<p>My school's bookstore says they offer competitive prices and they do, when it comes to <em>buying</em> books. I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars each semester, especially to a school that won't even tell me what books I need for each class until a few weeks before they start, and even then won't give the ISBN's.</p>
<p>So after scouring the internet I've come across book torrents, which would be absolutely perfect except that the selection is limited (and I can imagine why, having to scan every page). But I also found chegg, which lets you rent books for a quarter/semester and the prices are real cheap. All I want here is to start a discussion, hopefully those with experience in these alternate methods could lend some advice. I will probably go with Chegg.</p>
<p>My friend used Amazon. She liked it a lot, and got a majority of her money back when reselling.</p>
<p>The worst part about buying books at an on-campus bookstore is that when you sell them back, you only get about 15% back of what you paid for, and in a few cases, they won't buy back the book at all. My psych book, computer information systems book, and two accounting books could not be bought back by the campus bookstore because they were getting new editions to sell the next year. This left me with over 300 dollars worth of useless textbooks (from one year!), and there's still more to come.</p>
<p>I don't know about renting textbooks. Something I realized is that I like to keep a couple of my textbooks, especially ones I may cite or use in future classes.</p>
<p>I shopped around at a few different sites. I needed 16 books, and ended up getting some from Chegg, some from Amazon sellers, and some from Half.com sellers (and none from the con artists known as my school bookstore, ugh).</p>
<p>Chegg was generally awesome and cheap, but I did notice a couple of downsides:
-If you're taking a full-year course or sequence, the price of the rental nearly doubles (if you extend it another semester). When renting for only a semester, Chegg is the way to go, but you can probably just buy a book for less than what Chegg would charge for a full-year rental.
-If you need any smaller paperback books, you can probably buy them used for cheaper than the minimum Chegg rental cost, which is $6.50.</p>
<p>Of course, you can choose to purchase some textbooks from Chegg (though some are only available for rental, not purchase), as well as rent, and that takes away both disadvantages. It's good to shop around and compare prices if you do this, though.</p>
<p>I also looked at the cost of buying used textbooks from sellers on both Half.com and Amazon. In general, Half.com was just a bit cheaper than Amazon, and the shipping costs were equal. However, I've never purchased anything from Half.com before now, while all the sellers I've gone through on Amazon have been reliable and shipped quickly.</p>
<p>Of course, I ended up paying through the nose for shipping from three different sites and numerous sellers, but it beats the hell out of forking over $600 to my university's bookstore.</p>
<p>Salamander, up until a couple weeks ago, I'd never bought anything from Half.com either. For a year-long class I'm taking, I need ~23 books. I found one used bookseller on Half.com (betterworldbooks) with most of the books I needed (surprisingly), so I bought 15 of them. They arrived at the earliest anticipated date in the described conditions, and the seller sent me automated updates. It was very, very convenient, and I saved on 50% of the retail value of those books.</p>
<p>Also, I think many of the major sellers on Half.com are also sellers on Amazon.</p>
<p>Shipping is one of the thornier issues when buying from used booksellers. If you're buying many books (like me), getting them online from Half.com or Amazon.com may not be worth it unless you happen to find many of your books available from the same seller. Otherwise S+H becomes very expensive. </p>
<p>Also, if you guys have Facebook, you can check the marketplace for your school to see if anyone's selling the textbook you need at a reasonable price.</p>
<p>Here is where I look for my son's books. He goes to private school. I can usually buy 2 copies of each textbook for less than what I would pay the book store for new. I always buy unhighlighted or like new condition books. I always verify the book being sold: has the correct ISBN number, is the correct edition, has no writing or highlighting in it. I try to buy from individuals rather than the large used book sellers unless they are selling a new book. You would be surprised at the number of new books/barely used being sold at greatly discounted prices. You can also check Craigslist. A lot of sellers from outside your local area listing on craigslist are willing to ship. Keep in mind that most booksellers ship media mail which can take a long, long time. If you need them quickly, < 2 weeks, pay to have them shipped priority mail.</p>
<p>What's with the webaccess and portal stuff that is shown with the books at the bookstore? Does that come with the books that you buy cheaper online?</p>
<p>many books are sold in overseas editions. They are word-for-word the same, the only difference is they're usually softback instead of hardback. An article about students buying them overseas is at <a href="http://tinyurl.com/5rk297%5B/url%5D">http://tinyurl.com/5rk297</a> The shipping costs aren't that high compared to what you're saving, especially if you buy several books or go in with some friends.</p>
<p>Don't forget if you buy books online they are usually shipped media mail which can mean delivery can take weeks. Now is the time to order any books you need for Sept.</p>
<p>I just purchase mine from Amazon, I saved $250 instead of buying directly from the school (even with their used price).</p>
<p>The killer was I paid $56 for shipping and handling alone from Amazon (I bought used) but my credit card company gives me the money back, so I guess it's like getting it for free.</p>