A lesson for textbook buyers
This is only my first semester, but I already had to buy seven books. I found a great way to save some money and still end up with all the books needed.
Which edition?
First step is to ask your professor, when they’re going over the syllabus is the best time, if the newest edition is necessary. Most professors, my mom included, don’t necessarily need or want you to have the newest, most expensive edition unless whatever changed is exactly what is needed for the class. Usually the new edition has a few grammatical fixes and a fancy new cover and that’s all.
Bookstore prices
Go to the official campus bookstore and go to the unofficial bookstore(s). My school is smaller, but still has both of these. My mom teaches at a larger university with 30,000 students and they have three off-campus bookstores. Go to each and check the prices on the books you need, make a nice comparison chart that will save your life.
Online prices
Now, go home and check Amazon, Ebay, Half.com, and do a Google search. Add these prices to your chart. Make sure you have the correct edition! I can’t stress that enough. Also, find out what shipping costs and when you will get the books. Find out if the company/person doesn’t ship for up to one week or whatever else their policy is. Find out the return policy, just in case.
Compare
Now that you have your nice chart comparing prices/shipping charges, do a little math see which deal is best. Do you actually need these books tomorrow or can you wait until Monday? If you need them now, see about applying for a free trial with Amazon Prime (I got one) or see if your aunt has an account. If it’s cheaper or necessary to get them in the bookstore, go for it. If it’s a better deal to get them online, do that.
This way you get the best deal you can no matter what. All it takes is a little work. It took me an hour total to track down seven books and start the process. Not so bad to save nearly $200. Five books were much cheaper online, one was about $20 less in the bookstore. One book I had to get at the store because it’s one of those ridiculous “customized textbooks” just for my school. What a scam.
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16 Responses
I let everyone i can know this fact that if you simply ask the professor if you can use the previous edition of books, usually they’ll say yes. then you can shop for the best prices reducing the price from 100 to maybe 5! , and if you don’t like shipping, there’s pazap.com that can do all this for you.
If they dont let you use the old editions, usually it’s just problems that are different. in which case, make nice with someone and borrow their book, and copy just the problems.
I have saved hundreds of dollars by shopping for my school books online, especially with Amazon. For my Art History class the book cost was around $120 in our school store. I bought it for $25 at Amazon.
If I had been able to go an edition older with one of my books, I could have had a semester’s worth for under $50. Can’t beat that.
One thing I do though that most other people don’t is to go ahead and buy the books from the school’s bookstore. They usually have the most gracious return policy, and that way I actually have a book for class until the ones that I ordered came in.
Another way is to post a message on Facebook aimed towards students at your college to see if students who previously took that class are willing to sell the book to you. Usually, they’re willing to part with the textbook for a fairly reasonable price.
One thing that you forgot to add which is probably the cheapest is to borrow the books in the library if it exists then photocopy it. I did that for a textbook that was $100 and photocopied it which ended up costing me $30. I returned the book after photocopying it.
That is a good idea, although photocopying every page is really a lot of work. I, for one, probably wouldn’t do that because I’m too lazy, but that’s good that others can utilize free resources.
I’ve been selling and buying my books at http://www.bookbyte.com for my whole college career. Only once did I ever lose out in selling to them and then only by $1. They rock!
Yeah. Buy second hand books from your seniors who don’t need them anymore. Then keep them in good condition so you can sell them off easily!
The bit about online bookstores is helpful but very time-consuming (I’ve been there). A website I’ve found immensely helpful in this is http://www.fetchbook.info. It searches for your book in more than 100 online stores as I recall. There are a few other sites like it, but it has never failed me so I’m sticking to it. Try it once; you’ll be sure to love it.
Bayrak thank you so much
thank you sadece bunu yayinla baska bi sey sitemez
GREAT info! Thanks for posting!!
I would not resell books to textbookslinks.com they do not keep their word on book prices.
Their “sister company” where the checks come from (Bunches of Books) has a B- rating from the Better Business Bureau.
I sold two book to them at a agreed upon price of $72 each on Feb. 8, 2010. I mailed the items on Feb. 8, 2010. Their website states: Our price quotes are based on the nationwide demand for the book and current stock availability. However, the buyback prices quoted at checkout are guaranteed only if your books are shipped within 7 days. All orders must be received within 30 days for payment to be issued. They emailed me on Feb. 9 stating: “….some of the buyback prices on our website were incorrect over the last few days. While the majority of the issue deals with buyback quotes of $72.00 and higher, some other buyback quotes may have been incorrect as well.” “Because of this issue, we will be returning any buyback immediately that comes in with the erroneous buyback quote(s) at no charge to our customers.”
So from my understanding they can enter into an agreement with me and then change the agreement at any time.
I also bought used textbooks and saved a lot of money thanks to that. I don’t see any sense in buying new, expensive books when we have an opportunity to use somebody’s older ones. This is also a way to protect environment so if you wanna go green you should remember this.
Aug 26, 2007
Dec 29, 2007