Where to buy textbooks
 

I'm just wondering where everyone gets their books from other than the bookstore. I'm gonna be taking 4 classes this semester but I have to have 6 books, and if I get them from the campus bookstore my total would be almost $600, which I just cannot afford. I usually use alibris.com and amazon, but for whatever reason I've been unable to find two books that I need. So if you could take the time to post your fave textbook websites and/or resources I would greatly appreciate it. This could also be a valuable resource to others :)

I rented some with www.chegg.com and was very happy with the service and price. I only did this for books I never planned to keep or use again, and they have a deal with free shipping at the moment.

Ditto amazon.com and half.com. This past semester I got my books there for so cheap that when I sold them back to the bookstrore I actually made a profit!

Also, be sure to check with your sisters to see if any of them have taken the classes--one of them may still have the book!

I have found quite a few that I need on Amazon as well.

I am buying my Psychology book from one of my pledge sisters, and I've never heard of Chegg or Half.com so I'll check those out. Thanks for the responses :)

I've used abebooks in the past, they are not bad. Also I thought I'd mention there are fundraisers out there that if you buy books from certain websites you get a certain percentage of the money for your org.

This semester, my professor introduced the class to ichapters.com, which is actually http://www.cengagebrain.com/market/index.html now. You can download just the chapters you need for $3.99 a chapter.

Is renting books from Chegg reliable? I've never done it before, and I'm nervous about not getting the books I need and stuff. It'd save me almost 40 dollars, though!

I get my used textbooks from barnesandnoble.com. Lately, I've been finding them there cheaper than on Amazon.

My daughter and her fiance have nothing but good to say about them - two thumbs up!

They send them via UPS with tracking numbers and when you return them you print off a return label with tracking as well you can take to a UPS store or even one of those UPS boxes so you don't have to call for pickup. I also like that for a semester you rent them now and they are due at the end of May, and they offer extensions or you can purchase the book.

I'm also a huge fan of www.bigwords.com as they troll all the sites and can combine them for you for the best prices. They are how I found chegg last year.

I ordered my books from chegg.com too this semester. they came really quickly-i ordered them as soon as the book lists came out and they were at my house by the time I got home a week later. They have GREAT service, including some books that I didn't expect them to have. Plus they plant a tree for every book you rent, which I love.

I'm so glad to hear that people like Chegg! I just started working for them 3 days ago....if everyone was pissed, I was gonna keep my mouth shut. :o

I have a coupon for 5% off your order (or an extra 5 bucks if you sell through Chegg's buybackprogram). PM me if you want it--it's reusable so more than one person can use it!

CG!! Why didn't you say this a week ago? I considered Chegg but saw some bad reviews online where people did not receive books they needed. It would have saved me $150 on my accounting book alone! Grrrrr...lol. I should have started a thread requesting opinions. Instead, I spent $483 on textbooks last week.

I'm glad everyone seems so positive about chegg! I decided to go with them and rented 5 of my textbooks for the semester from them. I got a great deal, and because I found a 20% off coupon online (thanks, retailmenot!), I didn't pay any tax. :D

LOL I didn't have the job a week ago! I'm sorry!!!! Just so you know, about 95% of the orders I fix everyday were "user error." Online orders rarely screw themselves up....that's all I'm sayin'. :cool:

So I just went on retailmenot.com and it's amazing!! They have coupons for like every store, and I do a lot of online shopping so that's a super useful site. Thanks for sharing!!

That's good to know. Honestly, my books are still wrapped. It's not to late to send them back. Hmmm...school starts next week. Let me see what chegg still has in stock...

In addition to Chegg, BookFinder.com is a good site to use if you're looking for textbooks that might be hard to get a hold of.

This was a ridiculous, but still time-relevant bump...
but just to add my 2 cents on Chegg, I have been VERY pleased with them.

They sent me everything I needed on time when I used them and when I sold back books, I like the options for just cash or to get Chegg credit. AND that they plant trees for books sold/rented.
Only downside with renting books in general is that I wouldn't want to write in them/highlight them and I tend to do that to any book I actually use.

I'm keeping all my books from my nonprofit management graduate program, so I can continue to use them on the job.

I go to Google Shopping, enter the ISBN and choose the cheapest book + shipping cost. Often, I end up purchasing each book from a different vendor. For Spring 2011, I ended up spending less than half what the book store wanted to charge me.