Freshman Finances : Save money with cheap college textbooks

This post is part of the freshman finances series, a series of articles that are related to student finances. Read all parts of the series here.

You have registered for classes and just paid a boat load of money as tuition. Only now you noticed that little link on your online student portal to buy all the required books from your college bookstore. You clicked on that link thinking, “Cool, I can get one more thing done, don’t have to stand in the line at the bookstore!” – your heart sank seeing the total price of the books!

Textbooks have become one of the most expensive things college students buy every semester. But there are plenty of ways to save money on your textbooks and get them for less. In fact, the Government has made this task even easier.

How is this year different from last year?

The textbook affordability regulations passed by Congress in 2008 went into effect on July 1, 2010.

The textbooks section has three main components:

1. Requires publishers to disclose pricing information up-front to faculty
2. Requires publishers to offer textbooks and supplemental materials “unbundled” (separately)
3. Requires institutions, to the maximum extent practicable, to provide the prices and ISBNs of required and recommended textbooks when students register for classes.

The key to the lower price is the ISBN. ISBN makes it much easier to comparison shop and not worry about getting the wrong edition. So before you start this task, get the following information. You’ll need this to make sure you get the right book:

• The ISBN, which is a unique number that goes to each book
• Title, Author, Publisher & Edition
• Any supplements included, and if they are required (ask your prof.)

Tips for getting textbooks for cheap

1. Use a price comparison tool: There are several of them Textbook Price Comparison, addAll and my favorite Big Words. These price comparison tools let you enter the ISBN number and list all the bookstore prices (including Amazon and Barnes&Noble market place listings). For example, you enter your entire list of required textbooks’ ISBN. Big words takes every possible combination of items and stores, and determines what the total cost would be for that combination, considering price, shipping cost, and promotions. Then they display the absolute lowest price for all of your items. You can also find the listing of cheapest options for individual textbook. This step alone should save you a lot of time and money. Don’t just rely on one website, be it Half.com or EBay or whatever, compare them all.
2. Look for promo codes: Where ever you decide to buy from, ALWAYS look for a promo code before you buy, there will be something… at least for free shipping. Google “[name of the book store] promo code” or “[name] discount code”.
3. Go International: Get the international edition, it is cheaper and it is perfectly legal for the students to buy them. International editions are available in a lot of online booksellers including Amazon, Ebay and Half.com. The ISBN of these books are same as the US edition, so you should be able to see them in the price comparison tool (Big Words) I mentioned above. If you cannot find them anywhere, try Amazon UK or Canada sites. [Note: Make sure you check the metric vs US measurements and when you are using it pay attention to the page numbers they might be a little different. Other than that, these are great alternatives.]
4. Embrace the open source culture: There are educational resources groups that are starting to post free textbooks and lessons online. This is still in the early stages but nevertheless keep an eye out in the future, they might grow quickly. Example : Flatworld Knowledge
5. Don’t forget to check the free textbook sources: Any book that is not longer copyrighted (mostly literature/history) could be found online. Check these web libraries Project Gutenberg, Bartleby, or Googlebooks.
6. Network with other students who have taken the same class previously: They might be happy to sell it to you or let you borrow the book.
7. Check if your college facilitates book exchanges: Check if your school has one on campus or try the online student forum to check for book sale/post a book request.
8. If they don’t start one: This might not be possible in your freshman year, but beyond that it is a great way to save money. Doing that even within your dorm might save a lot of money for everyone. Check here on how to organize a text book swap.
9. Try online bookswaps: Swap your used textbooks for the books that you need. You can trade your used CDs for books as well. Try Swap.com or paperbackswap.
10. Get the digital version instead of the print version: If you don’t need a print version, the digital ebook might be a lot cheaper if available (50% cheaper according to B&N). I like NookStudy from B&N, but there might be other similar applications. You can even upload your own scanned notes or course schedule or any documents to keep everything in one place.
11. Use social networks: Yes, they are everywhere now. Aren’t they? Put them to good use for saving money. Just set your status to reflect the books you are looking for.
12. Buy early: There might be limited number of used copies available so buy early if you can.

Some other ways that might work

These are recommended by many people, but I have some reservations on each of the following tips. But I am putting it down as it might help some people, after all our situations might be totally different.

1. Library or professor’s copy: Just borrow it from the library or request the professor’s copy. It has never worked for me though. The library always ran out of copies and the books would always go on hold, so I could not rely on them to be available when I needed them. If your library has a lot of copies available then it might be ideal.
2. Rent text books: I am not a big fan of this option. In my experience this is NOT always a cheap option. Check out the buy back option offered by companies. For example: this book that I wanted costs $135 in Amazon new. Amazon buys it back for $83.34 if you sell it to them before Dec 31st of this year. So that lowers the cost of the book compared to the rental from Chegg at $63.49. If you are going to rent, I recommend Chegg.
3. Rent digital copy (or rather subscribe to digital copy): This is similar deal to renting text books, a little cheaper than renting hard copies. I didn’t find it very cheap but check out Coursesmart if you are interested in this option.

Earn more money to subsidize the cost of text books

1. Sell your books promptly if you don’t need it for the future. You can even make a business out of reselling textbooks.
2. Rent OUT your textbooks: Sites like Text Book Revolt allows you to rent your book out to other students. You can rent your books during the semesters you don’t need them.
3. Use as many rebates or cash back programs as possible: Using Swagbucks to earn some money to use in Amazon or using ebates to get as much cash back as possible (right now you can get 6% back for B&N and 5% back for Half.com) will help pay the cost.

These are the tips that I have tried and found useful. I hope they will help you get a good deal on your textbooks. Please leave a comment if I have missed anything. If you do like it, pass it along to your friends and other…

Tagged as: freshman finances