Sticker Shock on Textbooks: Consider the Alternatives
The semester is about to begin. You have your list of required textbooks and are stunned by the costs. What about that book that sells for nearly $200 at the college bookstore? There are options to consider. First be certain to get the ISBN number and be aware of the edition required. Email your professor to determine if an earlier edition might suffice.
1: Find someone at school who recently took the class and buy the book used.
2: Purchase the book used from the bookstore.
3: If you and a friend are truly organized, consider sharing a book with a classmate.
4: Check to see if the book is on reserve in the library. You can consider using it in the library all semester or at least until your copy arrives.
5: Consider the book swapping sites mentioned in two of my prior posts (11/25/2008 and 12/17/2008).
6: Search online for a multitude of sites that sell used books, or elicit suggestions from friends. New sites are frequently cropping up.
7: Consider renting. Check out Chegg.com and Bookrenter.com. Read the limitations for renting books. Chegg allows limited highlighting. Many rental sites will not allow writing in the books. If you own the book, you will have more liberty to write notes and highlight the reading.
8: Shop around. Compare book prices and remember to include shipping costs. Check out bookfinder.com, where you can compare the cost of new and used textbooks, rental books, older editions, and international editions.
9: Ask an upperclassman for suggestions. Their experience (mistakes included), wisdom and savvy are to your benefit.
If you have additional suggestions, please make a comment on my blog from which others can benefit. Thanks. Happy hunting.
1: Find someone at school who recently took the class and buy the book used.
2: Purchase the book used from the bookstore.
3: If you and a friend are truly organized, consider sharing a book with a classmate.
4: Check to see if the book is on reserve in the library. You can consider using it in the library all semester or at least until your copy arrives.
5: Consider the book swapping sites mentioned in two of my prior posts (11/25/2008 and 12/17/2008).
6: Search online for a multitude of sites that sell used books, or elicit suggestions from friends. New sites are frequently cropping up.
7: Consider renting. Check out Chegg.com and Bookrenter.com. Read the limitations for renting books. Chegg allows limited highlighting. Many rental sites will not allow writing in the books. If you own the book, you will have more liberty to write notes and highlight the reading.
8: Shop around. Compare book prices and remember to include shipping costs. Check out bookfinder.com, where you can compare the cost of new and used textbooks, rental books, older editions, and international editions.
9: Ask an upperclassman for suggestions. Their experience (mistakes included), wisdom and savvy are to your benefit.
If you have additional suggestions, please make a comment on my blog from which others can benefit. Thanks. Happy hunting.
Labels: Bookfinder, Bookrenter, Chegg, ISBN number, rent books, sticker shock, swapping books, textbooks, used books
posted by Mom @ 9:24 AM
2 Comments:
At June 16, 2010 at 11:25 AM ,
Anonymous said...
have you ever tried out eCampus.com for buying, renting, and selling books? I tried chegg and was having problems so I thought I would try something else out. a friend told me about ecampus and I loved it! the prices are already cheaper and plus she gave me her code EE15007 and it saved me 5% on top of that. you should try it out!!
At June 16, 2010 at 3:53 PM ,
Mom said...
Thanks for the tip. You may want to google the site for reviews. A quick search led me to some questionable reviews. There are a lot of reputable sites worth considering. I am not personally familiar with that site, however.
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