<p>I ordered textbooks for the kids (daughter is taking one CC class) from Barnes and Nobles. I originally ordered them all from BN with a savings of about 25 percent overall but one of the books was backordered with an expected ship date of September 5. I called and they cancelled that line item - they are waiting for a big order on that book from the publisher and don't have a firm ship date. I then went to Amazon and ordered it - they have it in stock and it should be here in a week. I didn't save as much with Amazon but it's the best I could do.</p>
<p>There's one class that doesn't have a textbook listed for it. I'm pretty sure that I know what the textbook will be as it's universally used for this course across the country and I bought it earlier this summer for our son to read. I'm hoping that I guessed right on that one.</p>
<p>Son's uni has the bookstore online so you can just enter the course number and it will spit out the books for the course. I called the bookstore for our daughter's CC. If the book is unknown, son or daughter can email the professor for the text information.</p>
<p>I had a look at half.com. One thing was cheaper there and two were more expensive. The BN membership provides discounts on textbooks up to 30% and I had an additional 15% coupon. Would have been better with an even bigger coupon. I think that they send me coupons weekly and I need to pay more attention to them throughout the summer as I ignore most of them.</p>
<p>I also usually find a lot of books cheaper at bn than amazon and their free shipping is much faster. I also check used books at both these sites and other used sites. I am able to get decent used textbooks by shopping early and looking for specific comments and not something generic like "we ship high quality books!"</p>
<p>Earlier this week, I ordered six (!) textbooks for the one graduate class I'm taking this fall; I entered the course number in the school's online bookstore, and had the list on the screen while I looked at new and used book prices at Amazon. I ended up getting three books from Amazon, two from two marketplace sellers, and one from the school's bookstore. Got the Amazon books today (SuperSaver shipping, so free), which is pretty quick. </p>
<p>I saved a good bit of money, but will have to try BN next time!</p>
<p>owlice, if/when you check bn check with the membership price. Besides the book buying and kids buying cds, movies, and coffee drinks :-) a yearly membership is worth our while.</p>
<p>I haven't found much use for the coupons however, I must have missed the one BCEagle used. I got excited about one 15% off I received recently, but when I went to use it I found it excluded text books. Most of the coupons I see are related to their credit card which I do not have.</p>
<p>We used 2 40% Borders coupons for textbooks. I found them by googling for Borders coupons. Shipping was free. D ordered one & I ordered the other. We used campusi.com to search for the rest of her books. They include coupon codes for the websites, if there are any current codes. She doesn't like having any highlighting in her books, so we paid close attention to descriptions. The good ones to find have remainder marks ... those are colored lines on the page edges (used for returned books & other reasons). These books are new. We got some great deals. She saved a TON.</p>
<p>Often you need to know more than the name of the book, otherwise you may get a outdated edition.</p>
<p>The safest way is to know the ISBN of the book. I did not go through that step (which would involve going to the bookstore and look at the book). Now I end up with a book with a completely different ISBN. I hope it is OK, because the two books has a date that is only 6 months apart, has exactly the same number of pages.</p>
<p>However, following the exact ISBN may not be give you the best price. In this particular case, the hardcover version has a different ISBN from the paperback version. Some textbook has international version which is identical in content. There are also a two volumes version of the book which of course has different ISBNs. It is a two semester course, most likely each semester covers 1 volume, so if you take just 1 semester it is cheaper to buy just 1 volume. Furthermore the instructor's web page list a text book with a different name, which is a variation of the same book probably with some chapters removed and is cheaper. So it can be extremely confusing.</p>
<p>I wish there is a forum here that discusses how different versions of the a textbook differ in content.</p>
<p>Sometimes the ISBN just specifies a bundle - student solutions manual, website features, etc.</p>
<p>I call up the bookstore if I have any doubts about the text. This tends to be an issue with the really expensive textbooks that do have multiple packages.</p>
<p>My girls who have all attended schools which have the lists available through the college bookstore online, have always chosen to wait to get the syllabus from the profs. Too often the books listed are not actually used and those who have bought them in advance have wasted their money.</p>