Buying books at college
At this moment in time, I am searching for the cheapest methods in buying college textbooks. At my college, there is a special bookstore that carries all the textbooks, workbooks, coursepacks, etc. for every single class. Since it’s only a maximum fifteen minute walk from my dormitory, buying a book there is incredibly convenient. But, it’s expensive. There may be other sources which would sell the same book for $40 or more cheaper.
Thus, I usually buy my books online or from other students, since they are drastically cheaper. Also, I always try to resell my books to other students later so that I can hopefully get all my money if not some of my money back. Sometimes, I also try to resell my textbook for a profit, but with new editions coming out every year, this can be tricky.
Although Ebay is a good way to buy textbooks for cheap at times, I like to search through all other book companies before going to Ebay, mainly because of convenience and efficiency. Ebay uses an auction style, so I sometimes have to wait a few days to see if I won a book, and winning a book is not a guarantee. I would rather just click “buy” on another website, input my billing information, and then know that the book would arrive within a week.
I primarily use book finder search engines instead to scour the web for the cheapest options. This includes a website I recently found called Bookfinder. I am also fine with buying the international edition of books, which are usually exactly the same as the US edition except for a big “International Edition” label across the cover. These versions are sometimes half the price of the US edition. Textbookrus seems to stock plenty of international edition books.
The only hole in all these online searches is when there is a customized coursepack or sourcebook that a class requires. These texts are usually made by the college and sold only at the college with a non-refundable policy. In cases like these, I am trying to find if I can borrow such a book and just scan in all the pages.