Buy and Resell: 7 Best Textbook Sites That Will Save You Money

By Francine Fluetsch on January 10, 2014

image via www.utexas.edu

Well, it’s that time of the quarter/semester again where we watch aimlessly as our money leaks out of our pockets and into our textbooks. Not a very fun feeling if I do say so myself.

The problem is that many campus bookstores are overpriced because they know that students are lazy, Mary Medeiros,a second year MCD biology student at UC Santa Cruz, points out.

“I go to the bookstore because I usually wait until the last minute,” Medeiros said. “It is also very convenient as a student to just walk over to the bookstore and get a book instantly.”

This has definitely happened to me, where I waited until the last second and simply didn’t have time to order the book online. But the thing is, ordering books online from cheap textbook sites can really save you money!

Plan ahead with these sites so you won’t get sucked into the money hog—aka, the school bookstore.

Amazon: If you haven’t already checked it out, Amazon is a great website for getting cheap, new or used books.

image via twitter.com

Max Meyer, second year business management economics student at UC Santa Cruz, says he likes Amazon because, ”you can rent any book (unlike the bookstore), and Amazon Prime has a free 2-day shipping which you get when you have a .edu email.”

Sounds pretty good to me! Amazon is all about helping college students save. Chloe Griffith, a third year communications student at UCLA, says she uses Amazon to buy used books. All of their books are in great condition, including the used ones.

So whether you are buying new or used, you know you are going to get a good deal. And when you’re done with the book, you can simply sell it back to them and get up to 75% back!

I just sold one of my Lit books to my school’s bookstore and got a dollar … I’m not even kidding. I mean I still took it, but I’m definitely going to be buying and selling to Amazon from now on. Hunter Matthews, a second year math student at Solano Community College, says he picks Amazon because, “you can get EBooks for the Kindle and they’re the way cheapest!”

Cheap is always going to score brownie points with college students.

image via coupons.answers.com

AbeBooks: I ordered one of my German books from this site and they delivered perfectly. It was the correct book, it was cheap, and it was fast. Lindsay Banks, a second year psychology student at UC Santa Cruz, says she uses AbeBooks because “it’s the cheapest.” They have the option of giving you your textbook in paperback form, cutting the price even lower than their already reduced price.

Like Amazon, you can also buy used books, and sell your textbooks back when you’re done. They even offer free shipping when you sell your books to them! Now that’s awesome. Still not sure if you should buy from AbeBooks? Here is how they rank on TopTenReviews.

Half.com: I’ve never personally used Half.com, but Nedra Cristobal, a third year environmental studies major at UC Santa Cruz and American River College, says she likes it because “it’s a smaller site owned by eBay, so you can use your eBay account, but it’s simple and easy to use and you can find great prices.”

image via www.ecommercebytes.com

I went to check it out for myself and just like the other sites you can sell your stuff back when you’re done.  Here are some reviews so you can decide if Half.com is where you want to make your next textbook purchase.

Textbooks.com: Textbooks.com is another great site to use to buy your books. You can buy new or used books or rent books, and they even offer eTextbooks to download! They offer free shipping, which is a wonderful quality, and have a 30-day return policy in case you don’t end up ordering the right book or figure out that your class won’t really be using it.

image via www.squawkfox.com

Chegg: Chegg, like the other sites, will let you buy and resell books. They even have a system where you can have free instant eTextbook access while you are waiting for your order to arrive! How cool is that? Here are some reviews I found on them, and though I haven’t used Chegg, the reviews look promising.

mydotr.com: Though it looks like a short version of “my doctor,” mydotr stands for My Department of Textbook Rentals, and is another place you can check out to get your books for the quarter/semester.

This site was recommended by Justin Kaplan, a second year student at Solano Community College, who says he likes it because it is “cheap and easy and [there are] plenty of email/text reminders for when books are due.”

Reminders are awesome for forgetful people like me! This way you can rent your books and not get stuck with some nasty late fees. You are allowed to highlight in the rented textbooks, they offer free shipping both ways and you can even extend your rental period if you need the books longer. Sounds like they know what’s up!

image via www.hercampus.com

Bookbyte.com: This site was recommended to me by Renee Willrodt, a second year athletic training student at Palomar College, who says they have “a great selection of books from all schools. And reasonable prices and buy- back prices!”

They offer free shipping on orders over $49 dollars and have a 14-day return guarantee. Like the other sites listed above, they offer free shipping on buyback orders, saving you money while giving you some cash for your books! Here are some reviews if you want to know more.

What to do if you are overwhelmed: Now, you may be looking at this list and thinking, “well which one do I pick?” If you can’t decide there are websites that will find the lowest price for you!

image via esselinkc.wordpress.com

Nikki Ellison, a second year biochemistry student at Palomar College,  says she uses isbns.net since they will directly find “which website sells it for the cheapest.”

Matt Scorca, a third year computer science student at UC Santa Cruz, uses a website similar to this called slugbooks.com. They will compare the prices for you and will bring you to the website of your choosing to make buying simple and fast. I’ve used slugbooks before and they were awesome! That’s actually how I found out about the AbeBooks website. Here’s a review for slugbooks.

I hope this list was helpful! There are tons of sites out there that I didn’t even know about, and these seem to be the most reliable and popular among students, so go check them out.

I also recommend attending the first day of class before buying a textbook, or talking to a student who has taken the class previously. Sometimes (not a lot but it still happens), the book may not be used all that much and when it is you could easily look up the sections before you buy. As a college student, you have to buy a lot of books, so if you can weed out some that aren’t important, that can really add up. Good luck with the start of the quarter/semester, and happy buying :) .

 

 

 

 

 

 

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