kewb Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 First year time buyer/renter. I am scouring for the best deals on the overpriced college books. Does anyone have experience with biblio.com for buying. Some of their prices are better than amazon but they are an unknown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Check Amazon, Abebooks, Ebay. Check Chegg for rental prices. I don't know Biblio. Last night I found a used book at my college bookstore online - cheapest price? $115. Price on Amazon? $16. Same edition, same ISBN. The college bookstores have a lot of people over a barrel in that you can use your financial aid there before classes start - strapped college students. They are about the last place to look for decent prices. Good luck in the hunt. Sigh. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Between my 2 kids this semester we bought 10 books. Three of those came from the campus bookstore (all for dd). One was cheapest as a rental there; the other two were only available there :thumbdown: . All the others I bought/rented at Amazon. I rented a $170 book for $17 and a $200+ book for $36. I'm not familiar with Biblio either, but I have looked at all of the sources that Kelly suggested and used several of them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nansk Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 I have bought 8 books from Better World Books via Biblio.com. All of them arrived on time and in good condition. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Check Amazon, Abebooks, Ebay. Check Chegg for rental prices. I don't know Biblio. Last night I found a used book at my college bookstore online - cheapest price? $115. Price on Amazon? $16. Same edition, same ISBN. The college bookstores have a lot of people over a barrel in that you can use your financial aid there before classes start - strapped college students. They are about the last place to look for decent prices. Good luck in the hunt. Sigh. No kidding on the college bookstores, Kelly! Rentals for ds's texts are running about $25 on Amazon. Rentals through the bookstore (efollet) run about $85 for the same texts. I have a OneNote notebook with all of ds's college info that we share electronically. There is a page devoted to buying and/or renting textbooks where I've spelled out what I've learned in 9 years of buying texts for homeschooling. We've walked through the process of ordering a couple of books. In only one case did it make sense price-wise to order a text from the bookstore and schedule it to be picked up when ds arrives on campus. We have chart that we update that shows the status of fall term's texts: owned or rented, source, price, and disposal. This is helpful as the books are coming from multiple sources. Some are coming to the house first and then are being shipped in one media mail box with other books he wants on hand. For several books, it was still far cheaper to buy from Amazon and ship again from home then buy from the bookstore. Ds was fairly irked to see that he could own a really good copy of a couple of his books for $4 each, while renting them from the bookstore would cost him $7 - $12. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PuddleJumper1 Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 (edited) Ds (who will be a college senior this year) swears by http://www.bigwords.com/. He puts in the books he needs and the site searches for the best purchase/rental price out there. He has saved 100s each year using this site. Edited August 10, 2016 by PuddleJumper1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Ds (who will be a college senior this year) swears by http://www.bigwords.com/. He puts in the books he needs and the site searches for the best purchase/rental price out there. He has saved 100s each year using this site. Thanks for sharing this! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kewb Posted August 10, 2016 Author Share Posted August 10, 2016 I m totally envious of your $17 rentals on Amazon. So far the least expensive rental was $49. I have ds emailing his professors to find out if he will need an online access code. Those stupid codes will be the death of me. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 I must be doing it wrong. Ds needs two books and both require Access Passes. What's weird is the college bookstore through efollet.com is actually cheaper than Amazon or anywhere else I've seen. I can't rent or buy used because of the access passes required right? Lials Beginning and Intermediate Algebra (w/ Access) ( Loose Pages) 6th Edition ISBN: 9780134197340 College Bookstore price New $106.25 Patterns for College Writing: Rhetorical (w/LaunchPad Access) 13th Edition by Kirzner ISBN: 9781319013127 College Bookstore price new $71.25 I did get 5th edition Lials and 11th edition College Writing for free and I plan to have him ask the teacher if those will work once he gets their email. Should he do that? Classes don't start here until the 29th. If I find a good deal on used Lials, can I buy an access pass separately? PS We really need a sticky on the ins and outs of college textbooks. If there is one, please link! We've been fortunate in that ds was told specifically NOT to get his texts with access passes. A sticky is not a bad idea. We've made our son financially responsible for his textbook purchases. I want him to have an incentive to not just do what is easiest. He's very cheap when it comes to his dime. Some of regentrude's stories about students paying top dollar for their books still haunt me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 Including dual enrollment, I've had two kids in college for a total of 5 years, and I just ordered books for the upcoming semester. Only three things over that time period have required an online access code. Obviously not a lot of math/engineering types at my house! In the beginning, I used that bookfinder? that includes all textbook sellers. Huge time waster for me. I check three places: School bookstore (surprisingly competitive sometimes), Amazon (new/used/rental), and Chegg. Chegg has stellar customer service. This year, one of the college bookstores began price matching amazon prices. I've bought 8 books for two full time students for a total of -- sit down -- $120. I still have to purchase another $12 book, a foreign language class online access code (~$50), and art supplies for an elective, but I'm pretty happy with what I'm buying. What I don't like is that about half the books for one of my students are never used, despite being "required." The biggest impact on your book cost, I believe will be the course of study. I realize what I've paid for the semester some will pay on one engineering book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted August 22, 2016 Share Posted August 22, 2016 Only three things over that time period have required an online access code. Obviously not a lot of math/engineering types at my house! Oldest dd needs codes for calculus, conversational French, art history, and English this semester. There is one available for history but her prof is not using it. They are everywhere these days. I think the companies see it as a cash cow to replace some of the revenue they're losing to used book sales and the lower margin Amazon pays. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted August 22, 2016 Share Posted August 22, 2016 For courses with required online supplements, it may still be worth buying the book used, if you can buy the online access code separately. Our CC bookstore sells just the online access for many courses. We have also bought them directly from the publisher. This semester, ds2 will be reusing textbooks that ds1 used last year. He will have to buy a semester's worth of online access for the calculus course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted August 22, 2016 Share Posted August 22, 2016 My ds did great. He got books for his first semester for $150 just buying used on Amazon. Only one book would have been cheaper to rent but only by a few dollars so he just bought. His professors had sent out emails specifying that older editions were ok. His college also advertises that they will price match rental prices that you find online. So I guess that would be easier if he could just return books on campus rather than mailing back. We'll look into that in the future. The online access codes get you. One year my ds dual enrolled at a cc that had college specific editions for textbooks. So the only way to buy used was from a student from the same cc. Then there were the access codes. Those textbook costs that year at cc were much higher than those we have had in later years at two different four year universities. It was refreshing that our two university experiences were with teachers that were much more understanding about keeping costs down. We made ds responsible for his own textbook costs but I helped him through the process of searching online/making sure ISBN numbers matched/making sure used book that arrived was same one ordered/pros and cons of renting vs. buying. But so worth the time. Saved several hundred dollars over walking into bookstore and buying new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjzimmer1 Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 Just bought DS's chemistry book used from Amazon. I checked Chegg, abebooks and alibris. DS wanted to buy the book since he planning to major in ChemE and wants to keep it for reference. As I was amount to order from alibris, I went and checked something on Amazon. A very good condition book showed up for less money than alibris so I bought it immediately. It came today, it's nearly brand new, just one minor scuff on on edge and one corner is slightly bent. The pages still crackle. I suspect the minor imperfections disqualified it from being called new but not sure it was actually used by anyone. Anyways a new books sells for $270 at CC book store and used for $170. I bought if for less than $60. If I have to buy an access code (which is about $60), I still come out ahead. He does have to buy the lab manual at the CC but it only cost $12. He has two other classes but neither of them requires any books (English and Calc 3). So as of today our total outlay for books for the semester is about $75. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kewb Posted August 25, 2016 Author Share Posted August 25, 2016 Ended up having to buy a bunch of books new because of the racket of updated versions or custom book. So frustrating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootsie Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 Many of the major publishers sell their books online on their websites (often with free shipping). If you have a used book and need an access code, you can usually buy just the access code from the publisher cheaper than in the university bookstore. vitalsource.com is a site which publishers are using to sell ebooks directly to students. In addition to buying a textbook, you can rent an ebook for 90, 120, or 180 days (usually with any access code that is needed). 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 We got half of them through Barnes and Nobles and half through Amazon. For both boys with 10 classes between them we paid $806.00 and of that, two books were rentals, and four were purchased used so I dare not think what it would have been if all had been new. It could have been worse. Last semester was $750.00 for just one student. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 For those of you whose student's campus bookstores have price matching, how well does it really work? Ds and I talked it over and decided against taking advantage of it for a couple of reasons: 1.) The student needs to bring in proof that there was an offer that was better than the bookstore's 2.) The student still has to pay the initial price and then they get a credit to be used at the bookstore. You are still out the money. For three of ds's books, there was a $60 difference in the rental price between the campus and Amazon, so ds would have a $180 balance sitting on a bookstore card. My thought is that price-matching is a good deal for the university as many students won't go to the effort to provide the proof of a better price and then, somewhere over the semester, there is a good chance that the bookstore credits will be lost or misplaced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootsie Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 Well, the combo cost $100 and the Access pass costs $100 on its own so I look at it as a free pass (or text) and maybe in a few years one of my littles will use it. It was actually more expensive buying it separately. Do they expire? Is there a way to legitimately sell a pass that hasn't been used? Oh well could have been worse. If the pass has not been redeemed, it will usually remain valid at least as long as that book is the current edition. I have had students buy/sell access codes on ebay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 Biblio amazing prices for us were all international editions. Price matching is a bookstore gift card. Not a big deal as they will have their ducks in order and do this transaction first, then use the card for other purchases such as lab supplies. Havent bothered with it as most of the time the price diff is less than $20...and usually I can find the book even cheaper at a place they dont match...for examples statics rental was 100 at u bkstore, 81 at chegg (will price match) and 56 at bookbyte (wont pricematch). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 International Editions - are those okay to use? Dd's programming textbook is available in an international edition on Abebooks (same exact ISBN # though??) for less than 1/3 of what I can get it for even used from the bookstore or Amazon. Should I get it?? And bookstore says Abebooks doesn't count for price matching. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 Someone was nice enough to create a Facebook page for my son's college (JMU) for buying and selling textbooks, including those dreaded "special editions." He was fortunate to find a $97 book for $20. The book was written by his professor, so not many copies were available online. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootsie Posted September 2, 2016 Share Posted September 2, 2016 So they are book specific? One of his classmates is taking a different math class that requires MyMathLab and could use the code since he got a free textbook from the high school library. Often they are tied to a particular version of a textbook; it depends on the software platform that is being used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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