactly a startup yet, but we had a lot of fun. Thanks for the feedback.

filiwickers• 15 years ago

You can search for titles and authors too. Try typing in something like 'math' or 'economics' or anything...

double1222• 15 years ago

Nice idea, but:

"We're sorry, but something went wrong."

http://www.beerfortextbooks.com/results?brand=bud&q=ISBN...

DerekH4• 15 years ago

Thanks for letting us know. We'll work on it and fix the bugs.

double1222• 15 years ago

NP. Is there "beer for bug reports" too?

jkent• 15 years ago

I'd rather sell my textbooks for money (perhaps I don't like beer). I can then choose to buy wine, more books, cigarettes, course fees ...

That said, it's kind of a neat way to find which site is paying the most for my books. Kudos for a simple execution.

Pinckney• 15 years ago

The "Sell for Beer" buttons don't seem to do anything at all in Firefox 3.6.16 on Ubuntu 10.10.

Otherwise a funny idea. Are there any laws about direct-mailing alcohol, though? It seems like much of your target market is legally prohibited from buying alcohol, and I would be surprised if there weren't restrictions in at least some states.

DerekH4• 15 years ago

We're working on the Firefox issues. Sorry about that. Thanks for the feedback though.

We don't actually sell beer, but rather give you a quote of how much beer you could buy if you sold your book.

blhack• 15 years ago

Same problem in Chrome 10.0 on OSX...

pkananen• 15 years ago

I only see one or two good beers for trade ;)

Good idea, though.

ryanboucher4• 15 years ago

More beers will added soon

movingtohawaii• 15 years ago

As an avid Keystone Light drinker, I'm disappointed that you show it in a bottle! I have never seen Keystone Light in a bottle, only cans (and kegs).

srehnborg• 15 years ago

I've seen Keystone Light sold in bottle form at Ohio University bars.

jwb119• 15 years ago

I initially thought this was going to let me sell my textbooks and have beer delivered to my door.

Sadly, it looks like it just calculates the beer value of your books (unless I am missing something here).

kgrzesiak2• 15 years ago

something like that. we're actually offering links to online vendors (textbooksrus.com, chegg.com amazon.com, bookbyte.com, etc), that will send you a check for your books

ryanboucher4• 15 years ago

This works great with chrome and you can search by title as well

brianbreslin• 15 years ago

clever affiliate marketing scheme. what % do these sites give you on sales? 5%?

DerekH4• 15 years ago

I'm not sure of the margins exactly, but I'll get one of the other co-founders to comment. I think 5% is in the range.

zdw• 15 years ago

http://www.beerfortextbooks.com/beer_me?q=0452011876&bra...

"Who is John Malt?"

gsivil• 15 years ago

I always found it sad: people waiting in lines to sell their text-books! Textbooks to beer converter sets a new low: it is pathetic

Sell your used textbooks for beer

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