<p>DO NOT BUY BOOKS FROM THE CAL STUDENT STORE OR NED’S BOOKSTORE UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!</p>
<p>Alternatives:</p>
<li><p>comegetused.com : You arrange to buy books from other students who’ve completed the same courses. The buyers and sellers schedule meetings on campus to complete the transactions. I buy and sell at least 2-3 books from comegetused.com every semester and I’ve been very satisfied with it.</p></li>
<li><p>Amazon.com - Click on the “X used and new” links to find cheap copies listed for sale by Amazon Marketplace sellers. Some of them can be very cheap compared to the list prices.</p></li>
<li><p>eBay.com : You can often find international editions from Indian or Chinese sellers. In most cases, international editions are exactly the same as US editions, except with softcover bindings and printed on cheaper-quality paper. As long as all the text is the same, I don’t have a problem with using them.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The average student spends some $1,000 per year on textbooks. I spend an average of $200 per year on texts…and often resell them at a profit later.</p>
<p>Only buy books from campus as an absolute last resort, if you can’t find any better prices elsewhere. Every year I see thousands of students (especially freshmen) getting ripped off and paying 3x premiums, and I feel sorry for them.</p>
<p>It's actually not that much cheaper for most of the books. If you're smart and shop around, it's actually a lot better to just buy it from the Cal Student Store some of the time, and most of the time you can probably get it on half.com for the cheapest prices anywhere.</p>
<p>It's a good price but it's not exceptional to the point where you can lower your expenses from $1,000 to $200. I'd say at most you'd save probably $50 on an entire year's purchase compared to buying entirely from the Cal Student Store as from any of those three sites. Besides, the Cal Student Store has a better return policy, and is a lot more convenient. (there are also discount nights that include 5-20% off items, including books, making the books cheaper than anywhere online)</p>
<p>also, oftentimes on amazon.com you'd be surprised how you can buy the book new and it'll be only a few bucks more than the used book at the student store</p>
<p>bigwords.com, as long as you don't use Chegg textbook rental.</p>
<p>Sometimes the bookstore is not much more expensive than ordering online, but this is generally only true for "non-textbook" textbooks, like, for example, the books you're required to read for a lot of English classes. For math and science textbooks? You're going to save a lot by buying in advance from someone selling them used.</p>
<p>Does Berkeley have a uloop network? If it does, that's a great way to get textbooks directly from other students, though of course cometgetused does essentially the same thing.</p>
<p>$1000 down to $200?! That's a way high figure. Maybe afew hundred at most. I wouldn't say buying at the campus bookstore or Ned's is a last resort. You just have to shop around. For example, I shopped amazon, half.com and the student store this year and the student bookstore prices were exactly the same as on the web. It really just depends. Shop around and see what the best deals are.</p>