Best Place to Buy Cheap Books?

[bucketsofrain]

Hi, everyone. I'm going to be starting a PhD program in the fall and I was told by my (probable) future advisor that I should be doing a lot of reading this summer to prepare. For various reasons (no access to library this summer, these books will probably be staples for me, etc.), I'd like to buy a lot of the books he suggested. Does anyone have any suggestions on the cheapest places to find books? There's always used books from Amazon and sometimes I use Thriftbooks, but they don't have the books I need. All the local bookstores I've checked out are way more expensive. Due to all the costs I'm going to incur this summer from moving and furnishing a new place, any savings I can get on books will be most welcome! Thanks!

[Gneiss1]

I was going to suggest Amazon but you mentioned they dont have them. If they have kindle versions that would be another way to save some money. Also if you have a good local bookstore (especially a mom and pop type one, not barnes and nobles) sometimes they can get books at discount prices and shop around for you.

[robot_hamster]

Have you made contact with any current students? Sometimes they are willing to sell the books they don't need anymore. They can sell them to you for a good price and it would still be more than they would get selling them to the bookstore.

[SgtExposition]

If you're buying books online, I'd suggest using BookFinder to do cross-site price comparison.

[mandarin.orange]

When you say no access to library, do you mean on your new campus? I actually got in touch with the research librarian at my institution-to-be over the summer (like 2 months before orientation and classes officially started), and they set me up with a proxy server that I could use to start accessing all of the online journals remotely.

[bucketsofrain]

Sorry, let me clear up a few points:

Amazon does have the books I need, but Thriftbooks doesn't. Sorry I was unclear there. Amazon is still a little pricey given how many books I need.

The proxy server is a good idea. I'll just be home in a rural town for about two months before I move to my new campus and there isn't much access to the books I'll need there.

Thanks for the tips!

[MaxiJaz]

If you find out your reading list early, I recommend Abebooks. A lot of the cheaper books are from international distributors but that doesn't necessarily correlate with higher shipping costs. There's a large price distribution for books, so you have a lot of options. I've used it for the last 5 years and haven't had any problems.

[mirandaw]

I second abebooks. I worked in a rare book collection during undergrad and we sourced a lot of our resource material from abebooks.

[ANDS!]

Public domain?

I know nothing about "The Classics". . .classic books? If so, just grab them off the internet.

If we're talking textbooks, Amazon, Abebooks, Alibirs, etc. are good resources for used material. Inquire if previous editions (if there are multiple) are fine.

[euthuphron]

I've had good experiences with bookdepository. Shipping is free worldwide, but there's no tracking unless you pay extra (I've ordered about 10+ times, all without tracking, without any hassle). They're based in Britain so books take longer to arrive. To Canada, about 1.5 to 2 weeks. If you purchase ahead and don't mind waiting I'd give them a try. Also, when looking through Amazon, they often list other sellers with varying conditions of the book. Sometimes you'll get lucky and get a book in near-perfect condition for a fraction of the original price. Check seller reviews though. For Abebooks, great for rarities, but you have to check the shipping costs. I found that it's not economical for me, as the shipping to Canada is often too high.

It's also good to search for books online. I search on filestube (although with Megaupload's downfall this option's not so great anymore), torrent sites (sometimes you'll find big collections with the book you're looking for) and Scribd (which is not so good anymore either; you have to upload a document to download one). These are good methods too for finding those wonderfully expensive textbooks, for which publishers can suck it.

[surefire]

I second abebooks. I worked in a rare book collection during undergrad and we sourced a lot of our resource material from abebooks.

Whoa! I worked in rare books myself (still go in for the odd stint from time to time)! Abebooks is defintely a go-to for taking the "pulse" of a book's availability/worth; though, as with most things on the internet, it's as helpful as the people that utilize it (so, every so often, a bot will price a fairly pedestrian book at several hundred dollars because it happens to be the only one available at the time). Regardless, it's a good resource!

Because it hasn't been mentioned yet, I'd like to plug Biblio: http://www.biblio.com/

While I'm most familiar with Abebooks and Alibris and Amazon, Biblio has a special place in my heart because they don't suck the booksellers dry on commission (and they have special sections for rare books/text books to help you find some of the more elusive material).

What a nice list! Good thread!

[CarlieE]

I've used most the sites listed above, but also half.com which is run by ebay. I've never sold books so I don't know how they are on that end, but as a buyer I've had good experiences with half.com

Also, sometimes you can find ones you need on betterworldbooks.com.

[Tall Chai Latte]

Half.com may also be another option. Although I've never bought any textbooks from them, but someone might be selling the books you need on there. They are at a good deal too.

[captiv8ed]

Bigwords.com checks lots of different sites including half.com, amazon, abebooks, textbooks.com, and several others. They figure in shipping and give you the best combined price.

I use a combination of purchased books, rented books, and library books to bring the cost down.

[mirandaw]

Half.com may also be another option. Although I've never bought any textbooks from them, but someone might be selling the books you need on there. They are at a good deal too.

I can't believe I forgot about half.com. I bought the majority of my undergrad books there.

[Spytgale1]

Try EBay. Worked for alot of the books I needed.

[singh4sandy]

Hey thanks for the nice post. I also want to share my experence. Recently I bought sets of different books from shopbychoice.com

They really give good discount and free shipping for books. I have a great experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[phonology_rocks]

I don't know if you find excatly what you are looking for here....www.textbooks.com has served me well interms of finding cheap textbooks so far

[educdoc]

I've been using for many years dealoz.com. It's a search website for books and it will find you the cheapest books available on the market online. Even books for rent.

http://www.dealoz.com

[juilletmercredi]

Haha, people have already named all of my sources for cheap books from undergrad (Abebooks, Alibiris, Half.com, eBay).

 

You could also try Barnes & Noble. I know, but sometimes they have surprised me by having a book cheaper than Amazon. They also have a marketplace like Amazon does where you can buy used books from sellers, and sometimes someone has a used book you need pretty cheaply.

[BeatrizBear]

http://belltowerbooks.com/

 

BellTowerBooks is great. Shipping is a dollar per book and sometimes you can find books as cheap as a penny. Typically you find more of the popular books, though.

[willi]

bestrateclub.com  is a pretty nice place even though I think it's tied to amazon. I got a few decent deals there. This post is pretty old though I hope someone is still reading this.

Edited November 3, 2015 by willi