Cheapest college textbooks website

[spima3]

I am looking for the website where you plug in the ISBN number and it lists "every" seller and their individual prices.

This would include all the regular sites, like Amazon, Chegg, Bookrenter, etc.

I know I read about it here first, but can not find it anywhere, nor can I find the origial thread.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

thx

 

[pryncess527]

The University I work for provides a comparison site like you describe for our students, but only for our students and our classes/textbooks. But, you might start with the college in question and see if they offer something similar. My University bookstore is actually non-profit, so regularly beats other sites.

If not though, try bookfinder.com

 

[repowife]

I like www . textbookrentals . com

 

[texasroni75]

... try bookfinder.com

That's what DD and I use to find our books. Lists new in one column and used in another, and even book rental options. It shows all the different sites that have it with the current prices.

 

[Colleen27]

Bookfinder.com is the one I've been using and I'm pretty sure I first read about it here. Now if only the book requirements for winter term would be published in time to have some options other than the terribly overpriced school bookstore.

 

[mrsboz]

subscribing.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Try Nacs corp.

 

[Eastern]

I usually find the best deals on Amazon. Plus, I know that if anything is wrong with the book, Amazon doesn't give me any problems.

It seems that lately, used book prices have gone up, and rentals are the way to go.

 

[Colleen27]

I usually find the best deals on Amazon. Plus, I know that if anything is wrong with the book, Amazon doesn't give me any problems.

It seems that lately, used book prices have gone up, and rentals are the way to go.

The whole rental thing seems a little overrated to me. All it is, as far as I can see, is a hedge against the possibility of a new edition coming out and not being able to resell your books at the end of the term. I rented two texts this term, each for about $20 less than buying good-used copies would have cost. Right now, Amazon is buying one for $42 and the other for $21 (and that's just their gift-card instant buyback; I didn't look to see what the prices are on Half.com or through the school bookstore). So in both cases my long-run cost would have been lower if I'd bought and resold than they were by renting.

 

[HM]

I've used a variety of methods for getting books, both rental and purchase. I like Amazon and Chegg the best, but I've been surprised by the number of books that you can only get at the school bookstore each semester. I'm going to have to look into Bookfinder.com... Thank you.

As to buy-backs... I've never had great luck with that, until this term. DD had a book we paid for used at Chegg for $168. They bought it back for $162! $6 to use the book for a semester? Yes!
On the other hand, I have a large stack of books in our 'office' that we were not able to sell back at all over the years. Most of the time, we've only received a modest amount of money for the books they will take.

 

[niffer5150]

i love chegg. they are really easy to work with.

 

[pryncess527]

I usually find the best deals on Amazon. Plus, I know that if anything is wrong with the book, Amazon doesn't give me any problems.

It seems that lately, used book prices have gone up, and rentals are the way to go.

I've had the opposite experience! I have yet to find a situation where renting worked out cheaper, for me. We are on 15 week semesters, and most rental periods are 60, 90, or 120 days -- so we end up having to pay the rental fee 3+ times, and by then have spent more than it would have cost to buy the book. Plus, with nothing left over to resale.

I'm sure it works in some cases, or the businesses would not exist -- and is probably great for mini-mesters where you only need one short rental, but for an entire semester with the texts professors in my area seem to select, it never works out.

 

[tiggerluver12]

Funny you should ask. I JUST bought all of my daughter's books for spring semester. Used:

textbooks.com
valorebooks.com
chegg.com

School bookstore wanted around $500 for 8 books, got them for until $175. Most are rentals for the semester.

Happy textbook shopping!!

 

[Ephany]

Thank you for this. My DH is going back to school and wanted to stop by the bookstore to pick everything up.

 

[ErinC]

We've used valore once, but mostly chegg. I rented 3 books for my daughter and bought one from chegg Sunday night total cost $105, free shipping. Would have been over $500 from her school bookstore. Chegg makes it easy. You can't beat $20-30 for rental on a a book that would have cost me 75-150 even used. When the semester is over you get to ship them back for free. No hassle of reselling or them not buying it back. I did buy one book last semester off ebay for $200 (school wanted $300). Chegg is giving me $149 for the buy back on it. I'm pretty pleased with that too. When I was searching websites the other night I used slugbooks. It gave me both own and rent prices for several websites.

 

[alicat130]

One of my professors once told us to buy one edition back. Most of the time an edition change is for something very small. I did this for all of my major textbooks (not lab or supplemental materials) and would usually get all my textbooks for $100 or less. I never had any issues using an older edition.

 

[angierae]

I've had the opposite experience! I have yet to find a situation where renting worked out cheaper, for me. We are on 15 week semesters, and most rental periods are 60, 90, or 120 days -- so we end up having to pay the rental fee 3+ times, and by then have spent more than it would have cost to buy the book. Plus, with nothing left over to resale.

I'm sure it works in some cases, or the businesses would not exist -- and is probably great for mini-mesters where you only need one short rental, but for an entire semester with the texts professors in my area seem to select, it never works out.

My current amazon book rental was placed on 1/2 and isn't due back until 5/31, and my semester ends the first week of April.

 

[j's m]

http://www.dealoz.com/price/index is the one I've been using for 3 years.