Comments on: Sold on Rented Textbooks?

By: Jesse Walker

Jesse Walker — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 01:46:05 +0000

Great information. I wanted to recommend http://www.textbookspy.com. Textbook Spy saved me a ton of money on my kid’s textbooks. It definitely helped me find the cheapest prices and best store for renting and buying their textbooks.

By: Glen

Glen — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:17:59 +0000

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

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:25:44 +0000

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.

By: Glen

Glen — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:18:33 +0000

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

By: John

John — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:27:20 +0000

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.

By: Brandon Barkley

Brandon Barkley — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:10:55 +0000

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.

By: Whitney Callaway

Whitney Callaway — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 13:37:41 +0000

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.

By: tehnyit

tehnyit — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:22:43 +0000

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!

By: Matt Albiniak

Matt Albiniak — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:56:45 +0000

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-

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:57:53 +0000

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.