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The Cheapest Textbooks – How to Find Them

July 25th, 2009 | Posted in College Savings

books It’s that time of year again, the beginning of the school year. For college students, or most likely their parents, finding the cheapest textbooks is a pressing concern. Everyone knows how expensive they are. I don’t think it needs to be stated that college bookstores are definitely the last place to shop, even their used book prices are enormously inflated. The best way to find discounted textbooks is by spending a little time doing some comparison shopping. This has never been easier than in recent years with so many textbook websites popping up.

So, I’ve compiled a list of what I think are some of the best places to find the cheapest textbooks. The best thing to do is get the list of books needed for your classes and do some comparisons across many websites. However, you should make sure that the books you find are the same edition as those specified by your professors. Textbooks are published in new editions fairly frequently, often with the same cover art, so they might look exactly the same online. Searching by ISBN is the quickest and most accurate way to ensure that you find the correct book and edition. Also, it goes without saying that buying used textbooks is definitely the cheapest option. Sometimes this isn’t possible however, such as when a new edition of a book has just been published and the professor requires it over previous editions.

My recommendations for finding the cheapest textbooks

Better World Books – They have deeply discounted used textbook prices and with every purchase the company donates a small portion to fund literacy projects around the world. Better World Books also has a buyback and book donation program so that you can dispense with your used textbooks responsibly after you’re done with them.

Textbookx – Another site with great prices. Their marketplace function searches through various bookstores nationwide and returns some of the cheapest prices I’ve seen on used textbooks. They also have a referral program that pays you a buck per book for every customer you send to them.

Bookbyte – Competitive prices, fast same-day shipping policy, and a “no-questions asked” 14 day return policy. They also have a buyback program that includes a free tin of mocha mints.

A1 Books – Huge selection of books with discounted prices. They have a special college corner that allows you to choose your college and browse through the list of textbooks they have available for that school’s classes. As far as I can tell they only deal in new textbooks.

eCampus – Along with a host of other college oriented items eCampus offers great prices on new and used textbooks. They also provide a marketplace to sell your used textbooks.

Amazon – Enough said. Probably the biggest selection on the planet with the lowest prices.

Ebay – As with Amazon, enough said.

Alibris – Another well known resource for cheap textbooks. If you’re having trouble finding a particular textbook or edition, you’ll most likely be able to find it here.

Barnes & Noble – Yes, they sell new and used textbooks too. They also buy used textbooks.

Alternative options for saving money on textbooks

library Have you ever considered renting college textbooks? If you don’t plan on keeping the books after your class this might be the most affordable option.

Chegg – The premier site to rent college textbooks online. Don’t worry, all the books they rent are in good or like new condition. You can choose from 3 different rental time lengths, choose to extend a rental period, and even opt to purchase the book during the rental period if you like. They have a handy little function on their site that shows you the amount of money you save by renting the textbook instead of buying it. Chegg also buys used textbooks and goes the extra step to help the environment by planting a tree for every book you rent, buy, or sell from them.

Another alternative for saving money on textbooks would be to download them digitally.

iChapters – In addition to offering textbooks for sale iChapters offers digital eTextbooks and eChapters. eTextbooks allow you to view the textbooks online or download and print them while eChapters allow you to purchase single chapters of a texbook individually. As you might expect, digital textbooks provide the cheapest textbook option available because it costs virtually nothing to produce multiple copies of digital media. However, all of their textbooks aren’t yet available in digital format. It looks as if they are still in the process of adding them. It’s definitely worth a check though, one of the books you need just might be available.

Wherever you choose to buy your textbooks, don’t get them at a college bookstore. Spend just a little extra time searching online and you’ll be able to find much cheaper prices.

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