Today There Are More Options For Saving Money on College Textbooks - Including Renting!

College Textbooks are a big source of revenue. They are overpriced and the authors frequently make minute "updates" to create new versions - to cut down on students using used copies.

When I was in college in the late '80's, there were only two book stores on campus: they would sell new books at full price, and used copies at 75% of the price. At the end of the semester, they would buy back your books (if the author didn't have a "revised" edition for next semester) for 30-50% of the price.

Today's students, because of the internet, have many more options for saving money on textbooks:

1. Comparison shopping is made possible because of a recent law that requires schools to list the ISBN numbers of textbooks online. Sites such as BigWords.com, campusBooks.com, and slugbooks.com let you compare prices from different venders.

2. You can now rent textbooks from online stores (such as CampusBookRentals.com and Chegg.com), or at many campus bookstores. Here you pay a flat fee and return the book after the semester. Renting especially saves money on popular textbooks that are in widespread use.