College Text Books

Updated on January 04, 2013
E.G. asks from New Smyrna Beach, FL
18 answers

Where can I go to buy text books for college? I tried half.com and they didn't have anything, and Stetson doesn't carry the ones I need. Any other suggestions?

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R.M.

answers from San Francisco on

Amazon.com. There is also AbeBooks and I think there's one called Textbooks.com, but I usually use Amazon.

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D..

answers from Miami on

Take a look at this:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26161407/ns/today-back_to_s...

http://www.cheapesttextbooks.com/

The Rip-Off: Textbooks cost the average American college student about $900 per year. New editions often come out every three years and tend to run 45% more than used copies of previous editions. Between 1995 and 2004 textbook prices rose at more than four times the rate of inflation, according to Nicole Allen, a director at Student Public Interest Research Group, a student advocacy group. "Students are a captive audience, since professors decide what books they need to buy," says Allen.

How to Avoid It: Sites like ecampus.com and alibris.com offer better deals than campus bookstores. Then there's chegg.com, a textbook rental site with an approach similar to that of Netflix.

Rental Sites to Check Out

· www.Chegg.com – Chegg is one of the most popular rental sites among college students, offering a nifty rewards program where points equal coupons and discounts.

· www.BookRenter.com – This online store does charge late fees, but they also donate books to disadvantaged kids. Seems like a fair trade off.

· www.CampusBookRentals.com – Growing in popularity, CampusBookRentals boasts a 30-day guarantee on all textbook rentals so you’re never stuck paying a rental fee for a useless textbook

You can tell that I copied and pasted these from different places, E.. We haven't used all of these, but hopefully they'll help you.

Dawn

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M.F.

answers from Phoenix on

Try Amazon. They also have a great buyback program, complete with pre-paid shipping.

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B..

answers from Dallas on

Try www.abebooks.com

We have ordered dozens and dozens of books through them, and I know they carry textbooks. The easiest way to search, is by ISBN #...if you have it. Good luck!

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L.K.

answers from Kansas City on

My daughter actually goes to a private HS where we have to buy our own books, so I've checked out many sites.

I usually make a spread sheet and compare several sites. Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Half Price Books, Chegg, Textbooksrus.com, bookrenter.com are a few.

Sometimes, you can rent them A LOT cheaper then just return them at the end of the semester. Most of those sites will buy back books as well, but again, prices vary so take the time to compare. Oh, and I ONLY use sites who provide free shipping when returning books.

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P.G.

answers from Dallas on

Sometimes if you type the ISBN number for your textbook into google, it will bring up sites that are selling it.

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J.W.

answers from St. Louis on

I always got mine through Amazon. I can't remember what site my daughter also went to and then there are book rentals.

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S.E.

answers from Philadelphia on

Dawn's answer is best with one note of caution: Don't rent texts for your major. Buy used and keep them.

If you can, avoid Barnes and Noble like the plague; the worst thing that ever happened to college bookstores was when they were privatized.

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M.D.

answers from Washington DC on

Mine all came from the college bookstore or Chegg.

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☆.H.

answers from San Francisco on

Last semester two of the books I needed were custom editions for the school and it was the first year they were being used so I had to buy them at the campus book store. :(
Check if that's the case.

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L.M.

answers from Dover on

Barnes & Knobles, Amazon, your school's bookstore.

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A.T.

answers from New York on

your college book store. Barnes and Noble, they have a college text book store in NY, give FL a try.

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M.B.

answers from Austin on

The best thing to do is to enter the ISBN number into your google search, and lots of options will come up.......

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T.F.

answers from Tampa on

betterworldbooks.com , bookbyte.com , bookfinder.com , cheapestextbooks.com , ecampus.com , textbooks.com , as well as amazon, barnes and noble & booksamillion all have textbooks. If you buy from some of these sights when you sell them back go back to the site you bought it from & you will get a better price as well as better prices for the next time you buy from that site.

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A.V.

answers from Washington DC on

The college bookstore.

If Amazon or Barns and Nobels doesn't have them, you can also look into renting them. My SS rented his through Chegg.com.

I do agree to buy the ones for your major, as future reference. Buy used when possible, but new can still be an investment. Many people keep such references in their offices later.

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L.M.

answers from New York on

You may want to check out www.paperbookswap.com. I've also heard Amazon is a good place to look.

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