Make quick cash by selling books online

MOST POPULAR: Video, stories and more
SIGN-UP: Get breaking news sent to you

Alyvia Plummer gets very attached to her books. It started when she was a kid and her grandfather kept giving them as gifts.

"He said every book I give you, if you read it, I'll give you $100," said Plummer.

That grew into a passion for reading and collecting books -- like the British Harry Potter first editions.

But now as a struggling art student and with no one paying her to read, she can't help looking at her bulging book collection as a potential goldmine, especially when she found the website www.cash4books.net. It offered pretty good money for dusty old books -- up to $15 each.

"They took a lot of the books that a used bookstore wouldn't take," said Plummer.

It works like this: you type in the book's ISBN number. The site tells you how much it will pay, you ship it and get a check. Cash4Books even covers shipping costs.

/*7 On Your Side*/ tried it out and got varying results. A Julia Child autobiography retails for $25, on the site it fetches just 93 cents. The thriller "Language of Bees" retails for $25 and the website offers $5.23.

"One, will I ever read it again, two, does it mean anything to me and three, does it look pretty," said Plummer.

Plummer says it's all about cashing in when you need to. The hard thing is letting go of favorites like a novel about Dracula, but she sold a favorite book about old England.

"It was like 13 bucks they were going to give me so I had to get rid of it," said Plummer.

Cash4Books has a good Better Business Bureau rating, but there are a few words of caution: It won't pay for books that arrive in poor condition, such as having water damage, or missing pages. There are some books it won't accept at all, like international textbooks.

Even if she would part with them, Cash4Books wouldn't buy Plummer's British version of Harry Potter.

But it did want her textbooks. She sold nine in all and got about $50 just when she needed it most.

"Groceries I think, it was either groceries or gas," said Plummer.

There are many websites that will take your used books and some offer comparable prices with free shipping.

Here are some websites that buy books: