by Nathan Schmidtke

Created on: April 23, 2008   Last Updated: September 10, 2009

There are many advantages to purchasing books for college courses online versus purchasing them through the campus bookstore. You are getting the same text with the same information at a third of the price or better. The money that can be saved by a little research and only several minutes of precious time will really help during these tough financial times. The following is a list of steps needed to successfully buy and sell your books online saving hundred per semester or quarter:

Get a list of books required for the specific course and locate the books' ISBN number near the front of the textbook or on the list provided by the syllabus (normally given by the admissions or education department or by your instructor/professor)

Visit any online bookstore website such as Amazon, Barnes and Nobles or Half.com. In the search blank, enter the ISBN which is generally 10 or 13 digits long.

The exact title and edition will show up and select the used section where many individuals will have the text listed in order of price or condition (these categories are normally customizable). You can even contact the seller to ask of a more specific condition of the text ie. Amount of highlighting, bent corners, are the originally included accessories still intact and so on.

The chosen website will need you to setup an account, but you can normally do that process right before checking out your order or before you begin your search if desired. You will need to have a credit/debit card to make the purchases, but some are compatible with Paypal payments and only required to be entered once.

When the class is completed, you can use the same site to list your version and sell the book right back to someone else who needs it. Sometimes the entire process will only cost 10-20 dollars between the initial cost (including shipping) and the sellback (shipping is paid by the buyer) instead of spending $150 on a text and having your wonderful campus bookstore only offer you $35 to buy it back.

It is important to find a website that you are comfortable navigating, but I would suggest operating several sites to find the best prices for each text. The best advice is to find out what text the professor will be using as soon as possible to allow enough time for deliver. Steer away from auction sites where the bid can be lost within seconds of the end to avoid not getting the book in time for classes. With the money you can save over purchasing books new, you may be inclined to party excessively, so please do not drink and drive will all of the extra money you saved!

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