How to Get the Best Deal on Used College Textbooks

Buying used books can be a great financial decision for most students. If you plan correctly, you can often get a significantly better deal buying the book used and plus be able to resell it for practically what you paid for it! Here are a few tips that you should consider and that should help you get most of your textbook shopping done in one day:

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Desire to get the best deal on college textbooks with a reasonable amount of search time.

1. Shop Early As Possible: This mainly applies to college freshman who may not know to do this. Everything is so new and busy that first semester that it can be overwhelming at first. You at least need to start shopping for books before the first day of class however. Otherwise, most of the used books are going to be taken.
2. What you want to do next is find out all the ISBNs (the numbers listed on the back of the book above the bar code) and the campus store prices of all the textbooks you need. If you have your schedule and class numbers, the campus store shelves will be labeled with what books you'll need for each class even a few weeks ahead of time. Write all of this information down.
3. Compare Prices: On the same day you visit the campus store, take the time to visit the (usually nearby) off-campus textbook stores. These you will likely give you a slightly better deal, both on buying your books or selling them back. Before you do this however, read on.
4. If you don't have Internet on your cell phone, call a friend or relative and have them look up all the ISBNs of the books you need. Amazon.com and Half.com (operated by eBay) are two online bookstores that I've used and trust. If the off-campus store has the cheaper price over both web sites on any of your books, you're already there to buy them. It's rare, but on the occasion that the campus bookstore is the cheapest you shouldn't be too far away from it either.

Tips & Warnings

• When you get into your upper-level and major courses, you can sometimes network with other students and either buy or trade with each other the books that you need. In some cases, this can be a really great deal for both sides.
• I hate to say this, but sometimes you have to avoid getting "help" at the campus store. My first semester I was advised to get all kinds of study guides and extra materials that I never needed or used, costing me another $50 that I couldn't get back due to these are rarely bought back even if they're unused. I didn't know any better, but it was still frustrating.