by Julie Kliegman

Created on: June 14, 2010

One downside to a college education is paying hundreds of dollars for textbooks every semester.  Although convenient, bookstores on campus are often not the most affordable venues for purchasing required textbooks. 

Before deciding where to buy textbooks, it is important to consider what classes they are for and how valuable they may be in the future.  Reading reviews of the books on websites and talking to other students can be helpful for determining how important certain books will be not just during a specific semester, but also during the rest of the student’s college career and beyond.

If a student will not plan on opening required textbooks after the end of the semester, it can be very useful to rent textbooks from websites.  For a much smaller fee than purchasing books would incur, students can have books shipped to them.  Then, at the end of the semester, students can ship them back for free.  This way, students spend a fraction of the sticker price of textbooks and they need not be concerned with what to do with a pile of useless textbooks at the end of the school year.  This means they can also save money on summer storage or overweight luggage fees.

Some good websites for renting textbooks are Chegg, Campus Book Rentals and Book Renter, to name a few.  Be sure to look at the website’s policies on the rental’s number of days as well as what kind of shipping policy it has before making a decision.

For textbooks that are essential to keep on hand because they relate to the student’s major, other cheap options are available.  Instead of turning to the bookstore, students can look on websites like Amazon and eBay.  New and used textbooks are often available for much cheaper than they would be in a store.  When choosing this option, it is important to make sure that the seller of choice has a strong user rating on the website.

Another great way to buy textbooks for less money is to ask around in social networks.  Often times, friends, acquaintances and classmates have taken similar classes in the past.  Chances are, they have the textbooks lying around their dorm rooms.  An advantage of buying books from friends is that they are often willing to provide fellow students with a generous discount.  They are just looking to make some quick cash and rid themselves of unneeded books.

If none of these options work, a good fallback plan is to see if the campus bookstore sells used books.  Although they may have highlighted and torn pages, used textbooks are much cheaper than their new counterparts.  Then, at the end of the semester, try and sell the textbooks back to the bookstore to make some money back.  Alternatively, students can sell to a website.  It will likely not provide students with a large amount of money, but it is better than nothing.

The most important thing to remember when buying textbooks is not to immediately buy from a campus bookstore without researching other options.  Textbooks are available from many different places, many of which can help students save more of their money for other costly aspects of college life.

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