One of the most frustrating aspects of budgeting in college is the cost of textbooks. Nobody thinks that they will be a major expense before they go, but when they can be as high as $900 a semester, coming up with ways to reduce the costs of textbooks becomes a high priority for many.
Paying full price for textbooks is a lot like walking into a car dealership and paying the sticker price listed on the car without even making an attempt to negotiate. While this is certainly something that you can do it, you will end up paying a lot more than you would be paying if you had done just a little bit of work. The following are ten ways that you can greatly reduce the amount your pay for textbooks:
1.
Find Out Which Books Your Really Need: The first thing you need to do is to take the time to find out what books are really needed for the class. Many professors place books on their lists that are rarely, if ever, used. Seek out students or teacher assistants that can tell you exactly what textbooks you will need. This is especially true for material that is listed as "optional" on the class material list.
2.
Use the Library: The best way to save on books is to not spend any money on them at all. Depending on where you go to school, you may be able to check out the textbooks you need or you may be able to access them in-library for a certain period of time each day. Most libraries have multiple copies of textbooks because publishing companies will send professors free textbook samples in an effort to promote their products. Many professors donate their free copies to the campus library.
3.
Purchase International Editions: One of the great secrets of college textbook sales is that the International edition of a textbook will usually be significantly cheaper (sometimes 90% off) than those produced for the US. While there may be differences between an international edition and a US edition, these differences are usually minimal and content is usually almost identical. Noticeable differences are that International editions may have a soft cover rather than a hard cover, or be entirely in black-and-white rather than having color images. You can search for International editions at places such as
abebooks.com
4.
Use an Online Book Swap Book swaps allow students to buy and sell their used books directly between each other rather than through a intermediary like the bookstore. This allows students to sell books for more than they would receive from the bookstore while students can buy them for less than the bookstore would sell them for. There are a number of online book swaps which cater to textbooks.
Campusbookswap.com is one run by students for students that is free of charge to use.
5.
Use Previous Editions: Once a new edition of a textbook comes out, prices for previous editions fall drastically and can be obtained used at deep discounts. Many times a new edition will be basically the same as the previous edition. If you see that a new edition is being used, contact the professor and ask if the previous edition is close enough to use for the class. You will be surprised at how many times it will be. If it is, ask if you can have a copy of the old class syllabus (since the new edition has different page numbers, the syllabus will likely be different).
6.
Borrow a Sample Copy. As mentioned above, professors often donate their sample copies to the library. In some cases, however, professors may not do this or they may keep an extra copy. There is a decent chance that the professor has a sample copy lying somewhere in his office. While the success of this tactic will depend greatly on the professor in question, it costs nothing to ask to borrow a sample copy and could mean a cost of $0 rather than $100+.
7.
Use Internet Auctions: Search sites like
and half.com for the textbooks you need. You can pick up the books you need for a fraction of what you would pay at your college bookstore and often much cheaper than even the used books for sale there.
8.
Use A Textbook Comparison Sites: There are now a large number of Internet websites that will search for the best price on a textbook across a large number of bookstores and sites selling textbooks and give you the location where you can get the best price for the books you are looking for without having to travel to many different websites. Simply do a search for "compare textbook prices" and you will have plenty to choose from.
9.
Get Textbooks In Electronic Form: If you don't mind your textbooks in electronic form, getting them this way instead of a traditional book could cut your costs by 50%. Electronic versions of textbooks are available from sites like
iChapters. If your taking a class that requires classic literature books, you can most likely downloaded them for free (if their copyright has expired) at sites like
Bartleby.
10.
Get Textbooks For Free By Viewing Advertising: A company called
Freeload Press may provide you some of your textbooks for free. Before you download the textbook, you fill out a short survey and then advertisements within the textbooks pay for the cost. The publishers still get paid and you get your textbook at no cost. While the current selection of textbooks is limited, it's worth checking out to see if any of your required books are available this way.
Taking the time to do a bit of research and looking at alternative sources to get the required textbooks for your classes will be well worth the time and effort with the savings you'll generate. The above options for getting your college course material alone should save you hundreds of dollars off of what you would pay at the college bookstore and that is money that goes right back into your pocket.
10 Ways To Drastically Reduce Textbook Costs
