How to Sell Used Books in Canada (2026)
You have a shelf — or a basement, or a few boxes at the cottage — of books you are done with. A handful are worth real money, most are not, and the only way to tell has always been to look them up one at a time. Here is how selling used books actually works in Canada: what eBay.ca takes, what Canada Post charges to mail a book, where the local options fit, and how TroveScore sorts a whole shelf from one photo.
What eBay.ca charges to sell a book
Canadian sellers do pay eBay fees — unlike the UK, where private sellers now sell for free. On eBay.ca, a book sale costs:
- A 15.3% final value fee on the total amount of the sale — and “total” includes the shipping you charge the buyer, not just the book’s price.
- A per-order fee of $0.30 on orders of $10 or less, $0.40 above that.
- No listing fee for your first 250 listings each month; $0.30 per listing after that. A shelf clear-out rarely gets close.
Because the fee is charged on shipping too, there is no fee advantage in pricing a book low and padding the postage. Price the book honestly and charge close to what shipping really costs.
Canada Post decides whether a book is worth listing
Canada has no discounted “media mail” rate for books the way the US does, and Canadian postage is expensive. Thickness is the measurement that matters most.
Parcel (Expedited Parcel and up) — anything thicker than 2 cm or heavier than 500 g. Tracked, priced by weight and distance, and typically several times the Lettermail cost.
A slim paperback in a snug mailer can squeak through as oversized Lettermail for a few dollars. Most novels are thicker than 2 cm once wrapped, and hardcovers almost always are — so they ship as parcels.
- Lettermail is cheap but untracked. If a buyer reports that a book never arrived, you have no proof of delivery, and eBay can side with the buyer. Keep Lettermail for inexpensive books where losing one would not sting.
- Measure the wrapped package, not the book. A 1.8 cm paperback in a padded envelope can easily end up over 2 cm.
- Bundles share one shipping charge. Three books in one parcel cost far less to send than three parcels — which is why selling a series as a bundle works especially well in Canada.
Rule of thumb: a book that has to ship as a parcel needs to sell for well over the cost of the parcel before listing it on its own makes sense. Most $5 paperbacks don’t clear that bar — they belong in the local pile.
Selling locally: Kijiji, Marketplace and used bookstores
For books that are not worth the postage, selling close to home skips both the fees and the shipping:
- Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace — no fees and no shipping. Lots sell better than single books: “box of 20 mystery paperbacks” or a complete kids’ series moves far faster than one title at $3.
- Independent used bookstores — most buy selectively and pay in store credit, or a smaller cash offer. Call ahead: many only want certain genres or conditions.
- Campus bookstores — many run textbook buyback at the end of term, though usually for current editions only. Our textbook selling guide covers when that beats selling privately.
What is left after that can go to a public library book sale (many are run by a Friends of the Library group), a thrift store, or a Little Free Library on your street. More ideas for books you don’t want.
How TroveScore handles this for Canadian users
TroveScore identifies every book in a photo of your shelf and prices them all at once — no typing ISBNs. For a user in Canada, that means:
- Prices in Canadian dollars, from eBay.ca. Every scanned book is valued against live Canadian listings and shown in CAD — what the book actually sells for on the site you would sell it on, not a US price converted at the day’s exchange rate.
- A sell / donate / keep call on each book, using a resale threshold set in Canadian dollars, so the cheap paperbacks are sorted out before you spend twenty minutes on them.
- One-tap listing to eBay.ca. Books you choose to sell are listed in CAD from a Canadian location, with Canada Post shipping pre-filled. Offering returns is your choice — eBay.ca does not require it.
- Country control. TroveScore detects your country automatically; if it gets it wrong, set it in Settings → Country and it stays put.
Do you pay tax on selling your own books?
For most people clearing their shelves, no. To the Canada Revenue Agency, books you bought to read are personal-use property, and selling them for less than you paid — which is almost always the case with used books — is not income. Two exceptions: rare books count as listed personal property, and a sale over $1,000 can produce a capital gain; and if you buy books in order to resell them, that is business income. This is general information, not tax advice — see our guide to taxes on selling and donating books for more.
A quick Canadian workflow
- Scan the shelf with TroveScore — every book identified and priced against eBay.ca at once.
- List the ones above the line on eBay.ca — TroveScore’s sell threshold is set in Canadian dollars. Ship them tracked.
- Bundle any series. Mid-series books sell poorly alone, and one parcel beats three.
- Sell the middle locally — a Kijiji or Marketplace lot, or a bookstore trade.
- Donate the rest in one trip. Don’t spend twenty minutes on a $3 paperback that costs more than that to mail.
Not sure which books are worth the effort? Start with how to find out what your books are worth.
Clearing a shelf in Canada? TroveScore identifies every book in one photo, prices them against eBay.ca in Canadian dollars, and tells you which ones are worth listing. Free, and there is no app to install.
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