How to Buy College Textbooks Online
College textbooks are one of the biggest expenses for college students. Online retailers often sell textbooks for lower prices than the college bookstore. Because of the shipping time required, you should purchase books before class begins in order to have them in time.
Instructions
-
-
1
Determine the author, title, edition and ISBN number for each textbook you need. You can find this information on the class syllabus or by contacting the professor before classes begin.
-
2
Ask your professor if you can use an older edition of the textbook. Publishers issue new editions every couple of years, but textbooks may not change much from one edition to the next. Previous editions of the book may be significantly cheaper than the current edition.
-
-
3
Search by the book title or the ISBN number at such websites as Amazon.com, Half.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, Biblio.com and AbeBooks.com for your textbooks. You may also find books by plugging the ISBN number of each textbook into Google.
-
4
Compare prices of books at retailer websites. There will be new and used copies from which to choose, which will enable you to find textbooks in your price range. Do not forget to take into account shipping costs.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Selling your books at the end of the semester will enable you to recover some of the money you spent on them.
Knowing the ISBN number for each book makes it easier to search for the books at online stores. This information may be available on the course syllabus. If you need to find this information for yourself, plug the author's name or the book title into an ISBN database. The results will include a description of the book and an ISBN number.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit books and apple. image by mashe from Fotolia.com
