Best Ways To Save Money On College Textbooks

As college tuitions are continuing to rise, so are the prices of textbooks. The U.S. Government Accountability Office reports that from 1986 to 2004, college textbook prices increased at twice the rate of inflation. FinAid.org projects that for 2015, college students face an average textbook cost of $1339. With student-loan debt at an all time high and likely to continue climbing, many must find ways to save on basics like transportation and textbooks or consider dropping out altogether. This dismaying fact recently led Goldman Sachs( GS) CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein to announce a $2 million donation to New York's LaGuardia Community College, where he had given the 2013 graduation speech. Blankfein, who grew up in public housing in Brooklyn, has recalled attending Harvard on scholarship with a budget so tight that he couldn't even buy a Coke because "it wasn't in the budget."
Nine Steps To Cutting Your Textbook Costs
Here's how a little research can help you save some Money.
1. Timing: One way of saving money is waiting until the course begins. Ask the professor: Some courses do not require you to purchase the textbook. Sometimes only a few chapters will be used throughout the course. Most on-campus libraries allow you to use their textbooks for up two hours, and most on-campus libraries also have copiers. Photocopy the chapters needed if two hours' time isn't enough to do all the assigned reading.
2. On-campus library: Many on-campus libraries also have a few copies of textbooks available to students to use for free. The weekends and evenings are the best time to access to these textbooks without the wait. (The librarian often can give advice on how and where to purchase textbooks at a discount.)
3. On-campus bulletin boards: Once students finish a course, many opt to sell their books by placing notices on campus bulletin boards. Ask your professor if you can purchase an earlier edition; these older editions tend to be less expensive than new or current ones.
4. Local library: Surprisingly, your local public library may have the textbooks for free and if they are available, will place them on hold for you.
5. On-campus bookstore: Besides selling brand new textbooks, most on-campus bookstores have used copies readily available at steep discounts.
6. Rent your textbook: Renting textbooks is all the rage on campuses these days. It allows you to purchase use of the material for the amount of time needed without having to own it. Gone are those days of carrying heavy textbooks: These eTextbooks can be accessed via laptop, tablet or phone. Some of the best known rental websites are Chegg.com, Textbooks.com, Ca mpusBookRentals.com, Bookrenter.com and Valore.com.
7. Amazon's Kindle: Amazon also launched a textbook rental service for its Kindle device. The Kindle Textbook Rental allows you to either buy the eTextbook or rent it for a certain amount of time. Rental prices are lower: for example, the textbook Sociology in Our Times: The Essentials, by Diana Kendall, costs $131.49 to buy and $45.81 to rent. The ebooks can be accessed not only on a Kindle, but on other devices such as a Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad or Android-based devices provided you use the free Kindle Reader app. (For more on this, see Do eTexbooks Help Students Save Money?)
8. Selling the books back: One way to help your budget is by selling the textbooks back to the seller. It's important that the books be in good condition. ValoreBooks.com, Amazon.com and Clegg.com are a few of the websites that will buy the textbook back from you. Another place would be your on-campus bookstore. Usually on-campus bookstores are not so particular.
9. Download free textbooks: Rice University in Houston, Texas, started OpenStaxCollege.org, which provides free textbooks online or as PDF downloadable on a computer. The goal is to make more textbooks open source. Another website worth checking is Gutenburg.org, which has over 46,000 free ebooks in an array of genres.
The Bottom Line By being resourceful, a college student can save 50 to 60% off the high costs of textbooks by buying used ones. Renting ebooks can save as much as 50 to 80% off the price of a printed book. Reselling your used texts can also help. And here's Option Number 10:
If you really want to hold on to your pristine, new art history books for future reference, maybe you can find a multimillionaire Wall Street banker to help you.
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