Alternatives for Buying Cheap Textbooks

Shopping for textbooks at the university bookstore can be very costly. The bookstore will have a few used copies on hand, but these usually sell out quickly, leaving the newer, more expensive textbooks behind. Typical college students are already low on cash and are seeking alternative ways to save money on everyday necessities. Buying textbooks for classes are no exception, especially when many courses require more than one textbook each. Luckily there are several alternatives to the bookstore a college student can take to save themselves quite a bit of cash.

The first step you'll need to take is to find out which textbooks are needed for each of your courses. This can be done in several ways. Sometimes the easiest way is to head on over to the college bookstore and take down the titles and ISBN numbers of each of the textbooks you'll need. Sometimes the universities will have a bookstore link on their webpage that will allow you to browse for your books online. If neither of these methods work, you can always wait until the first day of classes to find it listed on the syllabus. This is also a good idea because sometimes professors will give you the heads up on whether you'll really need to purchase that book or if you can do without it.

Your next step will be to get to the university's library as soon as possible, or to the library's webpage. Search for all the textbooks on your list, reserving or checking out whatever books might be available. Sometimes you'll be able to find the textbook you need, but in an older edition than the current one. For some classes, this will work as the content is usually the same, just arranged differently with a few updates. However, for other classes, such as math classes, you'll want to wait for the correct edition. Checking out books in the library ends up costing you no money at all and can be renewed closer to the due date, as long as it is not reserved by another person. Be sure to check out the public libraries as well.

As you walk around campus, pay attention to the flyers posted by students on the walls, billboards and other locations. It is a good idea to do a walk around in the buildings where your classes are, such as the Biology building or Education building. What you are looking out for are postings that advertise books for sale by other students. Since bookstores pay very little to buy back their own textbooks, students rather sell them to other students to earn them more money and give you a great deal at the fraction of the price in bookstores. You can even post your own flyers requesting to buy textbooks, but do so as soon as possible so you won't be without a textbook too long.

Rely on the local community as a resource for your textbooks. Use resources like facebook, Craigslist, community papers and forums to inquire about buying your books. Each of these resources usually has a place for students to connect and discuss things like trading, sharing or selling textbooks. It would also be a good idea to join your local Freecycle.org group in which you can post a request for a free textbook. As a rule of thumb on Freecycle it is a kind gesture to post your own item to give away for free first, before placing a request of your own.

Purchasing books online is also a great and convenient way to find textbooks for cheap. If you have the patience to find the best deal, then you can save even more money. Start by entering the textbook information at a site such as http://www.bigwords.com/ or http://www.allbookstores.com/. Each of these sites will scour the most popular textbook websites, such as Amazon and Textbooks.com for the least expensive book, including shipping. Once you find the textbook you need listed at the cheapest price, you can click on the link and purchase it from there. Some of these sites will give you a heads up on how much you can expect to receive if you sold it back later to their site.