Buying textbooks can be quite the daunting task for college students of any level, from freshman to last year graduate student. They always put a drain on your money when starting the semester, without promise of actually getting use out of the book! Many college book stores no longer offer a rental program. In addition, most college bookstores only carry a limited number of used books, and offer a paltry amount on book buybacks.

You can save a lot of money if you buy used textbooks online for the semester, as long as you know where to go, and provided that you know well enough in advance what books you need. I have provided a list of websites and descriptions below where you can find cheaper than college bookstore copies.

Book price comparison

If you are intent on actually buying your book, the first place I would recommend to try is a book price comparison site. These sites search through dozens, if not more, online bookstores and return to you a list of the lowest prices available. This is much quicker and faster than going to each site individually. The downside is that sometimes the data provided to these sites is not up to date, and you may have to do a little manual tracking. Overall the best option for starting a search though. Below I have listed a suggestion based on past experience.  Of course we are biased to our very own BookSpy.net, but there are many others however, just do a google search. We try to stay ahead of the game however, and will respond promptly and quickly to any suggestions you may have to improve the search service.

BookSpy.Net Your Text Book Price Comparsion Engine Search by ISBN, title, author, or other keywords. Nice, easy to use book search site. Can rate and recommend books, see previous customer reviews, details about the book, and more.

Major bookstores

The other option in buying your books is to visit all of the major online booksellers themselves. Most online book retailers have a marketplace section where third party sellers can sell used and new copies of the book you are looking for, often significantly cheaper than retail value, probably saving upwards of 80% in some cases. Keep in mind however that most book price comparison sites search through the marketplace sellers a s well! The major online booksellers are:

Amazon.com The most well known place to buy used and new books. Often very cheap, but not always the cheapest, especially on textbooks. A good starting place though.

Half.com Half.com Is quickly gaining ground on Amazon as far as number of books offered. Similar pricing to Amazon, may be able to find cheaper textbooks.

Alibris.com Another fairly large site with a high number of marketplace sellers. A lot of sellers here opt in to what is known as automatic re-pricing of their inventory. What this means is that every so often, prices will be adjusted to match the new low prices in the marketplace. Can often find good deals here.

Barnesandnobles.com I have found Barnes and Nobles marketplace sellers to be a little more pricey than others, although I have found pretty good deals via a book price comparison site a few times.

Biblio.com I do not have any purchasing experience with Biblio, but have heard good things. I have seen them pop up as the low price on book price comparison sites a few times.

Ebay.com Ebay can be tricky. Sometimes you get great deals, other times people overpay for a book. There are two formats that you can buy books via Ebay. The first is fixed price auctions, which works somewhat like Half.com. The seller lists a price for the book and a seller determined shipping charge. Often fixed priced auctions are pricey. The other option is buying on auction. The listing is active for 3, 5 or 7 days, and people are allowed to bid. Not really recommended for college students however, unless you know well in advance what book you need, since you have to wait for the auction to end, and there is no guarantee you will not be outbid at the last minute.

Book rental sites

Yet another option is renting your books online. I do not have much experience in this area so cannot make an accurate recommendation. Some sites that do offer rental programs are:

Chegg.com

Bookrenter.com

Campusbookrentals.com

Book trades

If you are feeling a little more risky, you may be able to get your book for the cost of shipping, or even free, from book trading sites. How this works is you post books that you would like to trade in exchange for a book you want. This is probably not ideal for most students, as the book you seek may not even be available. You would have to know well in advance what books you need to start looking for them. Some examples of these sites are:

Paperbackswap.com

Swaptree.com

Libraries

Finally, the ultimate FREE source for books, your library! You can search for a book at all the libraries near you at WorldCat.org. If there are no local copies of your book, most schools offer an interlibrary loan program and can most likely get you the book within a week. In addition, most schools also keep a few copies of the required books for classes, but they may get checked out early. If you can get a copy however, simply make photocopies of the relevant parts of the book, and you are on your way! This is even cheaper if you have access to a departmental copier at no cost.

Important Tips and Notes

Remember, when buying books from third party sellers, give ample time for shipping and any problems that may arise. Books are mostly shipped via media mail which can take up to two weeks to arrive, so plan accordingly. If you are on top of buying your books at a price that you are more comfortable with, you WILL be rewarded with more cash this semester. Buying books online is always cheaper than buying at your bookstore. Best of luck finding your books!

Textbook prices are out of control – however, there are plenty of places online to buy textbooks on the cheap.  Below is a list of places to buy cheap textbooks that have proven useful:

1. BookSpy.net – BookSpy is a book price comparison site.  What this means is that you search by title, author, or ISBN, and get back a list of the lowest prices from dozens of online retailers.  This includes both used and new books.  I would recommend a price comparison site as one of the first places you go if you need to actually buy the book.
2. Amazon, Half.com, Alibris, eCampus
   – These are the major players in places to buy cheap books.  They are searched by BookSpy, but in the event that the website is down, these are the first places I would recommend.
3. Craigslist – Try your local craigslist, a lot of college students sell textbooks via this method.  Moderately reliable, you just have to keep searching every day.
4. PaperBackSwap – Not as reliable, but I did get one schoolbook this way.  Basically you put up copies of your books you don’t want, and you can swap for a book someone else has.  Not very reliable.
5. Your LIBRARY! – Yes, your library.  Most school libraries have stocks of books that are needed for your class, you just need to reserve the copy early.  You can then copy the book.  This is by far the cheapest method.  If you cannot get your book at your library, try WorldCat.org.  It searches all the libraries near you to see if the book is available.  Finally, you could utilize your libraries interlibrary loan system, and request a book be sent.  Most of the time this service is also free.