September 06, 2011
 Revised
September 6, 2011. Copyright © 2011 Dealhack.com. All
Rights
Reserved.
Disclosure: Dealhack is a blog
that helps consumers to find the best deals online. Dealhack has an
affiliate relationship with some of the companies
mentioned in this article, which means we may get commission payment if
you rent or buy textbooks from them via our site.
Textbooks are not incidentals, like notebooks and pens. For most
college students, they are the largest costs after tuition, room and
board. Students spend about $1,000 a year on their texts, according to
the College Board; for those in technical fields, whose books tend to
be the most expensive, can easily spend twice that. Even in high school
students end up spending hundreds of dollars on their books.
Fortunately, there are alternatives: renting or buying used books can
save you 50% or more over shopping in your college bookstore.
Some factors to consider (not all will apply in each case): how much
are you going to spend, how long do you get to keep it, what are the
shipping costs, what condition will the book be in, can you highlight
in your book, late fees, ability to extend, etc.
Major Textbook Rentals
 The
best-known textbook rental services are Chegg,
Book Renter, Barnes & Noble, and
Campus Book Rentals. They have millions of
textbooks and claim savings of up to 70-80% over buying new ones. There
is no monthly fees with any of these services. Typical length of
rental are semester (125-130 days), quarter (85-90 days), summer (55-60
days). Book renter also offers 30 and 45 days rentals. Forward shipping
varies from free to $5-6, return shipping is free in most cases. Chegg
and Campus
Book Rentals allow highlighting (which might be a drawback becasue your
book may have someone else's highlights). All have options to
extend rental. If you don't extend, the late fees can be steep: for
example, Chegg will extend you for 15 days and then charge you the full
price of the book. Campus
Book Rentals is the most lenient but you will pay
extension fees until you return.
Which of them is cheaper? There were some reviews here and here. We tried a few ISBN numbers ourselves.
And the conclusion is: it depends on the book. None of the services was
consistently cheaper or more expensive. Taking into account shipping
costs and rental duration, in most cases the differences were under $5.
And the costs were at least 50% less than buying a new book.
 Buying
Used Textbooks
If you want to own your textbooks but don't want to pay new books
prices, consider Barnes & Noble. They have the largest
used-textbook inventory on the Web sold through our Marketplace
sellers, who are approved by Barnes & Noble.
Typically, you'll pay quite a bit less than for a new book but more
than you will pay for rental - unless you sell the book back to them.
Other
Options
In addition to the "top 4" described above, there are other textbook
stores. Their main drawback is limited inventory, instead of millions
they carry thousands of titles. But if you have time, check them out as
well, you may get better prices than at more popular sites:
- CourseSmart offers over 12,000 digital textbooks
(e-textbooks). Obviously, there is no "new" or "used" concept here. One
advantage is that you have access to your books anywhere you have the
Internet access. The costs are on the average 50% of the paper books -
and you save trees in the process.
- CengageBrain offers rentals and e-textbooks on
15,000 titles at about 50% off regular prices. They also offer
eChapters where you buy individual chapters for as little as $1.99.
- Phat Campus carries over 4,000 textbook titles
for sale. They will also buy your books from you.
- Bookbyte.com offers used college and K-12
textbooks for sale. They will buy your books from you as well.
Conclusions
You can indeed drastically cut the cost of your textbooks by renting or
buying used ones, especially if you shop for the best price. If you do
rent, make sure to return on time or your savings will quickly
evaporate. As more and more students carry laptops and iPads,
e-textbooks offer an interesting alternative - not only you save money,
you also have easy access to all of your materials.
More great Dealhacks:
Dealhack is a blog updated daily with bargains on the hottest tech and consumer products. Never miss a deal:
|
|
|
