Buying Discount Textbooks
College textbooks can be expensive—adding up to many hundreds of dollars each semester. For the cash-strapped college student, saving a few bucks could give your already-tight budget quite the needed breather.
Many college textbooks can be bought at discount prices. The most common way to do this is to try and get your textbooks "used” at your college bookstore. The used books are often snatched up early; however, so get there first to increase your chances of finding those you need.
Another option is to purchase your books online from major booksellers. Large book distributors like Amazon (http://www.amazon.com), Barnes and Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com), and Books-A-Million (http://www.booksamillion.com) have an excellent selection of books as well as low used prices. Even E-bay (http://www.ebay.com), if you have time to wait for an auction, or E-bay's http://www.half.com offer lower prices. Make sure that you are purchasing the correct book; check the author, title, publisher, and edition number, or just the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) to ensure it's the same as that required for your class. Aside from large retailers, there are also discount online booksellers that specialize in college textbooks, offering them at lower prices. You can search for discount textbooks online using your favorite search engine. Also, shop around before making your final purchase. Compare the prices offered at several online retailers as well as your student bookstore to make sure you're getting the best value.
Another possibility is to ask your professor if the previous edition would also be permitted. Often publishers make minor changes to textbooks, only switching the order of chapters or sections around and revising small areas; though the book contains almost exactly the same information. The textbook industry is a business after all, and the publishers won't make a profit off of the sale of used textbooks!
A final idea is to share textbooks with a classmate. If your roommate has the same class at a different time or different day, for example, perhaps you can use it on alternate days. Just make sure you won't both need it for assignments or studying at the same time—for heavily used textbooks it is often better to have your own!
Schuette, B. (Reviewed 2017). Buying discount textbooks. Raleigh, NC: Workplace Options.