<p>There is an article in today's Washington</a> Post about renting textbooks instead of purchasing new/used texts. The online site is Chegg.com:</a> Cheap Textbook Rentals. Best way to Rent Books for College. According to the Post article, Chegg "considers itself the Netflix of textbooks." </p>
<p>As a double good-good, Chegg.com is socially conscious. They will plant a tree for every book you rent/sell/buy and will donate money to Unicef Haiti Relief (see website sidebars).</p>
<p>Also if you use the code CC108534 when renting your books you can save 5% and if you sell your books to them you get an extra $5 with that code. And right now they are offering free shipping and they guarantee you can rent the book for the entire semester.</p>
<p>I have found it cheaper overall to buy used books and be able to resell them, rather than rent them and get nothing back. Plus it gives the option of keeping certain books if one wants to. I check several sites to find the best deal. So far I have used amazon market, half.com, ebay, or textbooks.com (who actually have a guarantee buy back price for some of their books).</p>
<p>Our kiddo has needed several college texts over the last several years–I find if I put the ISBN in the browser, I can find several places with different prices.</p>
<p>I have saved hundreds over buying his books at the schools store…</p>
<p>same swimcatsmom. I like to be able to buy them and own them if i know i will be needing them for another class. </p>
<p>Speaking of which i need to go find the last book i need.</p>
<p>ditto fogfog- the school prices, even for used books, are outrageous. And they buy them back for peanuts then resell them for big bucks. We avoid the books store except when they make it impossible (like the ridiculously priced “custom” calculus book my daughter had to have which covers 3 semesters of calc, she needed just one, is almost the same as a publicly published calc book, *and *is loose leaf so cannot be sold back to the store :().</p>
<p>We rarely buy new, and when we do, it’s usually through bn (in Dec. even nonmembers got the member price), amazon (they often discount new books), or borders (with a good coupon), all online. D has kept book costs to a bare minimum. She hates highlighting, so we look for books that have remainder marks … these are marks made on the outside of the pages when the book is closed. The marks signify that the book has been returned. The book is otherwise new. Even with expedited shipping when necessary, buying used is so much less expensive than buying new!</p>
<p>I always go to gettextbooks.com. They give you a list of sites that have the book including half.com, amazon, Abebooks, Alibris, eBay, Barnes and Noble, and others. The books are listed by total price (including shipping) and include whether they are new, used (including condition), or rental. I’ve been able to get S’s books for half the cost of used books at the bookstore, and that’s including shipping! :D</p>
<p>Just a warning–buying used books online can be a great way to save money, but you never know who you’re dealing with. D has been waiting for a textbook that was supposedly sent out by expedited UPS over a week ago. She needs it for class. Alibris agrees something went wrong and has refunded the shipping costs, but that doesn’t get the book in her hands. The seller has not responded to requests for a tracking number. My recommendation is to order used books online only when you’ve committed to a course and gotten the book list far enough in advance of the first day of class to allow for glitches.</p>
<p>Rentals wouldn’t work for D, who highlights and annotates her books (to say nothing of dropping them in the slush and spilling coffee on them).</p>
<p>We have only had one bad experience so far. A book I ordered through half.com never did show up. The seller was not responsive to emails so I had to file a claim. It took about a month but half.com sent me the money back (and presumably got it from the seller). It meant my daughter had to buy the book from the school bookstore which was annoying as there were several available on the web if we had not committed to the one that did not arrive. But even taking that into account, on balance we have saved a fortune.</p>
<p>I always throw this up there when I see threads like this. A lot of textbooks are on Gigapedia.org and Warez-bb.org. You have to signup for each but they’re free and don’t spam you anything. </p>
<p>Some private trackers also have textbooks, but in my experience you’re much more likely to find what you need on a warez board like one of the two I mentioned.</p>
<p>We have used Craig’s list extensively in addition to ebay, half.com. b & N used sellers, same w/amazon sellers. Orgo book for $5, a & p for $12 with lab manual, genetics books for $10 and calculus on half.com used older edition for $2. Profs have been great about older editions and updating homework, and reading assignments for those with older editions. This is for 4 different kiddos all with different majors at different universities all over the country.</p>
<p>DD while in NM, used the craig’s list there and managed to get through all 4 years for less than 1 roundtrip ticket!! All 4 kiddos have used the extra cheap orgo book…best deal ever!!</p>
<p>Kat</p>