Saving money on textbooks

[aro]

Hi all,

I'm preparing for Grad school at NYU this fall. Do any of you have any tips on saving money when buying textbooks? Any excellent online sites? Do you have some amazing inside tip I'm not aware of?

Anything is helpful. Thank you!

[frankdux]

i've noticed that some of my hardcover textbooks are available as international paperback editions (not to be sold in the US) that are actually available for purchase on amazon somehow. and the price difference is over $100! just make sure it is word-for-word identical though.

[kh1264]

I too buy paperback International Versions online, usually through Ebay or Amazon. They are significantly cheaper. I also like to use a price comparison site like allbookstores.com. Just type in the name or ISBN number and they will compare the prices over a range of online booksellers, from Ebay to Half.com to Amazon to A1Books and everything in-between. Wonderfully helpful site. By buying books online, sometimes even back editions, I have saved hundreds of dollars compared to classmates who feel they can't bother buying online. It really can save quite a bit of money, especially if you know you can use an older edition or if you know the prof won't really utilize the book that much.

[thepoorstockinger]

biblio.com

It's a network of thousands of independent used bookstores. I regularly find academic books for $1 plus shipping on there.

[kahlan_amnell]

I mostly buy textbooks on amazon.com, and find their prices lower than the bookstore. If you need them delivered fast, joining amazon prime can be worth it, though there is a yearly membership fee. There are also sellers of used books on amazon, but I don't like the shipping fees, those add up fast.

[rising_star]

bigwords.com searches for new and used books on all the major sites. addall is also a useful site (assuming I spelled that right).

[dherres]

I find abebooks.com to be very helpful as well. They typically have the international/paperback/etc. editions available, which I've never had a problem with in terms of content when compared to US editions. I did run into difficulty once when it didn't come with the accompanying CD that the texts in my school's bookstore had, but it turned out not to be a problem in the end.....

[TKassis]

The cheapest textbooks I can usually find are on half.com (an eBay company). You can get very good condition books for really cheap prices, compared to new that is.

Another option might be to rent your textbooks. Companies like Chegg.com are becoming very famous. I did some calculations though and noticed that book rental companies are not really that great. For the price of renting the book for one semester you can actually buy one that is in good condition and then sell it again. Until book rental companies reduce their rent I don't think they are cost effective. One advantage thought is that they save you the trouble of hunting for a book and they are always cheaper than buying your textbooks new. Another thing, they don't guarantee that any supplemental material will be with the book, such as CD's, access codes, software... which might be a problem for some courses.

Best way is to use Amazon, eBay and Half.com to compare prices and then just order a book from one of these. Getting the cheap International editions (which are printed for poor third world countries) is also an option, but the books are not that good. They are black and white. If you are doing a science/engineering degree you will be missing out on a lot of useful colored illustrations.

[abcd_grad]

I normally prefer using the Book Depository http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/. They have free worldwide delivery, which is great for me when considering that deliveries to my country are usually costly. However, that might not be relevant to you since you'll be in the states but if you have some time, I'd suggest you check it out.