We are happy to announce the initial launch of DineroBooks.com.
This new website harnesses the power and data from BookScouter.com and makes that available for individuals or small businesses who want to purchase books from college students on or near campus. As an owner, you can configure how much you’d like to pay for books using a simple formula. Set up access for multiple users to allow them to see only the data that they should be able to see, and track the activity of each user.

This basic functionality is currently available, and there is no charge to sign up and try it out. Our hope is that we’ll get feedback over the next several months and implement new features as requested over that time to have a more robust product available by the next textbook buyback season.

I’ve been approached by a reporter who is looking for somebody who uses BookScouter.com to earn extra income. Preferably a stay-at-home parent or someone who is unemployed. If you are interested in speaking with this reporter, please send us a message.

The past couple of weeks have started the winter buyback season for textbooks.

There are three main spikes in the year for buying back textbooks. First, the entire month of May as the Spring semester ends for most students. It actually starts the last week of April and goes through the first week of June.

The next, smaller peak occurs as the summer semester ends and fall begins. It lasts from about the last week of July, the entire month of August, and the first couple weeks of September.

Finally, the last peak of the largest, and longest peak of the year occurs as fall semester ends. It starts the day after Thanksgiving, and hits the largest peak the second week of December when many schools have their finals. It takes a big dip the week of Christmas, picks back up after New Years, and stays strong throughout most the month of January.

These peaks match up pretty nicely to the excellent article on Extrabux regarding the best time to buy and sell your textbooks.

We’ve just added the ability to log in to BookScouter with your Facebook, Twitter, and Google accounts. This makes it much easier to register and log into the site with just a couple of clicks. If you are logged in via a social network, you can also easily share the site with your friends or followers to let them know how to get the best prices for their used books.

As with anything on the site, we welcome feedback regarding these new features. Feel free to post comments here or email us using the Contact Us form.

There has been a lot of confusion in the past month, and specifically the past week about changes that are taking place with Amazon’s various API’s. This post is intended to clarify what has happened with Amazon Book API and explain where things currently stand.

I’ve had several people contact me with concerns about the changes that are taking place with Amazon’s Product Advertising API‘s at the end of August. According to the notices that I’ve read, seller’s access to the Product Advertising API will be discontinued as of August 31st. Sellers are to migrate to the MWS Products API by then.