Sunday, February 5, 2012

Where to buy cheap college books?

Does anyone know the best place to buy used and cheap college books? Online or store?Where to buy cheap college books?
http://www.campusbooks.com/

http://www.cheapesttextbooks.com/

http://www.ecampus.com/

http://www.campusbooks4less.com/
www.valorebooks.com



Promo Code: valore00

Report Abuse

Where to buy cheap college books?
Ebay or Amazon.com.
This depends on your university.



My undergraduate college charged such a negligible markup that it really cost the same (or within $1) to buy them directly from the store. It also saved me a lot of time, and I felt better knowing I was supporting my own bookstore.



Online options abound, and sometimes you get really lucky, but it's chancy that you will get a used copy in the condition you want at a price that's good. You will need to have at least two or three weeks (sometimes more than a month) to search around looking for the best book at the best price.



Step one is go to your college bookstore. Write down the ISBN (usually on the back cover, but sometimes the inside front cover), title, author(s) and edition number of all of your books and the price(s) books are selling for at your school. You want to be absolutely sure you buy the right book in most cases (though in the case of something like a classic book or play, any version will usually be fine...you'll just have to get used to being on a different page number).



If you are not a person who highlights like me, your next step should be checking if you can get any of the books at your public library. As an English Education major, I had to read a lot of books that I could easily find at my library...I even got lucky and was able to interlibrary loan one for the low, low price of 35 cents.



Once you've ruled out the library, then check out some of your traditional used book stores (one small chain that's fabulous is Half Price Books, and if you are lucky enough to live in an area that has one, you might find some treasures here). These stores hate sitting on used textbooks because, while they can get a lot for them, they can only get a lot for them for a very short time, and then they are updated. You might be fortunate enough to find some of your books here.



After searching the libraries and local used bookstores, you can try online. Best Book Buys, My Simon, or Addall can sometimes help since they check multiple stores at the same time (including half.com). If you have the ISBN number for your book, use the search by ISBN field if there is one. Bestbookbuys and addall are the best to search this way, but sometimes they miss something that mysimon picks up. Make sure to check out eBay, Alibris, and Amazon used. Once in a blue moon you can catch something on bookfinder, which searches used book inventories online.



You will probably have to pay shipping to get the best price online (sadly, which sometimes ends up eating up your "savings"), so be careful when you see a price. Check out the condition carefully and see if you have to pay shipping (and if so, how much). Pay for the upgraded shipping since you don't have time to wait around for your books to come in.



About a week before classes, go back to the used bookstores in your hometown and look for your books again (they may have come in).



The last step is to go back to your college bookstore and buy anything you couldn't find.



No, finding cheap textbooks is NOT easy...it's a lot of work to scour around, but if you want to save money (not time) this is the way to go. But if you find that your bookstore doesn't mark up books very much, you may be better off just buying them there.



Good luck. This can be worthwhile to do, but don't underestimate the time involved in getting a good deal.Where to buy cheap college books?
it is better to buy them directly through some store rather than online.to save ur timin changing them if it is wrong.

No comments:

Post a Comment