5 Steps to Finding Cheap Textbooks

College is often a difficult financial time for students and in some cases their parents. Expensive tuition and lodging fees can empty your bank account rapidly. This guide will show you how to save money on a variable college cost, your books.

** Remember to always double check your ISBN number and edition before purchasing any textbook**

1. Start Local. Students often post ads on bulletin boards around the campus selling the books that they no longer need. These are often at rock bottom prices and no shipping charges are needed. You will be able to get the book rapidly and you won't have to worry if you will receive your book before classes start. You can even approach students that are finishing classes you are going to take and offer to purchase their books. Craigslist is also a great resource for used textbooks.

2. Your local library. You would be suprised how many textbooks are carried in libraries. Many libraries now have online indexing that can give you the ability to check if they have your books. Even if your local library does not have the book, sometimes libraries can transfer books from other branches for you. Using libraries are especially helpful for English and Literature courses where you often need ficton books. Some of the available library catalogs:

WorldCat.org

Lib Web : An index of libraries worldwide.

3.Consider Renting. There are many websites that are popping up offering to rent textbooks. I would advise anybody considering renting to do a cost analysis to determine whether it is cost effective to rent. Here are some of the sites that rent textbooks:

www.chegg.com

www.bookrenter.com

www.campusbookrentals.com

4. Online. This is one of the most common way students get discounted textbooks. There are so many websites available that offer used textbooks. Look closely at the book listings and ISBN numbers, because there can be many editions of a particular textbook. I advise you to use textbook search engines such as Campus Books to list all the available sellers. Remember to factor in the shipping costs to your total cost when you compare. Here are some of the most popular websites that sell textbooks:

Barnes and Noble

Amazon.com

Abebooks

Textbooks.com

Half.com

5. School Bookstore. I post this one last because it is most likely going to be the most expensive option. If you get there right after or before the semester starts you may be able to find used books. Used books in the campus bookstores get purchased really quick due to the convienence, even though the price is usually inflated. Sometime professors tend to make textbook packages that can only be exclusely purchased at the bookstore. There is nothing you can do about that but hope you can get a used copy.

BONUS: There are risky but cheap ways to save money on textbooks. A popular one is copying the pertinent parts of another student's textbook. This is not very cost-effective in the long run, and is really time consuming. If you are in extreme financial situations I can understand the need to copy textbooks. Something I learned actually by accident, was that some teachers don't care if you use a prior edition of a textbook. You must contact your teacher and ask them if you can use a older edition. This can save you a signifcant chunk of cash, because older editions sell for very cheap.

Don't forget to sell your books if you don't need them, you can often recoup 50-75% or more of your cost.