With college costs skyrocketing, many students are turning to the internet to purchase their textbooks. Which sites have the best selection and prices?
Don't know about specific sites, however Kijiji is a great place to start. A lot of the times people in that area will be selling college textbooks. There are always time periods where the amount of textbooks available sky rocket. This is usually nearing the start of a new semester or the end of a semester. Have a look there, many people sell them on Kijiji.
If you know where to look and how to spot good deals, eBay is always a place to try. You just have to watch out for bad deals and stuff like that, but I've bought a couple of books via eBay once. All of them were in excellent condition. Incidentally, why not go with eBooks? That is, if your school allows it. In my college, majority of the students just use eBooks since they're cheaper.
Even the used books at my school are so expensive! This site is very well known for selling textbooks:Log In You can also sell your old textbooks to them. Also check out Bookbyte.com and Amazon.com.
This is a tough question. When I buy textbooks for my classes I take into account the sell back value that is often there at the end of the semester. If I buy a book for say $100, and get to sell it back fro $20, the book actually only cost $80 in the long run. For some classes, I prefer to get onto Amazon.com and but an old edition. Most of the times the older edition books become nearly worthless (In dollar amount anyway, information is not something that can have a price on it). Some books that are one edition back are less than $1 on Amazon.com, some are more pricey (Say $50?) but I have found that I can often sell those books back to the college bookstore (For, lets say again $20, and this means the book only cost me $10 in the long run). The one think I never suggest is an e-book. This I say for two reasons: 1. e-books are far more difficult to take notes on. I have an older edition Kindle (By Amazon) and I cannot take any notes in the text. 2. It is far more difficult to flip from one chapter to another, or just quickly scan the text. I find that often before tests while refreshing my memory I want to scant through without actually re-reading so that I can find out for sure what I know and what I do not. Some people however, do not like to mark in their books. Mortimer J. Adler in "How to Read a Book" said this: Writing in a text is the greatest respect one can pay to an author. Don't look at it as destroying a piece of art, look at it like you are accomplishing what the book is for, learning.
You can check halfpricebooks.com. They are a great site which is based where I live. They have some text books, but they also sell regular books as well!
Amazon. It has everything and they have a textbook program now. Also, I'm not sure if this is valid for everyone, but I do believe they sell textbooks for their Kindle devices. This, I suspect, would save you money in the end, but I could be wrong.
Check Amazon and eBay. Others have recommended Amazon for textbooks, but you may also find a used textbook from eBay worth the savings. Incidentally, don't forget checking the local prices through Craigslist! You never know who could be offering a textbook in your area for a fraction of the buying price.
After making many failed attempts to purchase my textbooks from my school for a reasonable price, I found Chegg.com and textbooksrus.com. They also offer really great buy back prices. I like renting my books as often as possible. Barnes and Nobles has great rates if anyone is interested in renting, and I agree that ebooks are another great option if you don't mind reading everything on a screen. I always try to find companies that cover shipping costs to save money, and these have been the best companies thus far.
These are all great sites, but the fact is you need to take your booklist and after you talk to your teacher then you need to go ahead and hit google. It's simplier in the long run as far as getting all the prices right then. The problem with just choosing a website and only choosing them is that then you get in the habit and end up missing deals. I have in my time as a student hit every last one of the sites listed above. They all at one time or another had the cheaper or cheapest price, but I have found that the best prices are generally always the international edition. There is one problem with international and that is the fact you generally cannot sell them back to American dealers if at all. Luckily I have an eBay account so whatever.
I usually bought mine through Half.com. I'm sure they can be bought cheaper elsewhere sometimes, but most of my books were old enough that I could get them relatively cheap anyway. I'm pretty sure Amazon has a book rental program now, too, so you don't even have to buy them out right any more.
Chegg is an excellent site to buy and resell college textbooks. I've also used Alibris, Amazon, and textbooks.com. The hefty price of college textbooks can be quite daunting to an already overly extended pocketbook. I have found that I can purchase or rent them for a fraction of the cost of buying them direct from college bookstores. There are lots of good options out there to resell your books as well. Simply go to a textbook buy back comparison site online. One good one isLog In. They will give you a list of sites, and what they are offering pay for the particular books you're trying to sell. Simply type in the book's ISBN and you're on your way. Good Luck!!!
Chegg is my favorite site of out of the ones already mentioned, going to have to check out some of the other ones I've never used. Occasionally I can find decent deals in my school box store. Also, they put a bulletin board near the bookstore where students can try and sell their books independently, which is nice. Reminds me, I need to get my textbooks for my summer classes.
I think the best marketplace websites to look for those books would be Amazon and Ebay. They are pretty popular when it comes to selling and buying stuffs online.
I would check Craiglist because sometimes they will have some pretty good ones that are a good price. I would also check out Half.com and Chegg.com. Those are both sites that I have used that are really good. Plus you can sell back to them and get good money for the textbooks that you rented. Honestly, I hate how high the prices are. So if you can, then you should rent your books. It's so much cheaper.
You can buy old books through "Bookfinder.com". You can search for a book by its Author and Title or by its ISBN number to get an exact edition. The service is available internationally too. You can find the cheapest textbooks on this site and save big. You can also try half.ebay.com at very cheap prices.
