<p>Yes, I agree with the others that I have more incentive to hunt for bargains than my daughter has. She’s a good kid with many admirable qualities, but careful management of her parents’ resources has not yet emerged as one of them.</p>
<p>In addition, my daughter is several states away for the summer working as a camp counselor. Between the spotty internet access at camp and the camp’s curious insistence that she actually look after the campers, she probably wouldn’t be able to get her books before most of the used books and rentals are gone.</p>
<p>“The online access code thing…should S ask his professors if that is expected? The student Facebook group? It certainly isn’t part of the description of the books I’ve seen on the college bookstore/BN site.”</p>
<p>On the Rutgers Bookstore site, you put in your class numbers and you can get a printout of the books you need with prices, and used vs new. It should say something like “Name of Book.-W/Access… Required” at the top of the description. Use this list to compare prices from various sellers online or through student sellers on FB.</p>
<p>You should be able to buy the online access separately from the book. You would have to price out the used book price with the access price to see what would be the better deal. Sometimes Amazon sellers will say ‘includes online access’ or ‘does not include online access code’.</p>
<p>Always go by the ISBN number when purchasing your books. Sometimes books have very similar titles.</p>
<p>I shopped for books for our older two because I had more time during the day to do that then they did and for no other reason. They worked 50-60 hours/week in the summers and I had total flexibility in my work schedule since I owned my own business :D. They did more of the ‘shopping’ during the school year but usually asked me if I found something for less then they did before they bought the books.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen “access” in the book list (which I do have from BN) so I’ll assume there isn’t any needed.</p>
<p>I lean towards going with the “wait and talk to the profs” approach for now, and not ordering them online beforehand. </p>
<p>I’ll just assume they’ll still be available to order if needed, and as S puts it “I’m sure I can share with someone for the first few days if necessary”. He’s living in a cluster of kids with his major so that’s not unrealistic.</p>
<p>ABEbooks.com. My son needed about 20 books for a humanities class. I was able to reduce the cost from about $450 to $180. Some of the vendors offer free shipping. A great feature is that all books are rated for quality - I ordered only good or better. They took a few weeks to arrive, so this only works if the student knows their book list in advance. Search by ISBN number to be sure it is the right edition, and be aware that some textbooks are published in U.S. and international editions with different problem sets.</p>
<p>Tried to sign up my D for Amazon Student using her college email…after she tried several times to confirm it, got caught in a loop, and kept having to redo the entire process, we gave up.</p>
<p>I buy and sell using half.com. The vast majority of sellers are totally truthful about the condition of the books. You can choose new, like new, very good, good, etc. Most of the “very good” and up will generally have no underlining or marking, and the sellers are required to disclose with specificity what the condition is. I used to use Amazon and B&N. Half.com is MUCH less expensive, but you do have to give yourself some time to receive the books since they are generally shipped through the USPS via media mail.</p>
<p>Snowdog–call Amazon and have them help. They have really good Customer Service and it’s worth having Prime while they are in college for a lot of things, not just books.</p>
My first piece of advice is this: Your SON should be doing this, not you. You can strongly encourage him to find books as inexpensively as possible (or even give him a budget, if you’re paying for his books) but he’s ultimately the one who will have to use them and learn from them so he is the one who will have to live with the choice of new/used/rental. Plus he needs to be responsible for his own learning, and that includes gathering resources such as books.</p>
<p>That said, my kids have had success buying books on Amazon and Half.com. My son re-sold a lot of books on Half, my daughter prefers to just bring her books to the campus bookstore to re-sell them - they don’t pay as much, but they hand her cash.</p>
<p>D (rising college junior) just ordered all her books from Amazon yesterday. New from the campus bookstore they’d have been $900+. New from Amazon they were $624. She decided not to buy used this term (she’s bought used in the past) and I didn’t argue with her.</p>
<p>My student has been not so good at reselling, so rental was good for books not going to keep or need. (They’ll be much more likely to agree they’ll never use them again after a semester or so) Chegg is great and gets the books to you really fast, and you can return without penalty for a few weeks. (great for students that change schedules a lot the first week). They even send out reminders, etc to the student at the end of the semester to get the books back. I compare 3-4 sites for buying used books. My students are less motivated to comparison shop as they know dad will pay whatever. With Amazon I’ve learned they usually come fastest from the Amazon direct, although small sellers on the same side of the country sometimes have shipped faster.
Some colleges also have a no penalty return for the first week of school, so that can be a fall back position. My students college bookstore has the cheapest of all the used prices and you can preorder for pickup, with no penalty for not buying so I check that first, but often the used ones are snapped up fast.</p>
<p>I hear you lafalum, and it may yet go that way. But in our family, finances are extremely tight. While S does need to learn to make these choices for himself, $100 more or less is a big deal at the moment. I understand not all families are in the situation that we are in.</p>
<p>After some discussion (after I began this topic, and read Steve’s posts in particular), he’s decided he’s good to wait and see what the profs say when classes begin and go from there.</p>
<p>Got the Amazon student fixed thanks SteveMA. Now that I’ve put in the payment info and her dorm address, told her to download the app, that is as far as I go, the rest is on my D. Once she sees the bookstore lines if they are like they were in my day, I think it will be handy.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t wait that long, ohiobassmom. The cheapest way to get books is to order them online. If you wait until after the first class, he’ll have to wait a few more days (at LEAST) to get the books, and he’ll be behind in his classes. NOT a good way to start. Or he’ll panic and go to the bookstore and buy them - paying through the nose for them. </p>
<p>I say order the books now, and if the professor says he doesn’t use them, then return them.</p>
<p>(Voice of experience - D waited last year and ended up paying too much at the bookstore).</p>
<p>Amazon Prime is totally optional. We have it for a variety of reasons (Kindle Owners Lending Library, no minimum for free shipping, more titles in Amazon Video). Regarding books…if you are purchasing from Amazon, then yes, they do come 2-day shipping…however if you use the Amazon resellers, that’s up to them the speed (and shipping costs).</p>
<p>I did a little research. Had never heard of Amazon student. So really, it is Amazon Prime for students for less money. </p>
<p>So what you are saying is that the 2 day shipping is only with what Amazon directly sells. For other seller’s products, the shipping price/speed is what the seller offers themselves.</p>