<p>Amazon Prime is definitely the way to go. Or Half.com. Or eBay. I love the 2-day shipping on Amazon Prime, but have also had good luck requesting expedited shipping (if not already offered by the seller) on half.com and ebay. I saved $475 dollars on son’s spring semester books over bookstore prices using a combination of all three. (One example was paying $75-including expedited shipping- for a brand new anatomy book on half.com for a text the bookstore is selling for $233 plus tax!)</p>
<p>Glad to hear things worked out, northeastmom!</p>
<p>Does anyone have any suggestions for how to save money on a required, loose-page, binder-ready (meaning no buy-back) $110 psych text that hasn’t even been published yet?</p>
<p>Thanks. Your last Q really stumped me, sorry.</p>
<p>I also had a good experience using half dot com and some other vendors. I ordered through them over the summer when we had more time, should there be a problem. On such short notice, and where there is flight involved, I can’t afford errors and problems. We had one bad experience with a book which was an instructor copy and was not listed as such. We eneded up sending it back. I don’t want to lose $$ and I don’t want my son to have these headaches at school. I also don’t want for him to need to take books onto a plane either (take a chance that the airline loses them, and/or pay for the freight). For all of those reasons I feel that Amazon and delivery directly to his school is the way to go for the spring term. I still saved money and he is getting all new books and I know that he will get exactly what we ordered.</p>
<p>Northeast mom, I completely agree that Amazon is definitely the most reliable way to go. I only use ebay and half.com when there is some wiggle-room in terms of time (summers, beginning of winter breaks, etc.) I learned the hard way when I had an ebay purchase go from southern California to the east coast and back before making its way to northern California. It wasn’t the shipper’s fault (media mail USPS), but it was a hassle to have to return the book after purchasing another copy on Amazon. The shipper was apologetic (although it was due to a USPS error) and told me (belatedly) that he would have willingly sent it expedited with a tracking number if I had made the request. In hindsight, it would have been cheaper and less stressful to get it from Amazon in the first place.</p>
<p>The campus bookstore manager told me that he hates the binder-ready versions of books. Although they technically are in compliance with the associated student union mandate of being the cheapest versions available, he says it always costs students more in the long run because they can’t sell them back.</p>
<p>Sounds like your son will be ready to roll with his books and study guide awaiting him!</p>