Sold on Rented Textbooks?
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 TextBookFlix.
Amazon/Half.com total (they had very, very similar prices): $176.81
TextBookFlix 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 buying 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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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.
Comment by Matt Albiniak — August 23, 2007 @ 5:18 pm
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.
Comment by Latoya Watson — August 28, 2007 @ 10:54 am
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.
Comment by Stephanie — August 28, 2007 @ 3:57 pm
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-
Comment by Matt Albiniak — August 28, 2007 @ 8:56 pm
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!
Comment by tehnyit — August 29, 2007 @ 9:22 am
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.
Comment by Whitney Callaway — September 23, 2007 @ 9:37 am
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.
Comment by Brandon Barkley — October 11, 2007 @ 9:10 am
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.
Comment by John — October 23, 2007 @ 11:27 pm