As every college student and parent of a college bound child knows, purchasing required textbooks for college can be quite expensive. My children and I use the following strategies when shopping for textbooks to save money.
Buy Used When Possible
Check with your college's bookstore to make certain that the same edition of a textbook is being used, but when possible, check local flyers on campus for individuals listing their textbook for sale. Often, an individual will sale their book for less than what you can buy it used at the campus bookstore or even many online sites. The thing to remember when utilizing this method is that you cannot procrastinate, but you need to seek out individuals selling their books early in the season. One of my daughters saved over a hundred dollars per textbook by taking the same classes a friend had taken the semester before and buying her textbooks. If you have a friend taking a class that you are interested in, and it's offered the following semester with the same required textbook, you may want to work out something with your friend before the current semester is over. The semester that my daughter used this strategy she saved $500.
Check Online Sites for Used Textbooks
Again, make certain that you are searching online for the correct edition of a given textbook, but check online sites such as Amazon.com and Half.com for used and discounted listings of textbooks. Even many book retailers such as Barnes and Noble now offer used textbooks online. One of my daughters used this strategy to save half off the cost of her textbooks for a semester. She saved even more by redeeming the points she earned through her credit card's rewards program for a gift card at the online retailer which she then used to pay for her purchase. What would have cost over $600 at the campus bookstore for new textbooks ended up being under $300, and after applying her gift cards, she paid less than $150 out of pocket for the purchase. This is a savings of $450 for this semester.
Check the Campus Bookstore for Rental Prices
Many college bookstores now rent textbooks at less than half the price to buy a new or used copy of the same textbook. This method of acquiring textbooks for the semester has been gaining popularity. My son recently utilized this method and paid less than a third of the cost of what it would have been to buy the textbooks new. As a math major, my son's textbooks normally cost $150 to $200 each if he buys them new from the campus bookstore. Since he began renting these textbooks, he has saved at least $105 per textbook a semester. He normally takes 5 to 6 classes a semester, so he saves over $500 a semester on his textbooks.
Don't Save Textbooks, but Don't Sell Them Back to the Campus Bookstore either
You can almost always make more money by reselling textbooks on your own through a flyer listing, or listing it online. Last semester the campus bookstore offered by daughter $5 to buy back an art textbook that she had paid $88 for at the start of the semester. The class wasn't being taught again until the following year, making it unlikely that the same edition of the textbook would be used, but she was able to sell it for $36 on Amazon to a college student attending a different school.
Many of these tips may seem like common sense, but thousands of college students buy new textbooks each semester. One excuse for this practice that we have often heard is that students can't afford to buy the books outright before the semester begins, so they "charge" the textbook at the campus bookstore to be redeemed when their financial aid posts to their account. I have heard many of the same students say that it's not "worth" the effort to look for ways to save on their textbooks when their aid is "free money" and it doesn't "cost" them anything to purchase their books this way. Personally, I think it would be worth it to take a part time job or budget to save a few hundred dollars to buy their books early, and used, so that they would save money on their purchase and then have a larger "refund" of their aid money later.
I currently have three children in college, they save an average of $500 each a semester on their textbooks by following these simple tips. That is a savings of $3,000 a year in textbook purchases, and this does not include the money that they make when they later sell their textbooks online.
With the costs of college tuition and expenses rising each year, it does not make any sense to buy textbooks new. With a little planning you can save hundreds of dollars each semester when purchasing textbooks.
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