Best places to buy textbooks

TPA85 · #1 12-03-2014, 02:06 AM

I got accepted into grad school (YAY! and OMGWHATDIDIJUSTDO?) and I'm looking into the cheapest place to buy or rent books. When I finished undergrad, Chegg was just becoming a big thing so I've never gotten books from anywhere other than the university bookstore.
So far I know of Chegg, e Bay, and half. com.

Any other sites I should be looking into? Alternately, are there any sites I should avoid?

Thanks!

etadrisophila · #2 12-03-2014, 10:26 AM

Congratulations on your acceptance to grad school! I shop Amazon (buy used if possible BUT carefully read feedback for third party sellers before buying!), Abebooks, Alibris, Better World Books, etc. Many times, books are cross listed in several seller listings.
Amazon just resolved a problem with a third party seller (who never shipped the book) and I've had other good experiences with them.
Another possibility is to rent the text (rather than buy).
You can go to WORLDCAT and enter your zip code as well as the book titles to see if any local libraries carry them.
Google books has full text versions of various books online. This is not the same as having the book in your hands but if you are short on $$ and the book is available....
Best wishes!
Let's see what the others suggest!

Dnpgopenguins · #3 12-03-2014, 06:50 PM

My school has a peer to peer site that is linked on the bookstores website. Here, students can sell there books to each other. I'm not sure if this will help with grad school books, but it might be worth the effort to look into some like that. Or Facebook has two different sell textbook group for my college and the local universities in the area. Those are the two I would look into.

WhiteRose1912 · #4 12-03-2014, 11:22 PM

It's also worth searching through the inter-library loan system for your state to see if a university has whatever textbooks you need available (for the low low price of free). I've saved some cash this way.

TPA85 · #5 12-06-2014, 01:43 AM

Thanks, all, for the input.
I've been comparing sites and from what I've found it looks like Barnes and Noble rentals are the best price. And I did contact the library about Ohio ILL and they said they're going to check the ISBNs I sent them and see if they can get them.