Cheap College Textbooks

Shop Online For Cheap College Textbooks

With the abundance of available online booksellers, students are no longer confined to the college bookstore in their search for the best prices. College bookstores will almost always charge the full cover price for textbooks. Online retailers, though, are more likely to offer discounts through a combination of bargaining power and lower overhead.

Price comparison sites like campusbooks and CheapestTextbooks.com are a great place to start your search for cheap college textbooks. These sites check the price of your books at a number of online bookstores and tell you which merchant offers the best deals. Sometimes these sites will only tell you which site offers the best total price on all your required books or leave out used options, so it can still be to your advantage to search sellers individually for the best price on each book. However, these comparison sites do offer a great way to save money on your books with a minimal amount of effort.

If you choose to buy your books from several different online vendors, be careful the shipping costs from multiple sellers don't eat into your potential savings. Also, before completing any online purchase, do a quick search for coupon codes. You may be able to find an offer for free shipping or a certain percentage off your order, saving even more money on your textbooks.

Online Stores Specializing In Textbooks

• eCampus
• Bookbyte.com
• eFollett.com

Online Bookstores Offering Textbooks

• Amazon.com
• Barnes & Noble
• Abebooks
• Alibris
• Half.com

Purchase Used Textbooks

Looking for used textbooks can help you save a significant amount of money. College bookstores typically mark used books at a 25% discount, and you can find them right in the stacks along with new books. Stop by the bookstore early for the best selection. Used textbooks are also available from online bookstores.

When purchasing used books, you should be careful to check the quality of each book. Some of them will be so pristine, you'll swear they were never opened, while others will look like they went through the wash. The biggest sign of use, though, is usually highlighting. Thankfully, this is easy to check for. Simply take a few minutes to flip through each book to see if the level of marking is acceptable to you.

Cut Out The Middleman

You can often save money by going directly to the source of used textbooks - other college students. Why wait for the bookstore to buy a book from someone for $50 and sell it to you for $75? Offer the other person $60 for the textbook, and you'll both feel good about the transaction. Ask your friends, classmates and other students in your dorm or apartment complex if they have any books you need. Keep an eye on bulletin boards because some students will create flyers listing their used books for sale. Finally, check out online services like Campus Book Swap which allow you to buy and sell used textbooks through an electronic bulletin board.

Check Out Textbooks

A more unconventional way to save money on your textbooks is to check them out from the library. One disadvantage to this method, though, is not being able to write in your books. Post-it notes offer a potential solution to this obstacle, though. Other students may have the same idea, so you'll need to visit the library early, and you may not be able to renew the book if someone else requests it. Also, be careful with due dates; you don't want your savings to disappear in a series of fines.

Buy Other Editions

When a new edition of a textbook comes out, the previous edition can be available for just a few dollars. In most cases, you'll want the most up-to-date book for success in your class. Still, if you have a chance to compare the editions, you may find the changes cosmetic, or there may be an additional section your class won't cover anyway. You should certainly proceed with caution when purchasing an older book, but it is a possibility.

Purchasing different editions is much more feasible in literature-based classes, especially if you're reading classic literature. Why buy the edition from Penguin publishers for $8.95 when there's a Dover Thrift Edition available for $3.95? You may want to discuss the possibility of purchasing a different edition with your professor before doing so, though. Most professors recognize that some students already own a copy of a popular book, and they don't truly expect them to buy it again. However, other professors insist you buy a particular printing of a book for special features like literary criticism. At the very least, you'll be at a disadvantage when discussing the book in class since your page numbering is certain to be different.

Take Action

If just searching for the cheapest prices isn't enough for you, and you'd like to take steps to curb the rising cost of textbooks, there are several student-lead efforts available. For instance, MakeTextbooksAffordable.com was created by a coalition of student government groups, and they offer suggestions on how to work towards change in the publishing industry. You can also write to elected officials asking them to draft legislation to create tax breaks for those who purchase textbooks. You won't see immediate results, but you can take heart in knowing you may be helping future students enjoy the benefits of cheap college textbooks.