Finding Discount Textbooks for College

Find the Discount Textbooks Store that Offers the Highest Savings

Michael Toth
College books are expensive whether you buy discount textbooks or not. That said, discount textbooks do offer significant savings over retail books. Last year I was able to save hundreds of dollars buying discount textbooks, and I will show you exactly how to do just that.

Finding Discount Textbooks: Getting a Textbook List

This seems relatively self-explanatory, but it actually is an extremely important part of finding discount textbooks. You need to know exactly what you're looking for, as most textbooks have several versions in print, and you don't want to end up with the wrong version. When you get your textbook list, write down as much information as possible-title, author, publisher, edition, and ideally an ISBN. The ISBN is often the most difficult to get, but finding discount textbooks is much easier if you have it. Once you have your list, it's time to start looking for discount textbooks.

Finding Discount Textbooks: Shopping Around

The website that I always start my discount textbooks search with is www.BookFinder.com. You simple enter the author, title, or ISBN and it will give you a list of options. You choose the correct option and it searches hundreds of websites finding the cheapest discount textbooks. It then sorts the discount textbooks into new and used columns for easy viewing. The only disadvantage to this method of finding discount textbooks is that you don't always know the condition the used books will be in.

For this reason, you may want to consider using www.Amazon.com to find discount textbooks. You start once again by entering the title, author, or ISBN into the search box. It gives you a list of options; find the book you need but don't go to it. Rather, look to the right where it says "used & new" and go there. This brings up a page with a list of discount textbooks, their prices, and the condition they're in. Find the cheapest book on the list in whatever condition you want, and buy it. These discount textbooks will surely save you money over the retail prices.

Finally, consider using www.eBay.com to find some discount textbooks. Often textbooks get no bids on eBay, so you may be able to find one for a very cheap price.

Finding Discount Textbooks: When to Buy Discount Textbooks

You have two options for buying discount textbooks. If you know your required books far enough in advance, you should buy them a few months early if possible. Because very few people will be buying textbooks that early, prices will tend to be lower than if you wait. Unfortunately, professors sometimes change book requirements and you may end up with one that you don't need. The alternative is to wait until the class begins to buy your discount textbooks. This way, you'll know exactly which books you need, but you may end up having to spend more on them.

I hope you found this advice helpful; good luck finding your discount textbooks!

  • The first step toward finding discount textbooks is to know titles, authors, publishers, and ISBNs.
  • Discount textbooks are cheapest several months in advance, but you risk buying unnecessary books.
  • Sometimes discount textbooks get no bids on eBay and you can find them for a very low price.
Some discount textbooks sell for less than a quarter of their retail prices.

11 Comments

Post a Comment
  • Julie Stemm3/5/2010

    We love using Chegg.com to rent textbooks and save a lot of money! I wanted to share a code that your readers can use to get a discount on their text order. Put in the code when ordering and hit the "apply" button. The code also gives you back an additional $5 when selling Chegg your used texts.

    The code does not have an expiration date so it can be used with every order. Here it is:

    CC123047

    Feel free to pass this code to friends!

  • Karolina-$lim1/1/2010

    You can find some very good discounts for books at www.theperfectpages.com

  • Sandra9/15/2009

    To save BIG and get free shipping on your textbooks you have to visit WWW.TEXTBOOKX.COM and use Promo code cvw1999

  • Sandra9/15/2009

    To save BIG and get free shipping on your textbooks you have to visit this site:


    table.widget2 {
    width: 450px;
    height: 80px;
    background: url(http://www.textbookx.com/img/widget/search_bg2.gif) no-repeat;
    }
    table.widget2 td {
    font-family: Verdana;
    font-size: 10px;
    font-weight: bold;
    color: #fff;
    }
    table.widget2 li {
    font-family: Verdana;
    font-size: 10px;
    font-weight: bold;
    color: #000;
    }
    table.widget2 h1 {
    color: #fff;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-size: 10px;
    }







    Retail orders ship FREE
    National marketplace
    Millions of books





    Enter ISBN, Title or Author










  • Siew Cheng Hoe3/26/2009

    For business course, there is no need to get textbook. The books in the library is more than enough. Plus all textbooks on the same subjects explain things more or less the same.

  • Ramon3/2/2009

    With the economy what it is I am glad I have been using computers and the internet for sometime. My daughter needed some textbooks that were so outragously priced I decided to search online to see what I could find. I found this site called "whereismybook.com", she said the price was the same as what she had seen for used books. We got her books and got a coupon for free shipping off the next order, (which will be in a couple of weeks) It came on a mass printed coupon so the code should work for anyone. Pass the information on to anyone who may be able to use this, we are all in this together. Coupon code: BGSHIP

  • A.M. Morgan8/4/2008

    Great tips. Thanks for sharing.

  • SummerIsComing8/4/2008

    freeloadpress.com gives out free online e-books of text books. Pretty nifty...

  • Mary Haberstroh8/4/2008

    In my experience, Amazon is the best for college textbooks.

  • Jennifer Weiss8/4/2008

    Awesome article! I used to email my professors ahead of time to get the book info so I could find the best deal..I did end up getting the wrong book at one point, but my prof. said it would still work.

Displaying Comments
Next »

To comment, please sign in to your Yahoo! account, or sign up for a new account.