With the semester soon coming to an end, students have to worry about more than just finals. After spending a considerable amount of money buying books for classes, students will have to figure out exactly what to do with those books.

The first thought that may come to mind is to sell these textbooks to make some cash, and most will head to the nearby bookstores such as Follett’s, T.I.S. or the Illini Union Bookstore.

“Someone will normally get 50% of what they originally paid for the book when selling it back here unless the book is overstocked. In that case, we’ll buy it back for close to nothing or won’t buy it back at all,” said Elise Prosser, junior in AHS and also an employee at the Illini Union Bookstore.

Selling back textbooks to stores around campus is probably the easiest and most efficient way to get rid of one’s unneeded books. However, it does not guarantee students will receive the most money for them compared to what students originally paid.

Books are expensive. These days, students may have better luck selling theirs online.

New buyback programs have been popping up all over the Web, one of the most popular around campus being illinibooxexchange.com, or IBX, a website created by students at the University of Illinois to make selling and buying used textbooks simple.

The website is free and easy to use. To sell a book, students can create a username and password and then list the book for whatever price they see fit. Here, the seller benefits by having complete control over the price. After listing the textbook for sale, the seller will then receive an e-mail from the website when someone wants to purchase the book.

“I’ve sold a few books on Illini Book Exchange,” said Kora Bongen, a graduate student in Engineering. “I put the book up for sale, received an e-mail about it shortly after, met the person in front of ISR and just made the trade. It wasn’t anything super exciting, but I think it’s a good resource.”

Other websites with good buyback deals are hard to come by, which is why sites like Half.com are getting more praise. Half.com, a website affiliated with eBay, is essentially a marketplace website like IBX. It also lets the seller control the price of the textbooks.

Half.com also conveniently suggests appropriate prices for the textbook depending on its condition.

“This year I bought and sold my books on Half.com. I listed them for sale as soon as finals were over and usually sold the books for close to what I bought them for. The only issue was trying to ship things in a safe and cheap way,” said Claire Sereiko, a freshman in LAS.

Unfortunately, figuring out shipping prices and packaging is not the only drawback of Half.com. Though selling is made simple after a student has made an account on the site, creating an account is a somewhat tedious process.

Creating an account requires filling out several pages regarding credit card and checking information which, to students who want to get everything done as fast as possible, at first seems unnecessary. This soon becomes understandable, since the buyer’s money will be put into the seller’s checking account, making the process worthwhile.

Popular websites like amazon.com have also started to offer textbook buyback opportunities. Amazon.com makes this process incredibly simple because one does not have to wait for someone to purchase his textbook since the website does so automatically.

To sell back a book, an account needs to be created and the books have to be sent to the specific location the website lists. An added perk is that shipping is free.

Though Amazon.com makes the process of selling one’s books pretty simple, the disadvantage lies in the fact that students are not in control of the price. According to the website, Amazon.com will usually buy back the book for 50% to 70% of the original price, depending on its condition. This is still more than what a student might get from selling textbooks back to the bookstores around campus.

Lack of control is not the only disadvantage with Amazon.com.

A seller will not actually be getting back money for the textbook, but instead credit to use on the website. This explains why Amazon.com offers a seller more money for textbooks than most other buyback websites.

It is beneficial to think about Amazon.com and the variety of items the website offers for a consumer to purchase. Sometimes credit is not such a bad thing, especially when students can use that credit to buy absolutely anything — perhaps even more textbooks for the coming semesters.

The important thing to remember when selling back books is that, no matter where you end up selling them, you most likely won’t receive the full amount back.

Instead, a seller should focus on getting the maximum profit for the books even if it takes a little more work.