Need to save money on textbooks? Textbook Media offsets the cost of its digital copies by inserting ads at chapter breaks. BookSwim rents textbooks. Also see these old suggestions, and today's morning deal.
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The bad thing about digital copies is that you can't sell them when you're done with them, so it's usually cheaper to just buy the books used if you plan on selling them at the end of the semester.
There's always Dover. Most of their math and science books were written when the USA dominated the world in math and science. Since those books have been phased out in favor of newer books since the 1970s, and really since the 90s when the textbook industry really started milking it, the USA has dropped to the bottom in the world. The logical conclusion is we'd be better off using the older, rigorous books, which are also cheaper.
Chegg.com also buys books they may not have available for rental, so they have a pretty unlimited inventory. I "rented" 2 books and got them both shipped to me via amazon. They were brand spanking new. For half price.
I just checked BookSwim for a copy of "Dreamweaver CS3 Bible" and it costs $31.21 ($25.31 + $5.90 s/h) for a 125 day rental. Amazon sells the same book [www.amazon.com] for $31.49 (with free super saver shipping) a difference of only $0.28. Seems like a much better deal to buy the book new from amazon for 28 cents more and get to keep it however long you want and then you can resell on ebay for 50% of the price and still come out ahead over BookSwim.
Moral of the story, double check the price of the books elsewhere before taking a dip with BookSwim.
I've started buying international editions of my engineering textbooks from ebay. They usually come from India and take a little longer to arrive, but they cost a third to a fourth what I would pay new. I can't always find used books for the same discount.
My undergrad university had a text book rental system. For about $100 in student fees, we walked into the bookstore with our schedule then walked out with an armload of books.
It was awesome.
I'm seriously photocopying all the needed chapters from my Bio Psych textbook as I type this. $120 is just too much, and yes, its that much used everywhere.
Too bad this place only has 28 books to choose from. Free digital copies would be a big boon for college students, myself included!
@ecwis: not when i went to school. you were lucky to make back 10% of what you paid for the book when you bought it. & i mean real lucky, b/c a lot of professors were changing books like you & i change underwear.
wait...scratch that. i definitely wore more than one pair of undies per semester. anyway, i think you catch my drift.
why not save on books the old-fashioned way? find a cute girl in class & set up study dates. worked for me! =)
Just came back from the bookstore, "screw you over" store is more like it. I was only able to find 2 used books, the rest had to be brand new :(
506.75 total.
I did use Chegg for a economics book last semester and would definetly go with them this time, but was pressed for time since I scheduled literally the day the semester started.
You want us to believe that after the underwear comment? I'm sure you meant to say "D&D buddy" instead. Easy mistake.
I got a no-textbook class to go this semester after lobbying my department. It's a philosophy class, and I pointed out it was dumb to make students pay $84 for a book when all the readings IN the book are available at Gutenberg and places like that.
I'm putting together a proposal for a new class where I want to use all public domain or Creative Commons texts, and this time I'd like to make it available to students both online, so they can read online or print off, and at somewhere like lulu.com for the $15 convenience of those who (like me) prefer a physical text to mark up. That will require working with some of the college's copyright and bookstore gatekeepers, but there's so much concern about student book prices, I bet I can convince them.
Philosophy's obviously a discipline that lends itself to this really well. I know the sciences are a lot harder to do with open-source, and are really justified in their frequent new editions.
@mac-phisto: Oh no I don't sell them back to the bookstore. That's basically just a scam. Half.com is a lot better.
bigwords.com
Never failed me yet. You need to be watchful as you buy cuz they will include rentals, guaranteed buyback, and older/international editions. But sometimes those do just what you need, especially international editions of math and science books.
And then pray your college reuses the books, cuz you now have copies you can sell below bookstore price.
...but above your price. And everyone wins! (you can also of course resell via amazon or half or wherever but you're likely to end up selling for less than your original cost due to competition)
Man, where were those a few years ago in college? I always went with half.com or amazon, never even thought about digital copies.