It’s that time of year again (sigh): winter break is over and classes are starting back up yet again. It’s time to prepare your mind, body, and, worst of all, wallet for the impending semester. If you’re like me, just about every single class you’ve signed up for requires one or more textbooks priced upwards of $100. On top of tuition, student fees, and Chipotle, textbook costs can seem like yet another unavoidable expense of being a college student. True as that may be, I spent days trying my hardest to “beat the system” and get the absolute lowest price possible, managing to save over $200 when all was said and done. Along the way, I learned a handful of valuable tips and tricks to keep textbook costs down, so you can spend money on more important things. Like Chipotle.
1. Start Early, Get Organized
This might seem obvious, but many students often wait until the last minute to get going on textbook research. Bottom line: the earlier you start shopping around for the best price, the better. I recommend compiling all of your required textbooks in a spreadsheet with all the information on them you can find, including titles, edition numbers, and, most importantly, ISBN numbers. This number will allow you to quickly search for the exact book you need.
2. Shop Around, Skip the University Bookstore
This should also seem self explanatory, but it always helps to check multiple stores. Generally (but not always), your university bookstore will most likely be the most expensive place to by books.
3. Don’t be Afraid to Rent or Buy Used
No one ever said you had to get that $400 physics textbook in the shiny plastic wrapping! Renting is usually (again, not always) the cheapest way to get textbooks, and most reputable book renters have a clear cut rental policy that is easy to follow. Personally, I prefer used books (if the price is right) because you never know which text you’ll end up want to keep for later. The only time I buy books new is if they come with a single use access code or other supplemental material that I know for a fact will be necessary for the class. I recommend contacting your professor to see if this is the case.
4. Go Online
If you live in an area where your university’s bookstore lacks competition, as was the case for me, the best place to do your textbook shopping is online. There are a variety of awesome textbook rental services like Chegg.com that carry even the most obscure titles. I’ve heard from multiple sources that these services can be hit or miss, so I usually elect to buy from Amazon or eBay sellers with high seller ratings, just to avoid the hassle. The best part of shopping online is that you can use comparison tools like book.ly to help you quickly compare prices using those handy ISBN numbers we talked about earlier!
5. Editions, Editions, Editions
This. If someone had only told me this when I started college. Once you get your list of required textbooks from your professors, you’ll probably notice that many of them are in their fourth or fifth edition if they’ve been around for awhile. If you want to save on books, it is highly worth your time to get a hold of your professor before classes start to see if previous editions of a textbook would be appropriate for the course. Chances are, there is little difference between editions, as publishers often only make small changes to update their texts. The main benefit here is that most booksellers offer older editions at extremely high discounts, in the same way that phone retailers will discount older iPhones as the newest model is released. This tip is probably the most valuable on this list, as I’ve found previous editions of advertising books that only ran me $5 as opposed to $75 for the newest edition.
While we’re on the topic of editions, it’s also worth noting that “international editions” (textbooks produced with the intention of being distributed to lower income areas of the world) of popular textbooks are just as good as their U.S. counterparts. I won’t go into why, but international editions of textbooks function the same way as a prescription that costs less if ordered from another country. The Supreme Court has even ruled that it’s perfectly legal to buy these editions, even though the textbook companies would like you to think differently.
