Saving money on college textbooks

This is a guest post by Amit Sehgal, a first generation college student who runs www.bookase.com, a free price comparison website for college textbooks. 

As a first generation or low income college student, you need to control your costs–especially costs for college textbooks. That means making sure that you squeeze the most out of every cent that passes through your hand.

But why especially the cost of textbooks? Because college textbooks can be one of the most expensive parts of your college budget. Not purely because of the price, but also because of some circumstances: Some lecturers release book lists at the last minute, leaving you with no time to search for bargains or used books and you end up having to buy brand new books. Most colleges also change the books they use very frequently, and in such a situation, you can’t buy used books.

No matter what the situation, these tips can help you save the money you spend on college textbooks:

Start on campus. Make a list of the college textbooks you need and put it up on a campus noticeboard. If you are lucky, students who have already finished the course will sell the college textbooks you need for less than the price of originals.

Go to online bookstores. The most famous way to buy college textbooks for cheap nowadays is by using the internet. If you join this wave you will soon realize how unbelievably beneficial this is. In my time, this was a pretty new thing and students mostly just collaborated through email to trade, sell, and buy college textbooks. But now we also have online book vendors with very good bargains and diverse stocks including most college textbooks one might need. I managed to find 90% of the books I needed online.

There are many websites on the internet where you can buy books from. They offer very diverse options. Some websites sell old as well as new books. From some places you can find all the versions of a particular textbook. Find a site that describes the condition of the book in detail as this could prevent many problems. Some sites may offer you an option to get your book replaced if you discover that the book you got isn’t in the mentioned condition.

Get that number. An ‘ISBN number’ can be found on the rear cover of books near the barcode. This number is unique to the book and can be used to search specifically for that particular book on the internet. Many websites sell college textbooks for prices that are extraordinarily competitive when compared to the prices in local bookstores. The ISBN number will help you find the best deal for the right book.

Bid on it. College textbooks can even be found on most ordinary auction sites like eBay and Amazon. This is especially useful if the book you are looking for is hard to find; it could be one that’s no longer printed or maybe it’s one that’s autographed by someone special. You may be able to find books you normally wouldn’t find in other places. To be on the safe side, you should read all the information that’s posted about the product and be thoughtful before bidding or buying.

Not just money. Buying used college textbooks is advantageous not only cost-wise because some books can contain annotations and highlighted passages from the previous user. These marked up used textbooks will more likely than not be useful to you.

Get your money back. You can also sell your college textbooks online, there will be other students thinking just like you were a year back. This will be a great help to them. If the edition you have is new enough, you’ll have very little trouble selling it.

Good luck saving money on your college textbooks!

If you have questions about saving money on textbooks or www.bookase.com, you can email Amit Sehgal directly. Got other questions? Please feel free to ask The Advisor about it.