Speaking of textbooks

[Quiver0f10]

The university my son attends posted on facebook today that they now offer textbook rentals. It's about time!

[RegGuheert]

That sounds interesting, but I'm wondering if buying used and then reselling would be cheaper. (Says Reg, completely ignoring the fact that buying and selling used books are often not the most pleasant nor successful activities.)

[Barb_]

I just bought my daughter's books. Two I bought on the used market for cheap, one I rented because it was the cheapest way to go by far, and one I bought new because it was only 11 bucks.

 

So I guess the answer is, it depends. They aren't all available to rent, but it's really nice to have another option.

 

Barb

[Chris in VA]

Ds is using cheapbooks.com. He has found his history texts for about 12 bucks each--these are gorgeous, thick books that retail somewhere around $120 at the bookstore on campus (but that's new--his are used). He can resell them for more than he bought them for, if he takes them to the campus store. How cool is that? :D

[BeckyFL]

I've found it's been cheaper to buy them online used. Believe it or not, a couple of times I've actually made quite a bit by buying used and selling back to the bookstore during buy-back (they don't require that they be purchased there).

[Bev in B'ville]

He rented his textbooks this semester, but didn't get them until after the first week of classes. He ended up having to get with his classmates and borrow textbooks until his came in. I don't know if it's the same anywhere else, but I would be wary I suppose.

[Luckymama]

We have to buy the textbooks for our high schoolers. I was able to purchase almost everything used, for very good prices, through Amazon etc. I rented the two textbooks that were new to the schools, dd's Alg2/Trig/precalc and ds's AP Psych. The price for renting through the schools' bookstores was EQUAL to the new price - 50%, so equivalent to buying new and selling back.

 

Since the rentals were directly through the bookstores, not Chegg or similar, the books arrived at our house with the few items I purchased new.

[Kristen62]

For what we needed, this was not a good option. They were priced very high to rent and we found we could to pretty well on Amazon or here on the For Sale forum. Maybe if we need to resell we can do even better. I know with some college texts, they change the edition often and you might get stuck not being able to resell. Good Luck!

 

 

[K-FL]

I compared renting to buying, but usually the buy option works out cheaper for us too when you figure in re-sale. I've used bigwords.com for both buying & selling. VERY EASY!

[Liza Q]

My daughter is renting her French text for this semester but buying used has been cheaper for her other classes.

[southcarolinamom]

Ds is using cheapbooks.com. He has found his history texts for about 12 bucks each--these are gorgeous, thick books that retail somewhere around $120 at the bookstore on campus (but that's new--his are used). He can resell them for more than he bought them for, if he takes them to the campus store. How cool is that? :D

 

THat's terrific!

[Bev in B'ville]

He can resell them for more than he bought them for, if he takes them to the campus store. How cool is that? :D

 

I don't know how other colleges run their bookstore, but at my dd's cc you have to have your receipt showing proof of purchase at the bookstore to participate in the book buyback program.

 

However, I'm sure your ds could resell his textbooks on the same site in which he bought them.

[K-FL]

I don't know how other colleges run their bookstore' date=' but at my dd's cc you have to have your receipt showing proof of purchase at the bookstore to participate in the book buyback program.

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Not ours. It helps them not have to purchase as many from the wholesaler regardless of where the student bought them.

[LBS]

is at huge U, other kid at small U, and we plan to take both kids' books to sell back to the brick and mortar BookHolders, this semester. The small U gives poor buyback (but I'm not positive, since they just hand her a wad of cash, which she pockets); we are new to big U. Anybody used BookHolders?

 

I, too, compared buying online (my time searching and making deals, costing nothing) and renting (meeting the mailback deadline scares me) and the buying route works best for us.

 

LBS

[Sandy in Indy]

fetchbook.info is also a good site to search for textbooks. We've been successful in the buying and selling game most of the time...but we've also been stuck with some very expensive ones. DS is renting a couple this year and had to purchase a couple at the college bookstore. (His expensive chemistry "book" was 500 or so photocopyed/hole punched pages compiled by the school.)

 

Half.com is a great place to sell books.