I’ll admit, I was pretty suspicious of the rented textbook idea when I first heard about it. But I included Chegg [originally called TextBookFlix] in my textbook search yesterday all the same. Just to see where it would fit in.
After visiting my school bookstore’s website and putting in my course numbers, I had a minor heart attack. I’ve never had five books cost so much. Switching majors really threw me a doozy – film textbooks were much cheaper than business textbooks are! (Offset, of course, by having to fund your own films.) Luckily, some of my friends have two of the textbooks I need. So that narrowed me down to three textbooks.
Three rather expensive textbooks.
Bought new, from the school bookstore, they would be $285 altogether. Not that I would ever buy new from the bookstore, unless I had to. The bookstore’s used total? $212.25 - only $72.25 less. Not that I’d mind saving $72, but it’s still far higher than I’d ever paid for one set of textbooks.
So I began the internet search. I scoured StarvingScholars and the Facebook Marketplace for used copies of the books. I checked Amazon and Half.com. And I pulled up Chegg.
Amazon/Half.com total (they had very, very similar prices): $176.81
Chegg total: $119.68
All of these prices include shipping, by the way.
So the question becomes: if I bought my textbooks used, online, could I expect to sell them again after the classes are done for more than $56? Probably, although selling textbooks can be rather difficult – the bookstore doesn’t exactly pay you top dollar, in fact, sometimes they just don’t accept it at all (“we’re no longer selling that edition”). And finding a buyer can be a tedious process – I have a stack of unsold textbooks in my room to attest to that.
With all of that in mind, I think I might just rent my textbooks. None of them are ones I’m especially interested in keeping, and I love the idea that when I’m done with them, I’ll just drop them in the mail – they won’t add any height to my Tower O’ Unsold Textbooks. Plus, it requires less money up front, which is really good for my current financial situation.
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11 responses to “Sold on Rented Textbooks?” 
I had the same heart failure earlier this week, and like you, considered using TextBookFlix. I opted against it, though, but it sounds like I’ve had better luck in the sellback process.
For one, I never, ever, buy OR sell books through my campus bookstore. I always buy and sell online, and I usually recover between 70-85% of my original cost (excluding custom printed books).
How? I’m surprised you didn’t mention this in your search. BigWords (http://www.bigwords.com) is the best resource I’ve found for buying and selling, and I’ve rarely been unable to find a buyer at the end of the semester. Unless you already made a move, I’d say check em out.
I blogged about my fun textbook hunting @ http://albiniak.tumblr.com, including a spreadsheet of my purchase decisions.
So, from broke student to broke student, good luck.
Hold UP!! Don’t do anything until you go to HTTP://WWW.BIGWORDS.COM
I’m telling you, you will save so much more money you’ll want to slap me. Lol seriously though…
And if your new major is Business now, those books will most likely be a huge help to you and you’ll want to keep them. So renting them wouldn’t be the best idea.
Check it out before you do anything though – bigwords.com .. I love it.
Matt, Latoya,
Thanks for the suggestion to check out Big Words. I did, and in theory, I could save money, even over renting. But I would have to buy the international editions of the books, and that makes me uncomfortable. Sure, it SAYS they’re the same text as the US version, but I’m just not going to buy something that makes me uncomfortable. I’ll pay the higher price to be sure I’m getting the right textbooks.
But thanks for pointing the site out! It works really well and I’ll be checking it every semester from now on.
Hey Stephanie,
I hear you about the international editions. Truth be told, I picked up one international edition that claimed to be exactly the same, and it was, up until the last 10% of the book (chapters 16-19). I’m still trying to work out a refund.
…but, I’m almost positive that you can filter out international editions from bigwords.
I’d like to know how your book rental goes this semester. I’m going to subscribe to your RSS, so post an update at the end of the semester.
Good luck-
It sounds like books hasn’t got any cheaper since I attended university about 15 years ago. I did an engineering degree. Luckily, my university library was quite up to date and there had the prescribed text books were in their catalogue. I only had to purchase about 20% of the prescribed books.
Good luck searching for your books!
Amen on the bigwords.com A $300 textbook semester went down to $70. Can you believe that? Catch is: you’re buying online so be sure you have time to get the books shipped. I’ve done late registration last two semesters due to switching schools, so I haven’t had that option available to me.
Obviously too late for this semester, but it is worth noting that I find selling on Amazon to be pretty easy. They take a bit high of a commission (I think about 15% plus some flat fees), but once you list it, you can forget it for the most part (you have to renew the listing ever 90 days or so). The best part is that there is no cost if it doesn’t sell.
I have had pretty good luck with this.
I just like the idea of renting the best. I love the thought of just returning the book at the end of the semester and not have to go through oh I will be able to sell it or Shit i can’t sell it.. I pay less with renting and I get a US edition plus I can just send it back. I think bigwords is a good option but I think renting still has no hassle as you know you are getting the book you need.
You would be surprised on the percentage you can get back when selling your books at the end of the semester. For example if you bought all books online at the lowest price and then sold them back online later you would save more then if you use chegg. I noticed this article is kind of old so what was your overall experience with chegg once this is all said and done?
Glen
Glen, my overall experience continued to be positive right up until graduation. I got about one book per quarter (my school is on the quarter system, instead of semesters, which meant three book-buying sessions per year). Now that I’ve graduated, I have a stack of textbooks that I simply can’t sell to anyone, even though I have them all listed in multiple places, including as the lowest price in the Amazon marketplace. It makes me wish I’d used Chegg for more of my books! Basically, the ones I bought used from other students on campus (through a website that facilitated on-campus exchanges for my college only) where the easiest ones to sell at the end – sort of the “most bought and sold” books. Anything else I bought I either wanted to keep, or was extremely hard to unload at the end.
I am glad chegg worked out so nicely. I have hear about renting textbooks and have not tried it myself so it is nice to hear others experience. Congrats on graduating and hopefully your textbook buying days are finally over. Textbooks are to expensive!
Glen