Category Archives: Textbook Buying
The Cost of Textbooks Are A Huge Obstacle For Poor Students. Here’s A Solution
When we think about the high cost of college, tuition is the first thing that comes to mind. But there’s a “not-so-hidden” cost that often gets a pass because it’s been rooted in college tradition. For years, this cost has been a burden to students, but we haven’t identified ways to cut it because it’s “the way things have always been.” I’m speaking of the cost of textbooks.
The best ways to save money on college textbooks
Back to school is right around the corner for all students including college kids and a major expense every semester is college textbooks.
So here are some options for you to save money on college textbooks.
Many professors forego the textbook and replace it with other materials.
If the books are required, you have options.
Check online with an Amazon Prime account. There, students can score better discounts.
If you buy your books on Amazon, you can trade your books back in when you are done with them for up to 80% of their value in an Amazon gift card.
Another popular money saving option is Chegg.com.
Finally, while “on campus” bookstores get a bad rap for being expensive you might still want to check with the store to see if they price match.
For example at University of Houston, the bookstore will price match some of Amazon’s prices.
You can also rent e-books.
However, consider an additional cost for the latest tablet.
Buy Books Cheaper, A New Bookstore Buying Service
For many people reading books is one of their great pleasures in life. Books can stimulate, educate and even transported far-off worlds. And when the book is completed your quest to choose its replacement can be exciting and fun. Now a new book buying service simplifies your book sourcing process by quickly and easily reporting your price, media and online bookstore options. Enter the book you are seeking and in seconds you have a list of bookstores offering your book as an e-book, used book, and new book with their pricing and shipping information. This new book buying service is offered on a website called Buy Books Cheaper.
“I came up with the idea when I was looking to download some e-books to my iPad and my Android phone to read on an upcoming flight”, reports Bob Jones, site creator. “Over 10 years ago while attending Cal in Berkeley California I created a textbook sourcing program to help me quickly and easily navigate through all sources of college textbooks and quickly find the cheapest. That site, cheap-textbooks.com, now helps thousands of student’s everyday locate and save hundreds of dollars on textbooks. I used this same technology to create this new site to reveal all the great information available for regular books.”
Buy Books Cheaper is designed to be easy to use. Simply enter the title, author, ISBN or keyword in the search box and click “Find”. The next page presents a list of all books matching your search criteria. Click the “Compare Prices” link next to the book you want and get a list of booksellers including: the media the book is offered on, the books’ price and the shipping costs. Click the booksellers logo to be taken to their site to review their offer make the purchase. There is no fee or increase in the cost of the book to use the service. The site provides a convenient way to see all your bookstore and purchase options. The site URL is http://www.buybookscheaper.com
Review Of Website For Buying Cheap Used College Textbooks
Cheap-Textbooks.com is mainly a textbook, price comparison website. The site itself doesn’t try to sell shoppers anything; what it does is list which cheap, college textbooks are available for sale from other websites. These websites tend to be the big name merchants in buying textbooks online and includes everything from Amazon, Chegg, Bigger Books and Powell’s.
Many of the textbooks listed from these merchant it’s have some kind of discount, sometimes as high as 95%.
Compare Cheap College Textbooks
The online textbook comparison engine will give an up to date listing of what websites are selling the book that you are looking for. Students stand a good chance of finding nearly any textbook considering the engine is linked to 50 different textbook sellers.
Searchers are given the option to hunt down books by ISBN number, author and book title. The search itself is pretty fast and the results are there in a few moments.
Cheap-Textbooks lists their current, favorite booksellers and seems to encourage shoppers to check them out.
Textbook Coupons
Students looking for the most current discounts and coupons can go to the coupon section. This is a list that is updated daily and shows the online stores and their current discounts.
The information provided includes the amount of the discount, the coupon code and when it expires.
Free Books for College
Due to the large increase of websites offering free eBooks (books in digital format), they have made a section listing what sites are offering these free eBooks and their general information. When looking at the descriptions of the websites you can see there are many different types of free digital books. It seems up to the searcher as to what they will find useful for their current curriculum.
Sell Your Used Textbooks books
A handy feature that Cheap-Textbooks has is the online comparison tool that will show you where to sell your used textbooks and at what price.
While students will never get full value for their used college books, at least they can get something to ease their financial burden. Selling your used books can save you the hassle of hauling around something that you will probably never use again.
Textbooks Sellers List
An aid to students or graduates wanting to pass on those used textbooks is the Textbook Sellers Master List. The list has different features such as what stores sell, buy or rent textbooks and their shipping terms.
Student Essentials
Towards the bottom on the right at the home page is a section named Student Essentials. This gives links to the already discussed areas of the website and more. These include a live coupon search engine for products such as food items or even clothing. The search goes by zip code. There is also an area providing students with tips on finding a good deal on school books.
When looking over the whole website at Cheap-Textbooks, you will find cheap college textbooks and a large amount of useful information presented for a student. They also have mobile apps available in Apple or Android format so students can search for cheap textbooks anytime on their phones, ipads or tablets. Student can visit Cheap-Textbooks.com to start searching for the best prices and discounts in college text books.
Students use varying methods to combat rising textbook prices
“I bought my nutrition book directly off the McGraw (publishers) website,” Malen said. “I want to say the book cost me about $80 and the bookstore price was over $100.”
Since 2002, the price of college textbooks has increased 82 percent, according to a 2013 report on college textbook costs issued by the Government Accountability Office. In response, the outcome has been weighing heavily on students’ wallets for more than a decade.
To purchase her books at lower rates, Malen, a Sterling Heights senior, looks at less expensive options. With the kind of savings offered by online sellers, those options are well worth the extra effort.
Malen uses Amazon.com or, if they have what she’s looking for, checks the Student Book Exchange, located at 209 E. Bellows, to find her textbooks.
However, after looking elsewhere for cheaper prices, Malen can’t get away from the high cost of books. So far she has paid $200 for rented textbooks for her four classes this semester.
For students like Joe Julet, a Berkley senior, going online and getting a cheaper price isn’t enough to save a buck.
Julet writes down the bookstore’s prices for materials he needs before comparing them with sites such as Chegg.com, Amazon.com or Textbookrentals.com.
“I find I save at least 50 percent on what I would be paying at the bookstore,” he said. “My science book for this semester was $200 and you could rent it from Amazon starting at $45.”
When the semester ends, he uses a site called Valorebooks.com to sell back his books. He’s waiting for at least one check, worth $25, while having received another for $30 after selling back books he used last semester.
Buy Cheap Used College Textbooks 