After being in college for three years, I have learned a lot about buying textbooks. I will do anything I can to save a few dollars when buying books, so I’ve done lots of research and testing. I’ve bought old textbooks from several different places, some where I received good deals, and some not so much. However, I have been able to save a lot more buying books from websites than I would have made buying books from the bookstore. Based on my experience, here are the top 3 Places to buy textbooks from:
1-Facebook Marketplace
The Facebook marketplace is where I have managed to make find the best deals on buying new textbooks. You can search for books by ISBN number or title, and then message people if you have questions or are interested in buying from them. This is an especially great way to buy your books because you can typically buy them from students who are at the same university as you (through the Facebook network) and then you can just meet them to exchange money for the book. By doing that, you get your book easily, and you don’t have to worry about waiting for it to be shipped to you. I would definitely recommend giving this a shot!
2- http://bookbyte.com/
Bookbyte is a great website to buy your textbooks from. You simply go to the site, put in the ISBN number and the site tells you how much the book you want costs. While you might not find incredible prices, I can guarantee that you will be paying less online than you would at the bookstore. It is a simple and easy process, if you decide to buy a textbook from Bookbyte, you simply pay for it online and it will ship within a few days. Although I understand that it might be a pain for you to have to wait a few days to get a book as opposed to going right over to the bookstore to get it, I’m telling you that it’s worth the wait for the cash that you will be able to keep in your pocket.
When all else fails, I usually go to Ebay to search for textbooks that I need. Since this is a site that you can buy virtually anything on, you will probably have decent luck finding books to buy. You may not find as many books as you would on Bookbyte, however there are some books that Bookbyte won’t have because they are out of date, and Ebay does not discriminate. It’s worth trying to buy your books on Ebay because you never know who might be selling what.
So there are my tips for the 3 best places to buy your used textbooks. If it sounds too difficult and you just want to buy them from the bookstore, then go for it, but I am telling you from experience that you will be spending more money than you have to.
