By Katherine • 9 Comments
With school starting just around the corner, you need to start thinking about places to buy college textbooks that will save you some money! College is very expensive so saving money where you can, helps your pocketbook later for when you really want to have some fun! So here is a list of places to buy college textbooks while saving money!
I know this may seem like a step back from being one of the places to buy college textbooks that could actually save you money but you might be surprised. I know I have taken several classes that just required one small textbook for the whole semester. It wouldn’t be anything special, just an old tiny textbook. The university bookstore would have a used book for around $7.00 and new around $15.00. I knew I might be able to find one on eBay for $4.00 but when you add up shipping, it is not even worth your time. Not all your textbooks will be like this but make sure you shop around first before buying anything!
Chegg is the place to not buy your college textbooks but rent them! Chegg offers a discount that ranges from 30%-80% while most retail only offer around 50%. You can rent textbooks for a semester, a quarter, or a 60-day rental and then ship them back with prepaid UPS shipping. Chegg even offers a 30-day ‘any reason’ return policy with free shipping. So if I were you, I would start searching Chegg now!
Amazon, the one place that seems you can buy it all. I happened to use Amazon a lot when I was buying many of my French books because they had to be shipped from France. The costs for my French books were much lower than anywhere else I could find with shipping included. Amazon is so great that they offer a free Amazon Prime membership to anyone with a valid student email address. If you already have an Amazon Prime account already, they will refund you the remaining balance of your account and also extend your membership!
Abebooks is this huge online marketplace for new, used, and rare textbooks. The average discount you can find books at Abebooks are around 50% but if you’re a bargain shopper, you might even find some around 60%-90%. They also have an easy buy back policy where you type in the ISBN number of the book you want to sell, rate the book, and print off the free shipping label. Pack the box with all your books and ship them off. Once they arrive, someone will make sure the rating was done correctly and then the money is deposited right into your account! I have used this system many times and I love it! Quick and easy!
The go-to place I used to buy all my textbooks! I would find great deals on used textbooks at a lower price. The best thing about it, they rate the books so you know ahead of time what you’re actually buying. The description tells you whether it is a slightly used book or one that has tons of highlights in it. You put the ISBN number in and find the type of book you want for a great price! It is so easy that Half.com is one of the best places to buy college textbooks!
BIGWORDS is what Orbitz is for finding cheap flight. BIGWORDS takes all textbook sellers and places them on one website so you don’t have to go around looking at multiple website to find the cheapest textbook for the best quality. I wish I had known about this before I finished college last semester. BIGWORDS allows you to post the books you bought on the website to sell or you can donate them to Better World Book that helps fight illiteracy in developing nations. Buy cheap books and help save the world sounds like a great idea to me!
Have you ever thought to ask your friends or classmates about selling or trading books for the upcoming semester? I know that the university I attended, there was a Facebook textbook exchange site. You could post whatever books you had for sell or trade books. You could even ask around if you were looking for a particular book. The site was very helpful with buying cheap textbooks that didn’t break the bank. Especially since everyone was a student and totally understood the situation you were in, since they were too.
Hopefully, some of these places will help you in the upcoming month when searching for textbooks. College can be stressful at times so having a helping hand in finding textbooks while getting ready to go back can help with relieving some stress. Have you used these places to buy college textbooks? If so, what did you like about them?