SellBackYourBook: Written Android Apps Review
Have you got a ton of extra books laying about the flat? Better yet, do you have a pile of textbooks sitting by the nightstand that you just don’t know what to do with? If you haven’t got a local book reseller, or even a friend to pawn that biology text onto, may we in turn suggest SellBackYourBook, an app by the developer of the same name that makes it unbelievably easy to resell your used books—and all without having to leave the comfort of your own home! For our full thoughts on this killer ISBN scanning application for Android, check below beyond the break.
Concept and Functionality
SellBackYourBook for Android
As stated in the title, the app bears a lot of similarities to our favorite Big-G title, Google Goggles. First and foremost, the app acts as a book scanner. Simply tap the scan tab, and then point your phone’s camera at the bar code on the book you’re looking to get rid of. The app automatically snags the ISBN number, identifies the tome, and then produces a dollar figure for how much SellBackYourBook is willing to pay you. Immediately, the book is added to your cart, allowing you to keep scanning with reckless abandon. There’s also a manual entry port, in case a barcode is too indecipherable for SellBackYourBook to read.
Once you’ve copied all of the books you’re looking to sell, it’s a quick jaunt to the check out cart before you can actually ship them out. However, you won’t be completing your order or receiving your free shipping in-app, as SellBackYourBook instead bumps you over to a mobile browser edition of the website itself. And though this is functional, we would have liked a graphical front-end for the whole affair, if even just to solidify our trust in the whole process. Once you’ve received your gratis shipping label, you can box up the books, and then mail them off: All without leaving your home, as promised above!
Design and Layout
All in all, we rather liked the smooth design SellBackYourBook is sporting. The app really does make it easy to view, scan, and sell all of the books we’re looking to ditch. That being said, the aesthetics of the app are somewhat lacking: There’s a spartan appeal to the graphics, but on the whole, we would have liked a more Web 2.0 feel. The idea of sending off our books and receiving a PayPal payment when they arrive is somewhat scary, and every little aesthetic detail that reassures our minds is a boon in our eyes.
Overall Value
That being said, SellBackYourBook is a free app in the Android Market, and an incredible way to resell a lot of your homebound books. If you’ve been waiting for just such an application, here it is: The app is purely functional, quick on its heels, and though it may not look the greatest, it will easily get the job done in a pinch, just as we’d like it to.
Android Apps Review Details: SellBackYourBook app is free. This app requires Android 1.6 and up. You may download SellBackYourBook from the Android Market. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.
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