Are you a college student who is about to start a new academic year? You are probably wondering where you will find the money to buy your textbooks. The price tags on college books can be astonishing and they keep increasing.
If you want to avoid this crippling expense, follow these tips:
Use ISBN numbers
Make use of ISBN numbers when doing comparison-shopping. Whilst you are at the campus bookshop, make sure that you write down the ISBN numbers as well as the prices of used and new books. Once you have this information, you can use it to shop around at online shops: Amazon, Barnes & noble, and EBay.
If you want to save time, you should use comparison-shopping sites such as SwoopThat to make your job easier.
Beat the crowds
Your campus bookstore is the fastest and simplest way to get the books that you need.
However, it can also be the most expensive. That being said, you should beat the crowds if you want to get the best prices. The minute you come up with your list of required textbooks, you should rush to the campus bookstore to buy the cheap used textbooks.
Say goodbye to hardcopy books
According to a recent study, 75 percent of students prefer hardcopy textbooks even though they can read eBooks on iPads, Kindle, as well as other platforms. Although print is nice, electronic books are a lot cheaper. At several online sites, you will be given the option of buying print, audio, or digital books.
If you choose to read your eBooks online, you can highlight the important areas and make notes inside the margins, just as you would with a print copy.
Rent books on Kindle
You can easily rent the books that you need from Kindle at a much cheaper price. To read the rented books, you do not need to own a Kindle: you can access the books from your computer or laptop using free kindle reading apps.
Rent textbooks some other way
Just like with online movie rentals, you can rent your textbooks online instead of buying them. When you do this, the savings can be substantial as long as you return the books in time to prevent them from being converted to purchases. You should also check whether your university or college offers book rental services to help you save money.
Free downloads
Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on a single textbook, you should check whether there are free downloads online. Many books in the classic literature category can be downloaded for free at a number of websites such as Project Gutenberg.
Form a book-sharing union
Do you know other students who are taking your major? If you do not, you should meet as many of them as possible and form a book-sharing group. You should form a group of friends who share, sell, and buy books with each other at greater prices.
Visit the library
The library does not charge anything if you want to read a book. Many colleges stock their libraries with copies of textbooks that you can use free of charge. If the book that you are looking for is not in your library, you should check whether the county or city library has copies.
This approach can backfire if the libraries do not have the book.
Sell your books with care
When selling last year’s books, you should do so with care. Consider textbook buyback websites and your campus bookstore when selling your old books. If the campus store only offers a fraction of what you spent on the book, look elsewhere.
