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What would you do with a crisp pile of one thousand dollar bills, or a shiny heap of one thousand toonies?

You don't have to hold up a bank, either.

If you're taking a four-year degree, these kinds of savings are easily attainable - $250 each year is an easy amount to save if you follow these tips.

-Check editions-
Talk to the professor, or compare library copies of the newest edition and the one before it. If there are no significant changes, you might be able to get by with the last edition, or even one before that. If there are changes, perhaps you could borrow a friend's textbook for long enough to take note of the changed page numbers. Some professors are willing to work with students and give out page numbers for more than one edition. It never hurts to ask.

-Borrow, beg but don't steal-
Talk to a friend or acquaintance who's taking the same class. You two might be able to share a textbook, or he might be willing to loan you the book for a night or two here and there. If you're only using the book once or twice, check it out from the library. There are even textbook rental services these days, though you might find this route hard if you're an international student.

-Buying used textbooks-
If you really have to buy the textbook (for math classes, for instance), you don't have to pay that exorbitant price from the campus bookstore. Make a list of books, including their ISBN's, titles, and the edition you need, and look online to save a lot of money.

When you're buying cheap used textbooks, watch out for indicators of quality. Most reputable sites have a system that goes something like: "Perfect, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor". Buyer beware the lower end of this scale, as you might end up with more highlighting and scribbling than you wanted (though in some cases, this can be a great thing for helping you decipher the important stuff!).

-Places to buy-
Local bookstores might have the books, but generally you can get a better selection at better prices if you shop online. You don't even have to have a credit card, some sites accept Paypal!

1. Major Retailers
Amazon, Chapters-Indigo, Half.com and eBay are four well-known book retailers that also sell textbooks. The only drawback is that they sometimes mark up their books because they can get away with it, whereas smaller resellers are more likely to have fair prices in some cases.

2. Book Resellers
Check out some sites that specialize in buying and reselling used textbooks. Try ValoreBooks (US only), Alibris (worldwide), or BuyUsedTextbooks (worldwide).

3. Students Reselling
PlanetStudents (Canada and US), TextbookExchange (Canada only), and LollygaggerU (Canada only) are great sites to check out. To find more, just search on Google for "used student textbooks", plus your country if you're international.

-Reselling Textbooks-
You can also resell your textbooks for a good portion of what you paid (as long as they're in decent condition; no chunks of pages missing or pages with questionable stains!). Most students head to the campus bookstore at the same time of year to resell, but this isn't a smart idea. The bookstore is getting tons of copies all at once, and they tend to pay as little as 10% of your purchase price. Why settle for that when you can resell them yourself for more?

For example, look here: collegetextbookbuyers (US only). These people are unique because they will pay you by check or Paypal, and they even pay for the shipping. Print out the packing slip and prepaid shipping label and bring them to any US post office, and as soon as they receive and sort out the books, you get paid.

You can also check out sites like the ones above under "3. Students Reselling". Help another starving college student next year and keep more money for yourself, too.

Now, put your knowledge to work and enjoy the extra thousand dollars!

Learn more about this author, Zabrina Way.
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