How to Save Money When Buying College Textbooks

It's that time of the year again when college begins and there is a mad scramble to buy textbooks for courses. Suffering from first time sticker shock when you look at the astronomical textbooks, whether as a parent of a freshman or a neophyte freshman wandering into the college bookstore for the first time? You're not alone.

Cosumerist has two recent blog postings that you might be interested in. The first post warns you about how textbook publishers are fighting the used book market by pushing high-priced "textbook packets." The second post, College Textbooks: Shop Around, Ask Yor Professor, And Save offers tips and strategies on saving money when buying college textbooks.

Here are my tips for saving money on textbooks, from my own experiences many years ago as a perpetually broke graduate student:

1. If you're on campus, head over to the campus bookstore, look up the textbooks assigned for your courses, take note of the ISBNs, and then hit the web (Amazon, etc) to see whether you can find a used edition at a lower price. In particular, Amazon Marketplace is filled with students flooding the market with textbooks they don't want to keep.
   


2. If it is a bundled package, try e-mailing your professor or TA to find out what exactly is in the bundle, and what you really need for the course.


3. If the current edition is too expensive, you could buy an older edition but check with your professor or TA before doing so. I doubt that there are major changes in Philosophy or Literature textbooks, but you might need the latest information for your engineering or psychology courses.


4. Look up your college bulletin boards, textbook exchanges, etc. There might be students who are looking to sell off their previously used textbooks.