I used this site called classbook when I began grad school, but that was way back in 1999. The prices were good for then. Sometimes Amazon also has good rates for textbooks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Classbook site

A lot of these students these days are pooling their resources and buying one copy of the textbook which is shared by two, three, or more students. This works best if they live in a dorm where they have fairly easy access to the book. Used books of course offer a chance to save, but they may not be available for all courses. If this is a small college, call the bookstores at a big university to see if they may have used copies of a book which is only available new from a smaller store.

Here's a link to another online discount textbook store.

Ken

Here is a link that might be useful: VarsityBooks.com

Amazon has a used book section. I got mine back in the mid 80's from a used book store that had the requirements right from the school in town.

If push comes to shove, NebrJewel, you know what to do!
:)

Gina

I had this site in my favorites.
It's a site by ebay.

Pooh Bear

Here is a link that might be useful: Half.com

Often there are lists of books available from individuals on bulletin boards around campus, with phone numbers.

Or - at least there used to be in the late '50s.

Also, mid- to late-'80s, when my young uns went.

(still) joyful

During my Junior and Senior years of college I figured out that all of the textbooks were available in the school library. I checked them out at the beginning of the semester, renewed the checkout every few weeks and kept them all semester. Free books!

The half.com website is a great one. Formerly, I taught classes at a community college and very often had my students get their $80 math books from them. They were almost always less than $20 and in near new condition. Once a student got his brand new math book for $5. He was so happy and I bet his parents were even happier!

Hi all,

Isn't that the kind of person that we can all admire ...

...one who helps not herself but her clients to find a product that retails for $80.00 ...

marked down to *five bucks*!

Thanks, sadiesmom! I hope that Sadie appreciates your qualities - and is proud of you!

joyful - for such people: would there were more of them

Thanks, joyful! What a nice way to start my day. You know, the management at the college bookstore was not very pleased with those of us advertising that website, but so many of those community college students were "on the edge" financially, that an $80 textbook (and that wasn't even one of the expensive ones) would sometimes be the proverbial "straw", if you know what I mean.

As an aside, Sadie is my beloved cocker spaniel who came to us, almost miraculously from a shelter 2000 miles from my home. My kids (8 and 11) do say they are proud of me but that kind of talk is usually followed by a request for something--so only time will tell!!

Sadiesmom, aka Theresa

Hi again sadiesmom/Theresa,

Is that called, "buttering up the hand that feeds you"?

When you heard that kind of talk, did your inner voice say, "Yeah, yeah - and what do you want, this time?"

Actually - sometimes the appreciation is sincere and without seeking for something tangible in return.

How much additional happiness and pleasure it would add to our society and its people if many of us expressed our thankfulness and appreciation for what others are or have done, much more often.

At a cost of a mental willingness to appreciate, a few thoughts, a few words, or just a hug, and a snippet of time.

Bargain.

joyful

Thanks for all of your suggestions. She did find a few used ones and returned the new ones. One problem we encountered was that the University switched to a new version chemistry book which limited those available.

Yeah, they're good at that ...

... "new, revised edition".

still joyful

Here's another site worth checking:

betterworldbooks.com

There was a program on TV about them recently. I think shipping is free.

Good call, Joyful, you're on your toes!

But this is a timely post, what with school starting up soon.

I raised my grandsons and they came to me with some pretty poor habits. One was 'forgetting' to bring home the textbook from school so they 'couldn't' do their homework. I solved that problem by going down to the school and getting the ISBN number off each book I expected them to need and then I ordered the book to keep at home. Usually I used Half.com or Amazon. I could get a $100 book for sometimes as little as $10. I did this all through their middle school and high school years. One of my grandsons was a destructive kid and he would mistreat his school books terribly. So it made me feel better to be able to donate the textbooks I bought at the end of the year as he was better supervised at home and didn't tear things up.

My grandmother had all kinds of sayings, and one was, "It's an ill wind that blows NO good."

I use abebooks.com to find the best deal on used books (including textbooks) - they index many used book sellers (one of which is betterworld books, which offers free shipping and I believe a significant portion of their sales goes to charity).

I save hundreds every semester!

If you don't plan to keep the books, another option is to rent them (one example site that does this is linked below). My students tell me that this is cheaper than the amount they eventually lose after selling back their books at the end of semester - usually for a fraction of the purchase price. This is especially useful for new books, when the supply of cheap used copies on amazon hasn't developed yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: chegg

two popular sites these days are chegg and bookrenter (review of those sites linked) - i don't have personal experience with these sites but i've heard that they are a good way to save money, let alone save trees by recycling books.

I returned to school 2 years ago and after hours wasted searching for the best price (chegg, half, amazon, abe's, etc.) I found amazon to be the best route for me. I buy the cheapest edition I can find, and don't bother with the edition. Most info is the same, just maybe new graphics/pics added and page number changes. I would just compare the section with person next to me to get on my cooresponding page and follow along.

A bio teacher told us once she didn't care which edition we used, as the info is the same. Since then, I never pay full price for new editions. I spend about $6-12 a text. Never had a problem. Take that back. Math I needed current edition for the password to the website where we posted homework/did work. That cost me about $80 on amazon. Would have been $145 from bookstore at school.

Good luck!

don't usually frequent this particular forum, but wandered on today. I have found amazon and barnes and noble to be pretty good, and you can link to other sites through them, like bookbytes, ecampus, etc. I have bought from just about all of them, including half.com and have only had problems once. I have also recently tried renting on barnes and noble, and found it to be easy and cheap, and i don't have to try to sell the book back now, which is always a chore. There are a lot of internet book buyers that stake out each campus these days, so they are snoggling all the used books up.