This semester my profesors decided to use all new editions and i cant aford to spend that much on just books! so is there anyway i can save money on them on buying them online? or where can i find online books to read for free. Im afraid to buy from amazon becuse what if i dont buy the right edition because you cannot ask the seller a quesiton..?
Check the bulletin boards at school… many people sell used textbooks. Some college book stores do too.
The best place is the library. You may be able to borrow older edition textbooks for free, just renew them when the time comes. You may need to go to other local college libraries as well.
Next option is either purchase used books on campus or purchase new or used books online. Such popular websites are half.com or amazon.
I use www.chegg.com to get my college text books. Books run about $40 for a semester and once your semester is done they have prepaid postage and you mail it back to them. Your basically renting your book and it'll save you tons of money. The best way to check to see if you have the right book is using the ISBN number on the back.
Try like amazon and ebay for used book, usually you will find it a lot cheaper than your school bookstore, but double check if is the right serial number and edition, also prepare advance, it might shipped late. Also sell all the book you no longer need as fast as the class finish. The longer you hold you book, the value will go down siince less people will wanted due to older edition and we know greedy book publish keep try to make new edition will little edit.
I have no clue if this will work, but if you know anyone in your classes try and share the cost of a book and start a study group. Hopefully everyone is mature enough to understand being frugal and work together. good luck. If they weren't new editions I'd suggest ebay half for text books, maybe you can save money by getting some of your other books there.
You can share the expenses with another person in the same position and divide the time equally. Then make copies of important or difficult sections.
With amazon as long as you've searched the right edition you should receive the right edition. Otherwise they've violated the seller's agreement and should get your full money back.
I buy and sell on amazon marketplace.
I also check half.com for better prices, though their customer service guidelines are not as strict as amazon marketplace.
One other thing you can do is email your professors to ask if getting the old edition is okay. Some new editions improve the text by very little. Also the use of new editions if often decided by the department and not the individual teacher, so the teacher may be comfortable with you using the old edition.
You can try swaptree.com I have seen a few textbooks on there. You can also try cheapesttextbooks,com, swapbooks.com
What I used to do is go to class w/o the books and feel out which book(s) I was REALLY going to need. I had a couple of classes where the teacher never included the book. I had a couple of classes where they were reference books and the author didn't matter. (ie, in computer classes you can get reference books from anyone, maybe even a free download.).
The jacked-up, over-inflated cost of colleges books is criminal.
Half.com is a wonderful place to get textbooks. However, these days, at least for me, Amazon has been much cheaper. Don't be afraid to buy books from Amazon. If you have the right ISBN number, you should get the right book. Also, a good thing to do is to sell your books after you use them. I sell almost all of the textbooks that I use if I am sure I won't need them again on half.com.
I used Bigwords.com for the first time ever this semester and I will have to say it was easy and painless and i saved about $300 on 4 textbooks! I was soo stoked!! The reason I think they're the best is that they compare many items at once, and calculate the best combination of stores to buy at, including coupons and shipping. They also let you include or exclude international editions, and they let you choose the ship time and then calculate the lowest price using the right shipping type at every store. Pretty neat! http://www.bigwords.com/
How can you save money on college textbooks?
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