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How I Saved $300 on Textbooks

Textbook publishers are really good at one thing: making money. They frequently make minor changes in order to put out a new edition, and they love to confuse teachers, students, and bookstores alike by bundling online components, discs, workbooks, and solutions manuals with their textbooks.

Usually college bookstores work hard to lower the cost for their students, but the necessity of stocking a large quantity of the same edition of a book in decent condition and still make some profit means that they are rarely the cheapest option, even if you buy used.

Even though I love my college’s bookstore and have spent the past year working there, I haven’t bought my textbooks there since my first term as a freshman, with one exception. (There was one book I couldn’t get any cheaper and buying locally saved me shipping costs.) Instead, I’ve been buying online and routinely reducing the cost of my textbooks by 60% or more.

As an English major, I have to buy a lot of books. I needed twelve this term. It should have cost me $400-$500 (depending on used or new prices), but instead, I only paid $180. Could you use an extra $300 or so this term? Read on to find out how I did it.

Gather Information Early

If you don’t want to pay premium prices for your textbooks, you need to start looking early. As soon as you register for your classes, find out if the bookstore has information for next term’s course materials. Get the name, author, and edition, or the ISBN number for each book you need. But please note: sometimes bookstore staff cannot give you the ISBN number. No worries, however. I’ve gone without the ISBN number for six terms and I have never bought the wrong item.

No luck at the bookstore? E-mail your professors. They will usually be able to tell you what textbook is required and what is optional, and might even mention that old editions are fine. Bonus: You’ll be introducing yourself to them early and establishing yourself as a proactive student who cares about their class.

The other question you need to answer is whether or not the teacher always uses every textbook. Go to your fellow students with this one, either on campus or on a website such as RateMyProfessors.com. If you find out that a teacher consistently requires five textbooks and only uses three, you may be able to save money by waiting to purchase your books until they are needed.

Seek the Lowest Price

Once you know exactly what you need, it’s time to start searching. Your best bet for the lowest price is probably to buy online. If you prefer to deal locally, though, check the bulletin boards around school and your student e-mail to see if any students are selling for a lower price than the bookstore. It helps to know how much the books cost at your bookstore before you begin—it’s possible that you might not be able to find a lower price for a book and will save money by not having it shipped if you need to buy online.

For several terms, I did all of my comparison shopping online manually by using the shopping tab on Google and by checking Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Half.com for each book. You can certainly conduct your search this way—especially if you have a preferred store—but there are easier ways to comparison shop.

I now use BigWords.com for my comparison shopping. I can select all of my textbooks and it will search for the lowest prices across a wide range of stores. It’s a powerful searching tool with a lot of adjustable preferences. Here are some things you’ll want to consider when you’re comparing:

• Condition of the book: Are you willing to use books with writing inside, frayed edges, broken spines or bent covers? As long as the pages are intact, you will get the same information out of a well used copy as you would a new copy.
• Edition of the book: If the teacher said that you can use an old edition, do so. I bought an edition of the Norton Anthology of English Literature from 1996 for $1. Shipping was $3.99. It sold new for something like $80!
• Shipping cost: Compare the bookstore price to your used book price + shipping. Buy multiple books from the same store to save on shipping.
• Shipping speed: Ideally, you should be looking for textbooks a week or two in advance, so you should have plenty of time for them to arrive. But if you’re in a hurry, shipping may be more expensive. Look for sellers within your state or only a few states away if you don’t want to pay for next day air.
• Convenience: BigWords has a feature that compares the lowest possible prices for each book to the lowest possible prices at a single store. It may be more convenient to buy from one store (and nearly as cheap). Also, if the price of the book + shipping is greater than or equal to that of the bookstore, just buy it locally.
• International editions: You may encounter international editions of textbooks. Usually these have the exact same content and are a lot cheaper than the US edition, but be careful. It might not be true of your book and it’s harder to sell the book back.
• Instructor editions: Sometimes you come across an instructor’s edition of a textbook. Don’t be fooled into buying one. These editions do not have the same information as the student edition. It could be a real nightmare attempting to actually learn the course material without a textbook that actually teaches.
• eBooks: With the release of the iPad, these will surely become more popular. If you can find a textbook in eBook form, you might save even more.
• Rentals: You can also rent textbooks for specific periods of time. You won’t be able to recoup any of your money by selling the book back and there may be other restrictions, but this might be a good option for some people.
• Additional materials: Be sure to know if you need the CD, online component, etc. Check the comments about each item you look at to see if these things are included. Avoid buying the edition with the CD if you don’t need it, and be sure you get the CD if you know you do need it.
• Shady sellers: If you’re buying from an individual seller on a site such as Amazon’s Marketplace, make sure they have positive feedback. Never buy from a seller with a lot of bad ratings unless you like to gamble.
• Tax: Don’t forget that you may be charged sales tax depending on where you and the seller live. This is rarely a deal breaker, but it will affect your total cost, especially if you’re like me and you live in a state with sales tax but attend school in a state without.

Once you find good prices for your books, buy them. It’s true that another seller may list an item for an even lower price, but it’s just as likely (or perhaps more likely) that someone else will buy the lowest priced book before you. More importantly, you need to make sure you get all of your textbooks on time. The earlier you order, the less stressed you will be if something should go wrong with your order and cause a delay.

Other Strategies for Saving

This post has so far assumed that you want to purchase your own copy of your textbooks in the first place, but a lot of people get by without doing so. If you anticipate that you won’t be doing much reading (either because it’s unnecessary or you simply skip it), then you may want to utilize library copies when you do need the textbook. There may be other places at school where you can borrow books. Schools usually have a lot of different student support programs, some of which may lend out textbooks for free. Teachers may also have copies that they lend out to students in financial need.

If borrowing is not an option, look into sharing a textbook with a friend or a family member. The closer you are to the person and the more often you see them, the better. You need to make sure that you will have access to the book when you need it, but by sharing you can guarantee 50% savings on your textbook.

For those of you taking a course in English, History, Philosophy, or another subject where you are likely to be reading some very old books (primary sources), many of your readings may be public domain. You can find the works of Shakespeare, Plato, and many others online for free. Unless you must read the supplemental information in your textbook, or need a specific translation or abridged version of a text, never, ever, ever purchase a big expensive edition of the complete works of Shakespeare. Instead, go to Project Gutenberg.

Once the term comes to an end and book buyback rolls around, be sure to find out if you need the same book next term before selling it. Also, it may be worth it to check how much you can make by selling the book back to an online retailer and know those prices when you go to sell your book. If they only offer you $1 for a book at the buyback (this has happened, no joke!) and getting money back is important to you, sell it online instead.

And for any of those who are unsure about selling back the book they bought online, yes, you can absolutely do so. You are not returning your textbook. You are recycling it, and they are literally buying it from you. So don’t feel guilty—even if you happen to make a profit in the end!

So there is the exhaustive list of my textbook buying knowledge. Do you have any other tips for lowering the cost of your textbooks? If so, share by leaving a comment!

Photo Credit: miyagisan – licensed under Creative Commons.