<p>Folks if you have any bright ideas or tricks or tips on this, let me know. Here is what I do as of now.</p>
<li>Always buy old textbooks whenever possible.</li>
<li>First check your friends/seniors and get textbooks from them.</li>
<li>Check College bookstore for used books.</li>
<li>Check textbook price comparison web sites for cheapest available from well known web sites like Ebay,Amazon, Half. I use TextBookHunting.com. [TextBookHunting.com</a> - TextBook Price Comparison](<a href=“http://www.textbookhunting.com%5DTextBookHunting.com”>http://www.textbookhunting.com)</li>
<li>Check it on [craigslist</a> classifieds:](<a href=“http://www.craigslist.org%5Dcraigslist”>http://www.craigslist.org)</li>
<li>Just get the lowest priced textbook from above choices.</li>
<li>Always consider time, tax & shipping in your total cost.</li>
<li>Once you are doing using it, sell it immediately unless you need it further.</li>
</ol>
<p>Now a days textbooks are getting more and more expensive. I always buy used books but many times Prof. always asks for latest edition which I hate it. Because just one year old edition I may get for just less than $10 but latest edition will be like $100 or more. It’s crazy!</p>
<p>You might try renting. I’ve never used this site - but it came highly recommended -
[Cheap</a> Textbook Rentals. Search for Used Textbooks and Rent College Textbooks at Chegg.com.](<a href=“http://www.chegg.com/]Cheap”>http://www.chegg.com/)</p>
<p>I always verify the book being sold: has the correct ISBN number, is the correct edition, and 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 being sold at greatly discounted prices. Craigslist is sometimes a good source. Buy as early as you can in the summer for the best deals. </p>
<p>Last year I got my son (in high school) 2 copies of all his textbooks/workbooks for less than what I could have bought one copy of each fromt he bookstore.</p>
<p>I second half.com. For non-fiction books that are not text books but frequently used in classes such as history or english, overstock.com is pretty good.</p>
<p>Also, consider buy international editions of books but do research first. In many cases, the text and paging is identical. The only disadvantage other than the soft covers is that they won’t resell as well.</p>
<p>Also, resell all books that you don’t want to hang on to. Half.com is also very good for this.</p>
<p>Ditto verification of ISBN and edition number. One of D’s 2nd semester biology classes uses a textbook published in December 2008! Good thing I checked before I bought a used earlier edition. A 25% off coupon and a B&N membership card knocked a few bucks off of the price of this behemoth. B&N offers free shipping, but it takes a while (up to a week), so it pays off to be proactive and order early. Additionally, when I ship books directly to D’s college address, the sales tax added to the price is less than what we pay here in WA. Not a huge difference, but a penny saved is more than a penny earned. :)</p>
<p>We have bought several used through Amazon.</p>
<p>Last semester bought books at the school to have them in time for class to start then ordered them on the internet and returned the ones to the school (they were returnable within the add/drop period) once the internet books arrived.</p>
<p>I tell my daughter to get the UPC/ISBN off each book. That way, I know I get the right title/edition.</p>
<p>At first I used a lot of websites. Now I just by “New” or “like new” from Amazon. Not worth the additional time, hassle, and book quality, to save a few more bucks. I might buy from Ebay (half.com) if the seller is really reputable, and I know the book will be shipped quickly. What good is a text book that comes 4 weeks into the semester.</p>
<p>my advice to save major coin is to buy earlier editions of text on line. Our son did this ard never paid more than $100/term for books and he was a compsci/cogsci major. He found that earlier editions were virtually identical to the most recent editions and the biggest difference was in the numbering of problem sets at the end of chapters. Just the numbering not the problems themselves. He rarely paid more than $15 for a text if earlier editions were available.</p>
<p>S buys used books from his college bookstore - priced very competitively from other sites based on my research using the ISBN. Biggest advantage is that he can resell the used books that came from the bookstore back to the bookstore at the end of the school year. Couldn’t do that if you bought a used one elsewhere.</p>
<p>Part of what I do for a living is purchase & sell books… textbooks and other kinds of books. This one of my favorite hidden gems. </p>
<p>Go to what used to be called [CampusI.com</a> Official Site | Buy Textbooks | Sell Textbooks | Used College Textbooks | New College Textbooks | Textbook Price Comparison | Cheap Textbooks | Cheapest Textbooks | Compare Textbook Prices | Textbook Buyback | Textbook Price Bot | New and](<a href=“http://www.campusi.com%5DCampusI.com”>http://www.campusi.com) now [DealOz.com</a> Official Site | Buy Textbooks | Sell Textbooks | Used College Textbooks | New College Textbooks | Textbook Price Comparison | Cheap Textbooks | Cheapest Textbooks | Compare Textbook Prices | Textbook Buyback | Textbook Price Bot | New and](<a href=“http://www.dealoz.com%5DDealOz.com”>http://www.dealoz.com)<br>
Either web address will get you there. </p>
<p>It’s an aggregator that searches hundred of web booksellers at once. Search by ISBN, title, author. Even provides coupon codes if available.</p>
<p>And to reiterate what someone else said, buy early! Do not wait to buy used textbooks, books are usually shipped media mail which can take weeks to get to you. Plus you will have a better selection early in the summer. I know some don’t like to shop around, I do and have found great deals on new textbooks, once I got a new chemistry book for 75% off.</p>
<p>Check in the student bookstore to see if other things come with the textbook when you buy it new. Workbooks, CDs, DVDs etc. A college instructor I know gets shudders when describing some of the things kids get off the internet - (no, she didn’t write the text or get any money from its sales). Be sure it’s the right edition and that all the side stuff comes along.</p>
<p>I have had the best luck using my Barnes and Noble membership coupled with their own discounts on certain titles and their free shipping. In some cases, it was comparable to used books on Amazon and the book arrives so quickly. Worth the cost of yearly membership.</p>
<p>dbwes, every B&N coupon I’ve received specifically excludes textbooks. I haven’t yet tried to order textbooks online using my membership number, since I only just signed up a short time ago. What’s the average textbook discount you’ve gotten using your B&N membership?</p>