Where Can I Get College Books Cheap

Check Out Facebook Marketplace To Score Bargains

Long gone are the days when you had to know someone looking for the specific book you once paid full price for. Now students can post their books for sale on Facebook, so its a great way to source used books locally. You can also check Craigslist and eBay if you dont luck out on Facebook. Chances are, those college students will haggle to pay for some groceries.

Hip Tip: Write what you paid for on the inside of the book and youll know how to price it when it comes time for you to sell!

Find Previous Editions And International Editions

Textbooks get new, updated editions every so often and when that happens, its a good bet that your classes are going to require those new editions.

However, a lot of textbooks dont change much from edition to edition, especially for subjects that change slowly

So, for many classes, you can just buy the previous edition of your textbook and get by just fine. This is especially true if youre focusing your efforts correctly and arent shooting for absolutely perfect grades.

A few caveats to this strategy:

• You probably should get the latest edition of a textbook if its going to have problem sets that will be used as homework in your class. Math and science books are more likely to fall into this category.
• I recommend emailing your professor before the semester starts and asking if this is ok

Aside from previous editions, you can also look into international editions of your required textbooks.

During my first couple years of college, I used TextbookRush to find international editions of some of my required books. The main differences between these and the domestic editions:

• Theyre generally paperback
• Images might be in black-and-white
• Theyre often hella cheaper

If youre cool with flimsy covers and no color, buying an international edition can save you a good chunk of change.

Buy Or Rent Textbooks Online

Here are the most popular online stores to source college textbooks. Most of these sites allow you to buy new and used textbooks, and some of them even allow you to rent them for a semester.

• Amazon

The home of just about anything youll ever need is also the home of cheap textbooks.

And since youre a student, you can sign up for an Amazon Student account, which works similarly to Prime, yet much cheaper. With an Amazon Student account, youll get discounts not only on textbooks but also on all kinds of essential items for college life. All you need to register is your student email address.

• eBay

Just like Amazon, eBay has tons of textbooks, both new and used. Its often a great place to find used books directly from other college students who have already finished the semester. There are some great bargains to be had, especially on Auction style listings that sell to the highest bidder.

And of course, you can use eBay to sell your textbooks once youre finished with them too.

• Barnes & Noble

Barnes and Noble isnt always the cheapest option when buying new and used textbooks. Still, they do have a great selection, and its often the place to go when you cant find a particular book anywhere else.

• Chegg

Plus, when you receive your textbook and when you send it back, the shipping is free. Chegg will also buy textbooks purchased from other companies too, so its a good way to make a little extra money at the end of the semester on every college book you own.

• Textbooks.com

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The 11 Best Sites To Get College Textbooks Online

Don’t let college textbooks empty your pockets every semester. Use these websites to buy or rent cheap college books.

College textbooks can cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars per semester. For the average undergraduate college student, that could add up to approximately $5,000 just for textbooks. But as with many things, these days, there are great opportunities to save a lot of money online.

Not sure where to start? Here are the eleven best sites to buy college textbooks for less.

Options To Buy Sell And Rent Textbooks Online

You have plenty of options when it comes to places to buy, sell and rent your textbooks, but buying online is the easiest way to compare prices. Search by title, by author or with the codes that identify specific book editions, known as ISBNs. When buying online, factor in shipping, handling and taxes to the total cost. These sites are good places to start.

• AbeBooks.com users can save up to 90% on textbooks, many of which have free shipping. The site works with TextbookRush to buyback books for cash.

• Amazon users save up to 90% on textbooks and can access free two-day shipping with Prime Student. You can buy, sell or rent ebooks and textbooks and make returns within 30 days for a refund. You may get a new or used textbook, based on availability.

• BooksRun.com users can buy, sell or rent textbooks and ebooks. You can save up to 90% buying or renting ebooks, and shipping is free on all orders.

• CampusBooks.com is a marketplace for new and used textbook rentals from various online vendors, at up to 90% off. Compare book prices using its Buy vs. Rent feature. Users get free shipping for renting and returning.

• CheapestTextbooks.com users can get up to 95% off new and used textbooks and 70% off rental books. You can also sell books and ship for free.

• Chegg customers can save up to 90% on textbooks and ebooks. Buy or rent books with 21-day risk-free returns in case you drop or switch classes. You also get free shipping on orders over $35.

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How To Find The Cheapest Textbooks

Compare Before You Shop With Campusbooks

Make sure youre getting the absolute best deal on your textbook with CampusBooks.com. You can compare prices on new or used books from top brands such as Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Chegg, eCampus.com and save up to 90% off.

Also, try Slugbooks and BigWords. They are two textbook price comparison websites that come highly recommended by Hip2Save readers!

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Comparing The Best College Textbook Rental Sites For 2022

One of the best ways to reduce the cost of college is to save money on textbooks. And textbooks aren’t cheap. The College Board estimates that the average student will spend $1,200 per year on textbooks!

That’s not to mention the fact that prices on textbooks continue to rise. They have risen 889% over the last 30 years, outpacing inflation and even the rising cost of tuition.

So what’s a student to do? Rent your textbooks and save money.

The Internet has made it possible for students all over the country to rent textbooks at the start of the semester and return them the Monday after finals – all done with discounted prices in place. In this post, well review a few of the most popular textbook rental websites, as well as look at the pros and cons of renting textbooks.

** If you’re looking to buy your textbooks, check out our list of the best places to buy college textbooks online.

Ways To Get Free Or Discount Books For College

With these tips you’ll have a lot more money for pizza and energy drinks.

Alina Bradford

CNET Contributor

Alina Bradford has been writing how-tos, tech articles and more for almost two decades. She currently writes for CNET’s Smart Home Section, MTVNews’ tech section and for Live Science’s reference section. Follow her on Twitter.

One of the biggest expenses of college — other than tuition, of course — is textbooks and required reading books. You can lessen the blow by going digital, buying used or renting.

Here are 11 ways to get free or discounted textbooks:

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A Growing Trend For Students Who Want An E

College students want an easier way to get all the information they need in a hassle-free, readable format. At TextbookRush, we offer the perfect solution in the form of e-books for sale. Choose from our selection of more than 600,000 e-book textbooks and download them in the library, in your dorm room, at the coffee shop or just about any place where you want to study for your classes. The information in the e-book download is exactly the same as in the hardcover textbook. The only difference is that you are reading it in a digital format from a computer, tablet or smartphone screen.

Check out some of the advantages of obtaining your textbooks as e-books for sale:

• Save up to 60 percent when purchasing e-books
• Have the textbook available anywhere on or off campus
• Have the option to buy or rent the e-book
• Read the e-book online or offline

Use Waterstone’s And Blackwell’s Reward Schemes

This is a good tactic to use if you know you’ll keep coming back to the same bookshop, but make sure you’re aware of how much you’re actually saving and don’t let these schemes dictate where you shop.

It’s rare that a loyalty card will give you enough rewards to make up for a cheaper price elsewhere, so we’d suggest seeing loyalty points as a nice bonus instead.

Waterstones isn’t normally considered the cheapest option for books, but they do offer some bonuses that can make it more cost-effective.

With the Waterstones Plus Card, you’ll earn one ‘Plus stamp’ for every £10 you spend in-store or online, and every 10 stamps will add £10 to your Plus balance. Essentially, for every £100 you spend, you’ll get £10 off.

With a Waterstones Plus Student card, you’ll get an extra 5% off all purchases, as well as collecting the Plus stamps.

Blackwell’s discontinued their rewards scheme in 2016. However, they do have a Student Price Match Guarantee they say they’ll match the price of your textbooks if you find them cheaper at Waterstones, or WHSmith .

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Review Retailers For New Books

If your professor assigned a newly published book, buying used is probably not an option. But many retailers sell new books for much less than a campus bookstore.

Amazon and Barnes & Noble often carry textbooks with lower prices and sometimes offer coupons and promotional codes as well.

If you have to buy new, check out BigWords, Bookfinder.com, CheapestTextbooks.com or SlugBooks.com before you purchase. These sites compare prices from major online booksellers, so you can find the best deal available.

Return University Books To The Shop

Credit: HSSphoto -Liberra Shutterstock

Alright, so this sounds like a pretty cheeky thing to do and we guess it is, but needs must, right?

If you’ve bought a book and hardly cracked the spine, you can always take it back and ask for a refund if it’s in tip-top condition . Someone else will buy it if it’s in good condition, so don’t feel too guilty about it!

In fact, Blackwell’s even has a scheme for buying back your uni textbooks, and you could get 40% of the book price in-store credit or 33% in cash.

However, they’re quite strict about what they accept. Books must be in pristine condition and be the latest edition.

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Can You Rent Textbooks Online In Canada

Need new textbooks this semester? Looking at the price tags might make you a little queasy, since they usually cost anywhere from dozens to hundreds of dollars and that’s just for one book. If you’re taking a full course load , you can expect to shell out close to a month’s rent every year on new books. Macleans reports that the average Canadian student spends $773 a year on books, which is why many students are opting to buy used textbooks or simply rent their books for a semester.

Many campus bookstores give you the option to buy used textbooks , and many also have rental programs. Some also let you buy direct downloads of textbooks and other course materials which can save you TONS if you don’t mind reading from PDFs all year.

You can also rent or buy used textbooks through Bookmob.ca. Their slogan is literally “Canada’s Textbook Destination,” and you can search their database by title, author or ISBN to find the books you need. You can rent textbooks through Bookmob whenever you don’t need to keep a book after your course is done and you meet these other criteria. Just sign up for an account online, select the rental option and a return period as you shop for textbooks on their site. You can even highlight sections of the books and take notes in the margins. As long as your textbooks don’t sustain any serious water damage, broken spines or lost covers, you should be able to mail them back using the return label included in your account.

Quick Tips For Selling Used Books Online

In general, your used books need to be in good condition if you’re hoping to sell them online. That means they should have their original covers intact and not be missing any pages. It also helps if you haven’t written in the margins or highlighted any words, but some sites will still accept books with these markings.

Wondering how to sell used books online? There are few different sites that will let you do this, but we’ll take you through one with a fairly easy process: the AbeBooks Book Buyback program. They’ll buy new books, used books and textbooks. To get started, all you have to do is enter the ISBNs of the books you want to sell.

If you’re don’t know, an ISBN is the unique number assigned to a specific title and edition of a book. You can usually find it on the back cover of your book . You can enter up to 10 ISBNs into their search engine at once, but just note that AbeBooks doesn’t buy books without ISBNs.

Once you locate your book in their database, select the condition for every book you want to sell . Then, you can choose how you’d like to get paid and print your pre-paid tracking label. Box up your book using these packing guidelines and ship the parcel! You’ll get paid five to 10 business days after your shipment is processed.

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Try Searching On Craigslist

Craigslist is a great place for any of your secondhand shopping needs, so try hopping on to find your college textbooks for cheap. You may just find a past student wanting to offload their copies.

New & Used Textbook Faqs

• Is there a fee to use PayPal? No. There is no fee to use PayPal.
• Why are textbooks so expensive? The biggest reason for expensive textbooks is that new editions limit the sale of used textbooks. That’s why we have spent 20 years working with publishers to get you the best price possible, whether it’s a new edition, used textbook, or eTextbook.
• Where is the access code on a textbook? Access codes can usually be found on the first few pages of the textbook, or bound together with the book in a separate kit. Used books will not have access codes.
• When is the best time to buy textbooks? Textbook prices are the most economical during non-rush times. Try to order between February – July or October – November.
• What books are worth money as a buyback? There isn’t a rule on which books are worth the most. We suggest checking the price on any book you are finished with. You may be surprised how much cash you have laying around!

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You Can Even Rent An Etextbook For A Digital Textbook Life

Rent Textbooks

Start your search here and save up to 70% when you rent college textbooks.

Should I Rent Cheap Textbooks?

First and foremost, you can use the search bar above to rent cheap textbooks. College textbooks can be very expensive. Students can easily spend more than 900 dollars each and every semester when buying a textbook in the new condition. We all know that buying used is a very good alternative, but there are other alternatives out there. Over the past few years, merchants have been offering textbooks on a rental basis. What that means is that you can now pay a nominal fee to rent the textbook for a specific time frame. Typically, merchants offer textbook rentals in 3 time frames . At the end of each time frame, you simply print out a shipping label and send back the textbook rental without any shipping charges. If you want a simply easy way to rent cheap textbooks, then this option might be best for you.

Not quite sure if you want to rent or buy? When choosing to rent cheap textbooks instead of buying, you need to take a few things into consideration. Renting might seem like its the obvious choice because of the price, but when you look a little deeper, you might find that you will be better off buying the book and then selling it later.

Here are some things you should consider before you decide to rent cheap textbooks:

Do you like to get your textbooks well before class starts?

Do you really like convenience?

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