College Textbooks - 9 Ways to Find Cheap College Textbooks

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic by 9 people | Log in to rate

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College Textbook advice

This is the place to get information about the college textbook market.  You'll find the economics of the market, and most importantly how to find discount textbooks.

Nine Ways to Find Cheap College Textbooks 

How to save money on textbooks.

1. You can't learn everything on campus.
You already knew this one, but there is no higher priced textbook than the one you find at the campus bookstore. It is a huge profit center for most universities. I once heard someone joke that there is more money to be made breaking into a bookstore than a bank.
2. Rock out with an oldy.
Textbook companies constantly release new editions of their textbooks, so you will have to buy new textbooks each semester (and they can sell more new books). Often however, the newest edition of a textbook has very little changes from the old one. Ask your instructor how close the old edition is to the new one. (They review each new edition) The only thing to keep in mind is that it can often be hard to sell back old editions. Usually you will save more on your purchase of an old edition than you would get back from the purchase of a new edition.
3. Have you heard of the internet?
Of course you have. And you know there are tons of web sites to comparison shop for cheap textbooks. Use them! At TextBook Nook.com we list our books on not only our website, but shopping sites like:
Google Products
Shopwiki.com
Other good ones are:
amazon.com
shopping.yahoo.com
half.com
4. Wouldn't it be great if you had all the answers?
You didn't hear it from me, but you can often find the instructor's edition or annotated edition of textbooks online for a lower price than the student version. Just search for "instructor" or "annotated" with the title and author on the above shopping sites. Again, they can be hard to sell back, but you will save more money than you would sell back for anyway.
5. Try facebook.
You are already on facebook right? Maybe you didn't know you can trade, buy, or sell college textbooks there. Here's a good article: Find Cheap College Textbooks with Facebook.
6. You can't beat free.
Ask your teachers to start using free textbooks. There are more and more available online every day. Here are a few websites:
Wikibooks
Textbookrevolution
Your instructors write textbooks, but believe it or not, they don't really make any money off of them. Suggest the next one they write be free to everyone.
7. Take a trip.
Believe it or not textbook publishers often sell the same textbook to other countries at lower prices. You could fly over there, but that probably won't save much in the long run. Look online for one from another country. You may pay more for shipping, but you'll save overall.
8. Rent a book
Many colleges and universities are now starting book rental programs to keep the price of books down for students.
9. TextBook Nook.com
One more shameless plug.

Where do you save the most on your textbooks? 

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Ways Textbook Publishers Increase Profits 

while putting the squeze on students.

  • Introduce new editions of textbooks every 3 years.
    Textbook publishers don't make any money off of used books, so they change the new one as often as possible to sell more new books.
  • Inelastic demand
    I think I missed this class in school, but Econ professor explains it well. Basically, this means there is only one textbook a student can choose for a class, so if the textbook is new a publisher can charge whatever they want.
  • Online extras
    Lots of college textbooks come with an online log in code to their website that can only be used once. These are promoted to teachers as easy ways to give quizzes and tests, but for the student joining the class means they need an individual online code. There is only one way to get a new online code...Buy a NEW book.
  • Bundle a CD
    Usually these CDs get separated from their texts, so they can be hard to find. If the instructor requires it, then students often need to get a new book.

Don't take my word for it 

Here are some articles that agree

Professor Review Copy
Goes into legality of professors selling their free textbooks.
Hypothetical Bias
How publishers drive up price.
Academic publishers reap profits
Great article about how publishers are making lots of money.
Textbook prices increase
Textbook prices increase, A new report is released on the high cost of books
Rip-off 101: How The Current Practices Of The Textbook Industry Drive Up The Cost Of College Textbooks - U.S. PIRG
The title says it all.

Oh Contraire Mofrair 

Some differing opinons (but not correct ones) ;-)

APS Observer - Why Are Textbooks So Expensive?
If Dr. Henry L. Roediger, III had a comment section I would ask why he is worried about preserving textbook publishers profits over a student's education. He would be a great candidate for using a free textbook for his classes. If only he would read this.
Course Requirement: Extortion
Claims the used book market is the cause of the high prices for textbooks.

Do publishers make too much money off students? 

Do used books or publishers drive up the cost of textbooks?

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Used Books

thomslater says:

Publishers are raping students and tax payers out of the cost of text books. It is absolutely one of the most ludicrous expenses in our education system today. We can buy laptops for each student and make the info digital for half of what we pay for hard bond text books.

As a matter of fact, just go to Online Colleges and download your text books and professors from home.

Posted April 15, 2008

Publishers (that want more profits)

bondguy says:

Thanks for the article and you are right about the monopoly that professors and publishers have with college textbooks. I cant wait until more textbook titles are available for e-readers like the kindle.

Posted January 28, 2009

jstonedotorg says:

The publishers drive up the price of textbooks to get more profits. They will tell you they are struggling to survive, but they are making the most money of anyone in the chain.

Posted December 22, 2007

 

What the doctor says. 

A Note from John E. Stone, professor at ETSU and president Education Consumer's Clearinghouse

Here are a couple of points you might want to consider about textbooks, how professors use them, and whether you get your money's worth:

1. Professors are not bound to follow textbooks. In fact, many do not.

Textbooks are written and edited to be marketable to a wide range of professors. They typically provide much more material than any one professor covers in a given course.

Experienced professors typically assign readings of certain pages--the pages that are relevant to their lectures. Textbooks may be updated as often as every three years but professors' lectures may change very little over decades--so the same material is usually in successive editions but just on different pages.

Learning assigned readings and studying lecture notes are proven ways to get a grade, but are you getting your money's worth?

2. College costs you an enormous amount of money. You burn up savings that could have gone into your pocket and you will probably go into debt. Then there is the money that you could have earned by putting that same time and effort into a paying job. If all you get out of college is a degree in underwater basket-weaving and a bunch of debt, you may have a hangover for years.

What you are paying for by going to college is an opportunity to add value to yourself. If you waste it, the job market will eventually let you know about it and there is no way to get your money back.

Educaiton Consumer's Clearinghouse

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One other tip 

When you buy textbooks online be sure to leave feedback about your transaction somewhere online. This will help others. (Karma) One good place to leave reviews (that is very easy) is RateitAll. I have made a Rateitall page for college textbooks.

Leave Your Rating of Online Textbook Sellers at RateItAll.com

by jstonedotorg

Former college student, and head of marketing for textbooknook.com. (more)

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