Worth Reading?
So I, like several other people my age, am soon to return to college, and have to buy books for my classes. Last semester I took three courses and dropped close to $500 on books.
That type of bill for incoming freshmen or someone who isn’t expecting it, can be a real breath taker. So the guys over at The Consumerist were kind enough to come up with some ways you can save some money on books.
Apparently the most popular site is abebooks.com, where they lists a lot of books at half or less what Amazon lists them for. CNN chimed in with suggestions of cheapesttextbooks.com and half.com.
I am sure that I am not the only one that has had the pleasure of dealing with Follet’s and the college’s financial aid department only choosing to work with the local or integrated bookstore, so, since I am a broke college student, with no money, I will once again be paying the outrageous prices that they command.
However, I can offer up some personally experienced money saving tips. First, check and see if your institution of higher learning has any agreements or deals with the local public transportation company, I know with my college ID I can ride the local bus as often as I want for free. Next, check and see which restaurants offer student discounts, yeah, you are better off saving money if you don’t eat out, but sometimes its deserved or required. Much past that the only sage-like advice I can offer up is, if you don’t need it, don’t buy it, I know there is a lot of stuff people recommend you bring to school, but I assure you, you will take on a minimalist point of view shortly after starting.
Cheap Textbooks And Other Discounts For College Students [via Consumerist]
LOL, I’d say welcome to the real world but it is alot rougher than 500 for books.
Oh yeah and never sell yr books at the school buy back sell em on your own makes more money. Get a Cosco Executive membership get a whole bunch of people who want to go get some money from each of them for your services and you get money back on purchases with the executive membership. I’ve got tons of these you want worried I had weeks where I had no money and still had to get food.
How many of you feels that most professors does not really use text books? I personally do. During my college year, most of my professors gave out handouts and notes and most exam questions are from his or her lectures
Other option is to look up the ISBN on Amazon and then hit up eBay for the international version. The page numbers are usually off by around 10, no fancy hard covers, and sometimes they are strictly black & white. But for $30-$40 for a $150 textbook - I made do.
I like bigwords.com for textbooks. The reason they’re better is because they search every combination of all your textbooks, including shipping and promotions, instead of just one at a time. so they find savings that other sites don’t.
They just redid their website and added support to either include or exclude international editions, which is a big deal.
Also, they allow you to choose your own ship time, then they calculate the lowest possible total price using the shipping method from all stores which gets the book there on time.
Pretty neat! http://www.bigwords.com
Wait, people still use the bookstore when buying books?!
Insane.
I use this site called: http://www.BIGWORDS.COM
why get international books when you can get cheap American textbooks right from bigwords.com.. I always save more than HALF my money when shoppin on bigwords.com. It basically searches everywhere and anywhere in order to get you the best price with shipping included.
you guys need to get connected… SAVE BIG
I agree with bill and Jill. BIGWORDS.com is the best site to find cheap textbooks! They search all the top online bookstores and compare prices. One single site cannot have the best price on ALL the books, so Bigwords searches them all to find the best prices. Then, they add discounts, coupons, and shipping to show the best price overall. You can even change options to get your books faster or to get digital or international editions. I use Bigwords and I have saved at least 40% off the original prices on my textbooks. I have also always gotten my books within 3 days.
I know exactly what you mean! Bookstores have a monopoly on the market, that is why you must buy on-line and pay the real market price. The best way to get books on-line is to use a book price comparison search engine. There a few out there, and best of all they do not cost any money. The one I like to use SmartBookFinder.com, http://www.smartbookfinder.com. They search and compare prices at the major bookstores, like amazon, half, B &N, abebooks, etc. Also, they have a feature that allows me to find books I get shipped to me fast. This helps when I need my book ASAP at the strat of a college semester.