Ordering college textbooks online?

[golfgal]

I have looked at Barnes and Nobel, Amazon and the school bookstore but are there any other good sites to buy or rent college textbooks that you have used? Thanks

 

[browneyes106]

I haven't used this site but some posters here have said that chegg.com is a great site. My boyfriend recently rented a couple of books from cengage.com which rents selected titles from certain companies. So far he liked it. He also rented a textbook from textbooks.com

 

[Christine]

I had very good luck from individual sellers on half.com.

 

[NatashaDisneyCM]

half.com is awesome!!

 

[comicguy]

I have bought and sold many of my college texts on half.com. I really love the site!!!

 

[golfgal]

Thanks. I looked at half.com and the prices there are about the same as the rest of the sites I have found. They didn't have most of his books though.

 

[Christine]

Thanks. I looked at half.com and the prices there are about the same as the rest of the sites I have found. They didn't have most of his books though.

It can be real hit or miss. I just shopped for my DD's books and half.com had the best prices on all the books that were out there. Sometimes only by a few dollars but, on her history book, it was half the amount of other used books.

I have noticed that I have difficulty find some types of books outside the school bookstore. I was never successful with Math textbooks. My DD's school had a very specfic text designed for their university. Her community college math course has a "package" of books she must get and I am unable to find this outside a school bookstore.

The best luck I've had with half.com seems to be history, language courses, and English.

 

[Abbie]

My middle dd is an upcoming senior and has used chegg.com for every semester but the first. It is so painless and has saved us SO much money! I've been amazed at how little she has paid and it is so easy. They will search other sites like amazon if they don't have it in their stock and send them to you, then you just save the box and send them all back at the end to the one address.

There are some majors where you might want to keep your texts, particularly as they get further into it, but hers isn't really one of them so renting has worked out well for us.

 

[powellrj]

For DSs first semester, we just went with the college used bookstore. We paid a little more, but he had so many other things going on, I wanted to make it easier on him. For a couple of classes, he found out he didn't need the books and they let him return them and at the end of the semester he just sold them all back to them.

For the second semester, he was on his own and he rented some, bought just downloaded chapters for others and saved a great deal of money.

 

[Christine]

For DSs first semester, we just went with the college used bookstore. We paid a little more, but he had so many other things going on, I wanted to make it easier on him. For a couple of classes, he found out he didn't need the books and they let him return them and at the end of the semester he just sold them all back to them.

For the second semester, he was on his own and he rented some, bought just downloaded chapters for others and saved a great deal of money.

That was the biggest eye opener to me. My DD told me that many of her books were not used. Not that she chose not to use them but they were never directed to read anything and none of the tests tested on book material--just class material. Yet the books are listed as "required."

 

[golfgal]

My middle dd is an upcoming senior and has used chegg.com for every semester but the first. It is so painless and has saved us SO much money! I've been amazed at how little she has paid and it is so easy. They will search other sites like amazon if they don't have it in their stock and send them to you, then you just save the box and send them all back at the end to the one address.

There are some majors where you might want to keep your texts, particularly as they get further into it, but hers isn't really one of them so renting has worked out well for us.

I like the idea of "renting"some of the books-especially some of the gen ed books he won't need again. I looked there for his math book, if you do a semester rental it ends a month before his semester ends so buying the additional 30 days makes it more then buying new .

 

[Christine]

I like the idea of "renting"some of the books-especially some of the gen ed books he won't need again. I looked there for his math book, if you do a semester rental it ends a month before his semester ends so buying the additional 30 days makes it more then buying new .

I *tried* to order through chegg.com last year and I never could come up wit the cheap prices I hear about. It was about as much as buying used and, then of course, I couldn't sell them back for money, so I didn't do it. But I keep thinking I'm doing something wrong because many people rave about it.

I guess I'm going to have to plug in my DD's ISBN numbers this time and see what I come up with.

 

[cepmom]

I used Chegg.com last semester and the nice thing was that it was for a summer intensive course that was only 4 weeks long; brought the price down even more for such a short period.

DD uses Chegg sometimes and half.com other times. She has also used ebay and amazon on occasion too. You just have to shop around as much as you can. And, yes, sometimes the "required" books aren't even used during the course DD is in nursing and last year, her school required a "nursing budle" that was only available at her school bookstore. There was no way to know which books were in the bundle in advance so we couldn't shop for them used

 

[Familyof4lovesDW]

We use chegg.com. I have also bought books off of amazon. Look at the prices to compare. Once it was cheaper to buy a used book than to rent it. I need to start renting more, you do really save. I never seem to get much when i try to sell them back anyway.

 

[karenos]

I took a 6 week summer intensive class and used bookrenter.com. It was very reasonable and included return shipping.

kareno

 

[eliza61]

We used Chegg.com to rent my sons textbooks for the summer. Awesome. If we had to buy the books it would have ran us $200 bucks. we rented for $80 bucks. They give you the box to return the books and you can pick the length of time needed.

 

[valeriemouse]

half.com was my savior too!!

 

[FireDancer]

When I was in college (2000-2003) I bought almost all of my books online and often found the best price on Books a Million. 7 Years is a long time in Internet time so they might not be the best anymore but they were then.

 

[Teacher03]

My middle dd is an upcoming senior and has used chegg.com for every semester but the first. It is so painless and has saved us SO much money! I've been amazed at how little she has paid and it is so easy. They will search other sites like amazon if they don't have it in their stock and send them to you, then you just save the box and send them all back at the end to the one address.

There are some majors where you might want to keep your texts, particularly as they get further into it, but hers isn't really one of them so renting has worked out well for us.

Finding chegg has saved us a ton of money. I have two in college now and wish I knew about chegg when my first went through. Try to get your books as early as possible for the best rental price. If you decide you want to keep the book at the end of the semester, you can pay (still alot cheaper than a bookstore) to keep it.

 

[bluesaturn]

The best way to make sure you get the best prices on books is to tell your kid he has to pay for it himself, and arm him with a list of possible sites. Chances are, he might become a lot more interested in comparison shopping Then if you want to pay for his books (which I see nothing wrong with), you can reimburse him for what he ordered.
There was a used textbook store near my campus, unaffiliated with the school, that had great prices on books. He may want to see if a store like that exists near his school. Also, he should email professors and ask if the earlier edition of any books are acceptable.