What to Consider When Pricing Your Used Books

Updated by PangoBooks, June 28, 2024
Written by Kaitlin Stevens


Deciding how to price a book is one of the most intimidating and time-consuming parts of the bookselling process. Price a book too high, and you're unlikely to find a buyer, especially when it comes to popular titles with a lot of competing inventory. Price a book too low and it may sell quickly, but you could very well be leaving money on the table you otherwise would have earned from the sale. 


Here at PangoBooks, our goal is to make selling books as easy as possible. In this guide, we'll go through the key questions to ask when pricing used books. With these tips, you can hit that pricing sweet spot of fair and attractive for the buyer and worthwhile for you, the seller.


Book pricing tips at a glance:

  • Research the market and use Pango’s automatic pricing suggestion tool.
  • Use the original retail price on the back or inside cover as a starting point.
  • Consider the condition of the book as a major pricing factor.
  • Consider your motivations for selling the book.
  • You can always lower the price later which will send an alert to anyone watching the book. 
  • Check out this page for our in-depth guide on how to sell books online.
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What’s the current market for the book?

While not always easy to deduce, the current market around a particular book is hugely important when thinking about your selling price. When listing a book on the Pango app, we show suggested pricing for popular books based on recent transaction history. This data is based on the ISBN that you scan or enter when creating a book listing. The prices we show on this screen are suggestions and you are still totally free to list whatever price you’d like. Check out this blog post for more information on how Pango suggested pricing works.


In cases where we don't have a suggested price or where you want to do more thorough research, try searching for your book on Pango and other marketplaces or retailers to see how comparable listings are priced. Be mindful of the specific edition you're selling as different versions of the same book can sell for drastically different prices. Paperbacks, for example, are almost always priced lower than the exact some book in hardcover. Keep in mind also that books for sale by professional retailers may earn higher prices than books sold by individuals as they usually come with free shipping or an extended return policy.

It's also worth observing how many copies of a book are available or how many have sold recently to get a sense of current demand. If a title has hundreds of copies available in a variety of conditions, there may be more supply than demand and prices will likely be lower. Pay attention to trends and upswings in popularity for a particular title or series, too. For example, if a book is currently all the rage on #booktok, it might command a premium price on the used market.


There’s always a chance that your copy is a rare first edition with a telling misprint or something else that makes it especially valuable to collectors. If you suspect you might have a rare copy on your hands, it’s worth doing the extra research to be absolutely sure. Try finding the highest-priced copies of the title from other sellers and compare your copy to the edition that's commanding the highest resale prices. Looking for pictures of the copyright page is a quick way to do so. If you do indeed have a rare book, make sure your listing includes as much detail and as many photos as possible!

How much did it originally retail for?

We recommend starting with the original price or MSRP and working your way down based on the book’s condition and other considerations detailed below. You can usually find the original retail price printed next to the bar code on the back of the book or on its inside cover or dust jacket. These prices will vary depending on whether it’s a hardcover or paperback and other factors related to its original publication.


Using the original retail price obviously isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. First of all, if the book was printed years ago, the price on the book won’t always be as reliable. In these cases, you can try looking up the latest retail price online. For books with a lot of currently available inventory—both on


PangoBooks and elsewhere—the market rate will often be much lower than in-demand books that are not as readily available. Conversely, a new release with little used inventory will likely sell at closer to the retail price since there isn’t as much supply to meet demand. There’s a lot to consider and a lot of exceptions, but the original retail price of a book is usually a useful data point in deciding your sale price.

Different copies of the same book can sell for drastically different prices. A well-worn paperback copy of "Fahrenheit 451" will sell for significantly less than a hardcover in excellent condition.

What condition is the book in?

The condition of the book is a huge factor in pricing. For rare books and collectible books especially, the difference between excellent and fair condition can be the difference of hundreds or thousands of dollars in resale value. 

You can read a full version of our condition guidelines here. Here's a quick overview:


  • Selling a book direct from an authorized retailer or something that you’ve published yourself? List it as new!
  • If you bought it but haven’t read it (or you’ve read it once and treated it with care), list it as like new.
  • If it’s in great condition, but shows some minor signs of use (no dog ears!), list it as excellent.
  • If you’ve read it quite a few times and it shows, go for good.
  • If it’s well-loved with some imperfection but still intact and readable, list it as fair.
  • If the book has lived quite a life and has any torn pages or other major issues, list it as poor.


Keep in mind that you should only list a book as new if it is genuinely unread and completely unused. While a new or like new book can be priced closer to retail, remember to be fair and realistic about what others will be willing to pay relative to just buying a new copy. Listing any books at the full retail price point likely won’t get you many bites, since they’ll be available from other book retailers at the same price and often with free shipping.


For books listed as like new, start from a base price of 70-75% of the original retail price. For example: if the book is currently retailing at $15.99–you shouldn’t list it any higher than $12. If it’s in excellent condition, you can price it for about 55% of retail. For good condition, think 40% retail. If your book is in poor or fair condition, price it accordingly: think 20% of the retail price for poor, 30% for fair.


As part of the condition, also consider if the book has all its original components. For example, sometimes you'll see a first edition of a classic come for sale that's in great condition but is missing the original dust jacket. This will lower its appeal to collectors considerably. 


Why are you selling it?

Perhaps the most important consideration of all is to pause and ask yourself why you’re selling the book and what you hope to get out of the sale. Some sellers are just happy to clear some shelf space and to see their books go to a loving home. If that’s the case, pricing your books so that they’re affordable for all kinds of buyers is the right move. If you’re hoping to sell fast for some quick cash, pricing on the lower side is also a good strategy. If you know you have a valuable book and want it to sell to someone who’s been searching for it for a fair price, list it at the best price per your market research.


Relatedly, you can always start with a slightly higher price and if you feel motivated, lower the price later. On Pango, when you lower the price of a listing, it will reshare that listing to our main new listing feed and also send an alert to anyone who has previously saved the book. 

Tip: If you want to sell a bunch of books at a time, consider offering a bundle shipping deal. On PangoBooks, you can offer free shipping for folks that buy multiple books from you at the same time. 


With all of these considerations in mind, you’ll be able to determine the best price that makes sense for you and your potential buyers. By the way, if you're getting ready to list a book on Pango and are unsure about price, feel free to get in touch with our team and we're happy to take a look. 


Selling books on Pango

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