<p>DS is a senior and will be entering college in the fall. Where is the best place to buy used books? We had to buy 2 new books this past summer due to a course he was in and ended up paying around $300.00. He sold them back to the bookstore for a measly $70 - 80 dollars and that was for both books. </p>
<p>Any suggestions would be welcome.</p>
<p>it really depends how fast you need them and what they are.
try bestwebbuys.com for a boolean search
We found books @ Powells.com , Amazon.com both new & used and Barnes & Noble.com both new & used as well.</p>
<p>compared to some books stores- $70 isn't too bad.</p>
<p>half.com is another source for getting inexpensive text books. It's best if you have the ISBN # for each of the texts you'll be using & often good if you go to class the 1st day when the prof will let you know which books will actually be used for the course (sometimes they have extra texts that are merely handy for reference that you could use from the library).
Buying from someone a year or term ahead of you is also handy, if you can work that out. That's how S was able to save $--especially if he was able to sell it to someone the class or term below him. He would get better deals than any of the bookstores. He has been known to buy textbooks for $20 or so & resell them for about the same price at the end of the course.</p>
<p>Another vote for half.com. Son bought a text from there for this semester. If he sells it back to his bookstore, he may actually get more than he paid for it from half.com! We have also used textbooks.com. On certain titles, they guarantee you 50% of your purchase price back. We bought a new book from them with that guarantee, S took great care of it, we returned it (they pay for the return) and they sent us a check for half what we paid.</p>
<p>textbooks.com- they will also buy them back at a reasonably good price, guaranteed. D bought 2 from them, and will sell back.</p>
<p>I usually google on the isbn number and then I pick a book which is one of the better used categories with a specific description. ie, I do not buy books which say "pages may contain some highlighting" I would buy one which says "name on inside cover, cover slightly bent" as it is a specific description of this one book. Be aware of different editions, YMMV, but I prefer to get the edition being used by the class and check to see if there should be supplementary materials and if they are included. I have resold on half and amazon but most books I sell locally. I have two daughters in private school so we buy all their books :( I am going to make older D do the searching next year when she is a senior for practice as I want her to take this over when she enters college.</p>
<p>We've used half.com a lot and I've also been very successful with selling books back through them. For science textbooks, frequently you have the option of an international edition of the same book (it usually has thinner paper and a soft cover). This will save a lot of money but you have to decide if this is the book you want and take particular care when buying these types of textbooks to make sure you are not paying for a US edition and getting an international edition (Avoid those descriptions which don't specifically note this). Resale on these is less than US editions.</p>
<p>Also, if using half.com check out the reviews for the sellers and avoid sellers with 0 reviews since you definitely need the seller to ship the book or all the research is for nothing. We have had only one bad experience with a book purchased and it was because a parent hadn't checked over a book that his daughter had used in high school and the book was in very poor condition. The seller promptly refunded my money when I made him aware of the problem.</p>
<p>Also, for many classes, the cheapest place to actually buy the book is overstock.com. We've found books for most subjects and they have a flat rate of $2.95 for shipping regardless of the number of books. A particularly good place to buy history and english paperbacks used for many courses.</p>
<p>I used to spend hours and hours finding the best possible deal on every book. The last couple of quarters, I have just used Amazon and its Marketplace. It probably cost me an extra 5% to do that, but seriously saved a couple of hours and lots of tracking headaches. Half.com is OK, but the advantage of Amazon is that if a book isn't available used at a good price, they have the best new book prices, and usually free shipping, too.</p>
<p>I've had pretty good luck with Amazon.com</p>
<p>The books that I have bought through their Marketplace were all "Used, in good shape" type of books in the description, but upon arrival, they were nearly brand new!</p>
<p>Bestwebbuys.com
does comparison shopping for you.
For example- if you were looking for Original Wisdom, by Robert Wolff- it gives you 21 different sellers. ( Three are from Amazon). Abe books is the cheapest as they have free shipping. It will show you where sales tax is collected and what shipping is for various sites.</p>
<p>We were lucky with older daughters books, as her school bookstore not only had pretty good prices for many books- but Powells, the largest independent new/used bookstore, was located in her city and had many books that were used in class.
Good thing- since her freshman humanities class had over 30 required books for the year.</p>
<p>addall.com's used section, along with amazon.</p>
<p>My sister used Half.com successfully one semester but the next semester was a nightmare. Books were not shipped from the seller promptly, one essential book was 4 weeks late! The seller kept saying he shipped them weeks ago but he didn't really. You just never know what you are going to get with Half.com</p>
<p>Another vote for half.com </p>
<p>My D always orders hers in "very good" to "excellent" shape and has often been able to sell them back to her school bookstore for near as much as she has paid for them! (which was decently discounted in the first place...)</p>
<p>I wish S knew about these sites.This semester, he spent over $700.00 at his school bookstore.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Beware half.com
My sister used Half.com successfully one semester but the next semester was a nightmare. Books were not shipped from the seller promptly, one essential book was 4 weeks late! The seller kept saying he shipped them weeks ago but he didn't really. You just never know what you are going to get with Half.com
[/quote]
</p>
<p>this isnt a problem with half.com. this is a problem with not being sufficiently careful when buying books on the internet.</p>
<p>there are bad sellers out there. some of them are massive operations that arent run particularly well but arent shut down because the hosting sites (like amazon) make huge amounts of money on the 20% of so they get from every third-party sale. others are small-time in their scope and are looking to either fleece a few customers (for what amounts to an interest-free loan) or just sell a few books with little concern for quality of experience because they wont be around long enough for their feedback to matter.</p>
<p>so how do you pick a used book? you look not only at price, but also condition and seller feedback in terms of both quality AND quantity. does the book contain an individualized description that addresses its flaws? further, is the seller getting positive reviews on 98% or more of his transactions on amazon (99% on half; feedback rates are maybe 30% there to 15% on amazon)? similarly, has the seller sold enough books for the quality rating to have significance? </p>
<p>there are certainly 'new' sellers out there who will do a fantastic job, but i wouldnt want to count on one picked essentially at random to send me an $80 textbook in a timely fashion. i wouldnt count on any seller (regardless of size) with feedback much below 98%, either.</p>
<p>oh, and if you really do need the book in a timely fashion, PLEASE select priority shipping. the regular shipping option is media mail, which can be very, very slow.</p>
<p>one other comment: if you are going to opt for an international/instructors edition book, please keep in mind that it is AGAINST the policies of amazon/half/et cetera to allow the book to be sold on their site. listings for such books are frequently pulled and, as such, i wouldnt buy one if i were counting on reselling it online at the end of the semester.</p>
<p>Now a sophomore and never bought one book at the usc bookstore. All books bought on half.com or amazon.com. Really save a lot of money but usually not half price if new.</p>
<p>I ordered both of my son’s textbooks for them this semester. They were both jammed up for time and didn’t have the patience to navigate the web for the best prices. I figured I saved about 35% over what the books were going for in the university bookstores.</p>
<p>I used Amazon.com, half.com, ebay.com and betterworldbooks.com. </p>
<p>I hadn’t used betterworldbooks before, but I was highly impressed. </p>
<p>If there wasn’t much time I paid for the expedited (and still saved money and time). I liked the sellers with high feedback and tracking for the books, too.</p>
<p>I’ve always used this website for textbook comparisons. [Get</a> Textbooks | New Textbooks | Used Textbooks | College Textbooks - GetTextbooks.com](<a href=“http://www.gettextbooks.com/]Get”>http://www.gettextbooks.com/) If you’re not going to buy from a traditional store be sure the place has good ratings and you order before the term starts so you can be sure it’ll get there, even with media mail.</p>
<p>The only negative experience I’ve had buying books online was on half.com with a decently rated seller. They said it was a new hardcover edition, but instead it was a softcover international edition. I had intentionally ordered a hardcover instead of international since I knew I was going to keep the book for a while and use it as a reference for the next few years. After a week or two of back and forth with the seller, I was able to get refunded the difference between what I paid and what the going rate was for softcover versions on half.com. Not a really optimal solution, but I was able to resell the softcover to a friend for what I wound up paying for it.</p>
<p>Amazon hands down. I love the free shipping. </p>
<p>If we don’t buy from them, then we purchase at his bookstore.</p>
<p>Google the name of the book and go thru links to see which price is lowest for “new” or “'almost new” book. D. had luck in a past with half.com. Her books are the most expensive, as scinece books are much more expensive than others. Do not buy used books in college book store, they will be much more expensive. But you need to know correct edition.</p>