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where to buy used college textbooks
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Posted by carolj_1979 (My Page) on Tue, Aug 21, 07 at 18:34
| My daughter needs to buy college textbooks and would like to buy used. Anyone know of a reliable and reasonably priced website? Unfortunately, her friends sold theirs back to the college bookstore which isn't inexpensive even for used books. Thanks! |
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RE: where to buy used college textbooks
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| Amazon sells textbooks, new and used. I don't know how their prices are, but they do say they are offering free 2 day shipping on textbook orders over $200.00 and they claim used text books at up to 90% off. Powells books also sells new and used textbooks. Best bet is to go to these sites and check the prices on what you need. Amazon has always done a good job getting stuff to me, I have never ordered from Powells but I have been told they are good. I put the link to Powells below. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Powells Books
RE: where to buy used college textbooks
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| Make usre you know your ISBN numbers and start at www.half.com www.ebay.com and then www.amazon.com I typically get most of mine off half or ebay, although I do get the workbooks and other paperback type books, for the most part, new off amazon... amazon also sells used... there is typicaly a link on their "new" listing page to the used ones that you can get through them. You can also list your old books to sell there. I end up with a chart for each book... and the pricing from all those sites, and then go and pick the "best" pricing I can get.... also if you key the ISBN into the address lin of your browser (or into google) you will usually pul up a link to one of several sites that searches several used book sites... I typically try this too, although have never yet found better pricing than at half, ebay or amazon Good luck in your hunt |
RE: where to buy used college textbooks
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| Also try craigslist.org for your area. I agree, half.com is a great bargain book site. I've purchased used books at very good prices. Often the media rate mailing cost was more than the book cost. bn.com also has used listings for many books through their site. |
RE: where to buy used college textbooks
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| With two in college at the same time, I've had experience with used textbooks online. Amazon's used sections and eBay are two places I get most of them. I've also used www.abebooks.com, a consortium of used book stores. It's been around longer than Amazon's used section. Many of the same sellers will list on both lists. For one daughter I start with her online class list, which contains her books and their authors. I get the most recent edition and ISBN from Amazon. Of course, she goes to a college where they don't scream if you end up with an edition older than the one in use - they actually understand parents' budgets being a little crunched! My DD told of a class she took last semester where the newest edition was 5th. She was able to borrow her roommate's book from the previous semester, but one young man showed up in class with the book's first edition - he'd picked it up for a buck on eBay! The teacher laughed and helped him where the book differed. For the other daughter, who often has to crash classes in order to get them, we don't have the lead time that it takes to order books online. So we go to a place next to the campus. It just happens to be called Off-Campus Books - they pay a couple of more dollars for the used ones and sell them cheaper than the college bookstore. What frustrates me more than anything about the college textbook racket is selling them back. I paid $105 for a brand new book for DD#2 last semester, and they wouldn't buy it back at all. I'm going to have to learn to sell books on ebay or Amazon. DonnaR/CA |
RE: where to buy used college textbooks
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| My daughter's high school has us order our books thourhg varistybooks.com mind you I have never ordered from them in 5 years.... I go to their site when the boos are listed for the year, and then copy down the isbn's and the edition number and start to work with half.com, ebay and amazon... I order the workbook type books new from Amazon... they sell for about 25% off list and I always have enough for free shipping... I figure those toss away, write in workbooks can't be reused! Then I check for the best price I can find on half, ebay and amazon used... it usually takes me about a week or two to get one copy of everything... then the week before classes start I start to look for second copies of the 'large, heavy' texts she has... on ebay only... at this point most people stop buying there and you can usuall pick them up cheap... since they are second copies she then doesn't have to tote those heavy books back and forth every night... she can leave one set in her locker and one at home... this obviously doesn't work for you college students... but for the high school ones... there's you heads up from me... and for those who can manage to sneak by with out the book for the first couple of weeks of class... there's a possibility of how to get your books on the cheap too.... I list her books when school is done on both half.com and amazon used... and then deleted for one as soon as they sell from the other... |
RE: where to buy used college textbooks
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| I have been in school now for 2 years and i have been looking for a new way to get less expensive books and other supplies. There is a new website that is off of ebay's site that sells used books and you can sell your old ones on there as well. Its called half.com. I have saved a ton of money this year. |
RE: where to buy used college textbooks
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| Yes, Make sure you get the correction edition. It may be the same textbook name but an updated edition. And they may update the edition yearly. The reason they are so expensive and they won't buy them back sometimes. Aggravating. Also, make sure you guard your textbooks like a hawk towards the end of the year when the bookstores are buying them back. People rip them off and get $$ for them saying they are their textbooks. |
RE: where to buy used college textbooks
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| I used half.com for some of my books. But the best way to save the most money is to NOT buy books until your daughter finds out if they are actually NEEDED. There are so many professors who test and/or lecture from notes, powerpoint presentations, etc that textbooks are sometimes not worth buying at all. The books I bought were ones where 1) there were many assignments from the book (like math classes) 2) I thought they would be useful beyond the classroom (very few qualified on this except writing manuals, dictionaries, foreign language books) 3) the lectures/notes provided are terrible and I want additional resources available at all times (usually I'd just go to the library if it was just a section of the course I didn't understand- most textbooks are available there, but you can't check them out). You can usually tell pretty early in a course what kind of professor you have as far as lecturing ability. Make sure the textbooks are available in the library, just in case. I can tell you honestly that I bought a grand total of 2 textbooks in my entire undergrad career, a calculus book and a chemistry book. I got lucky on both counts and bought them both used from the university bookstore and sold them back (at 50% of purchase price). During vet school I bought more books because most are excellent resources in practice too. But I didn't buy any books for species I'm not going to work with (no horse, cow, pig, poultry books for me!). |
RE: where to buy used college textbooks
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| fetchbook.info Fetchbook is a search engine for online used book sellers. |
RE: where to buy used college textbooks
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GreenTextbooks.org
I would suggest using Save Money, Save The Planet
GreenTextbooks.org specializes in the recycling of textbooks, DVDs, CDs. Buying used textbooks not only saves you money, but cuts down on greenhouse gases caused by the manufacturing of new textbooks.
With GreenTextbooks.org you're not only saving trees, you are saving some green. http://www.GreenTextbooks.org |
Here is a link that might be useful: GreenTextbooks.org - Green Textbooks
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