I know that this doesn’t follow the theme of my blog, but I work at a University and often hear parents and students wondering how to save money on text books.  So I thought I would give some quick tips and links:

1. Buy textbooks through online sellers – where you can normally get great prices.
2. Rent your text books – Usually cheaper and they are always returnable.
3. Buy e-texts – usually cheaper – but they may have only a 6 month life span

My Best Advice – Buy your texts online and sell them back online – this is usually how you end up getting the best deal for your money.  Lowest price to buy, and highest return when you sell them.

Here are a couple of college textbook online companies that are worth looking into:

This company is a one stop shop.  They sell textbooks (new and used), rent text books, rent etexts, and will buy back books as well.

This company buys your books back from you.  This company will pay the costs to ship your books to them.  You will know how much they are going to pay you before you ship them.

Campus Book Rentals specializes in renting college text books.

Here are some more generic websites that sell textbooks to look for your books as well:

A great place to find cheaper books.  College students get 6 months of free Amazon Prime which includes free shipping, and all kinds of electronic media.  If you click the logo to go to Amazon you will get a $5 credit as well.

Half.com is an Ebay company for books.  You can buy and sell books on this site.  It looks like they are now renting texts as well.

As I discover more sites I will add them to this list.