best place for college textbook purchase online??

[mykidslovesdisney]

I am trying to help my nephew with the cost of college text books. He needs 4 more books at roughly $500 thru the college book store. I thougth I would try to find them online cheaper. Where would be the best place to look?? The books do need to come with a book code so he can do his lab work.

He is in his final year and just doesn't have enough for the textbooks. He did receive full scholarship for tuition this year instead of student loans.
I hate that he can't cover the cost of text books but then again why do they have to be soooo expensive??

He is going to email me the book info so I can look tonight.

If I can't find them cheaper than we can purchase him a gift card that he can use at the bookstore to get his books.

Any help would be great!

 

[mommy2twingles]

amazon, ebay and half.com. Only thing is how quickly does he need them. I know my classes started this past week. I could be 2-3 weeks till they arrive especially if they come media mail. Will this put him to far behind?

 

[plutolovr]

If he's looking to buy I would use half.com, however, my DD rented her textbooks for her last year at chegg.com. She saved a ton of money.

 

[mom2clr]

I agree with trying chegg.com to rent. Easy to use and cheap.

 

[JayT]

I got mine this year at Amazon, half.com, and Barnes&Noble.
Don't forget to use ebates or cashbaq for half.com or barnes & noble.com.

They did take about 2 weeks to arrive because they're through media mail. the college library may have a few extra copies, so he may be able to use those for now until his come in the mail

 

[Darcy03231]

I ordered DD's from Amazon. I ordered them last Saturday and they came in yesterday's mail. I bought hers new because they all came with either access codes or CDs and if you rent or buy them used they don't guaranty you'll get the CD's or access codes.

We ordered most of foster child's through Chegg. Ordered them Wednesday night and they're scheduled to be here on the 10th.

 

[StephMK]

I have found the best prices through textbooks.com or chegg.com. Maybe I got lucky but I ordered them all on a Tuesday and had all of them by the following Monday from 3 different sources.

If you rent them, most publishers have a website where you can buy the access code separately. He also might want to check w/his professors, some of mine never use the online stuff. I have not bought one yet and have done just fine without the online code but that may depend on the program too.

Congrats to him on the scholarship & how sweet of you to help him w/books. They are ridiculously expensive!

 

[Debbie Jean]

I have found the best prices through textbooks.com or chegg.com. Maybe I got lucky but I ordered them all on a Tuesday and had all of them by the following Monday from 3 different sources.

If you rent them, most publishers have a website where you can buy the access code separately. He also might want to check w/his professors, some of mine never use the online stuff. I have not bought one yet and have done just fine without the online code but that may depend on the program too.

Congrats to him on the scholarship & how sweet of you to help him w/books. They are ridiculously expensive!

I just checked one of the textbooks I am requiring of my students and it is selling in the bookstore for $114.50! However, I saw that you can rent the same edition for $42.50 at textbook.com. Since I won't be requiring the students to use the CD, this is immaterial and can save a lot of money. Be sure when you are comparing prices that you are using the same edition since textbooks update frequently.

Definitely something to check out.

 

[hsmamato2]

oh- thanks for all the info! ds started 1 math class at the community college last week....133.00 for the text next semester I am looking early online!

 

[delmar411]

I rented from Chegg.com as well as bought one book from there (wasn't available to rent, just purchase). I also bought all my online access codes separately (casegrader, simnet, aleks) as I already had the books from when DH took the same classes. I got some books from Amazon but the best prices are probably gone since most colleges have been in session a couple weeks now.

What could help you out is to find out the book titles and see if you can't find them that way. Several of my books had ISBNs that didnt' come up anywhere other than the college bookstore but in searching out the titles and checking to make sure the editions were correct, I managed to find them all other places.

 

[mykidslovesdisney]

OP here,
i just did an update but it never made it on here. man it was a long update/vent.

basically I haven't been able to find the books. only 1. Will check out the chegg site. the books actually cost $814 from the bookstore.

I dont' know what we are going to do. I think I am going to drop it in his lap and let him go to financial aid/advisor/someone and explain the situation. I can't see how they covered the tuition but no books for a kid that comes from a family that doesn't have a dime. We don't have that kind of money laying around. If I could drop a couple hundred off the cost that would make it a bit doable by a little bit.

he has missed assignments. has a bunch due this weekend and no books to do them with.

SIL just had her 2nd surgery for Breast Cancer this week. He is a wreck from dealing with that too. I emailed him to have have him tell someone so there might be help available to him.

Uggh I hate the feeling of this. There is soo much more but that is all I can handle now. If I think too much about it I start going crazy.

 

[mykidslovesdisney]

OP here again w/ a few ?'s

I checked out chegg.com and textbooks.com

when you do chegg.com it says it comes with the labs = does it really?? One book that is listed at $170 is only $79 on rental. That is a huge difference. Another one is $220.34 but rent for $83.49! right there that is $136.85. a $200 difference. Has everyone that used chegg been pleased?? I am worried about ordering and it not being correct. What happens if the book is lost/damaged??

Textbooks.com had a few of the books too. If I ordered from them I would knock $113 off the total of $814. Not as good as renting.

I jotted down all the prices and will email him again to tell him that I woud cover it if it is a rental and on the prices that I can find. That would make it roughly $515 w/ a mix of renting and buying.

I still think I want him to get to his advisor for assistance though

 

[mykidslovesdisney]

chegg.com does not guarentee the access codes which is what he needs so that changes that plan. It even says it in the title but not a guarentee.

I dont' remember buying textbooks being soo hard!

 

[Hannathy]

I just checked one of the textbooks I am requiring of my students and it is selling in the bookstore for $114.50! However, I saw that you can rent the same edition for $42.50 at textbook.com. Since I won't be requiring the students to use the CD, this is immaterial and can save a lot of money. Be sure when you are comparing prices that you are using the same edition since textbooks update frequently.

Definitely something to check out.

Please I hope you put this info out early for your students!! You can usually find the book at a more reasonable price but if you need the CD it often doubles the price.

I would jump for joy if my DD could buy her book at the bookstore for 114. try $190 for 1 and over $200 for the text and lab manual in another course.

I'm glad to see you are aware of the cost of the books you ask for, I think sometimes that gets lost on profs.

 

[Hannathy]

I found one of my DD's books at better world books, it was nicely priced and came quickly. I also used Amazon marketplace and others that have been mentioned.

 

[PatMcDuck]

I got DD one book thru Barnes and Noble, and they had free shipping, and it was not media mail. Came in a less than a week, I forget if it was USPS or UPS, but I think it was priority mail, USPS. She also got one book used at the school bookstore. The chemistry package set was over $200, a budget buster. All together, $500 for books, yikes.

 

[ajk912]

If he needs book codes it would probably be cheaper to just get them through the college. Those codes are $35-$65+ to buy separately, and can only be used ONCE, it's easy to say it's unused when it really is. My college bundles and though the books are pricey..$180 each..and they do come with codes and extra materials (my chem book comes with a study guide which I like, and my math book comes with the online code as well as an extra resource CD). Oh, and for my computer class I need a sam2007 code..same thing. If you need JUST the book, buying ala carte is fine, but if you need the bundle go to the college.

Also..have him check into getting student loans for his books. Since he got loans last year, hopefully it will be easy without a ton of paperwork.

 

[Malisa]

I've bought lots and lots of books online. Medical school books are the worst too. The best site I've found is www.gettextbooks.com on this site you type in the ISBN number and it tells you the cheapest place selling the book new and used. It has all the sites people mentioned plus others that tend to be cheaper. I used to search thru each site seperately until I found this one.

A thing about the book rentals I've never done it because usually I can find a used book for about the same price. Why would I rent a book when I could have a book forever for maybe $5-10 more? Also if you buy the book yourself you can resell it and make back usually at least 70% of what you paid. I've sold books on half and amazon and I tend to like selling on amazon better.

 

[JandJ]

like the PP mentioned, you need a site that searches all sites for the best price. You just need the book's ISBN. I've not gone on gettextbooks.com but I have used www.addall.com for in-print and used and out-of-print books to find the cheapest price. DH and I have had very good luck on that site. HTH!

 

[Soupermom]

I've had great luck purchasing new and used from Amazon. I believe they still have a promotion running that if you have a college (.edu) email address you can become a member of Amazon Prime for one year, free of charge. That gets me free shipping on most everything from Amazon.