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Buying Textbooks
Gone are the days when you were forced to buy textbooks at the university bookstore. There is a lot of competition now among textbook providers, and this helps somewhat in bringing down prices. All you need in order to shop around for prices is the ISBN number, which the school should provide for each required book.We found the best prices for used books on Amazon Textbooks, though you have to factor in separate shipping costs from each vendor when deciding which way to go.
In our case, we added up the costs of buying new on Amazon (which allows you to pay no shipping costs after you go over a certain amount) and compared it to buying used books from separate vendors, and it was still much cheaper to order used. What Amazon didn't have, we were able to get 'slightly used' at the university bookstore.
The earlier your student gets his or her schedule, the sooner they can get their textbooks. This is important since everyone wants used books and there is a limited supply of them. If you wait too long to get textbooks, you may be forced to pay full price for new ones.
Here are some other options for researching where to find the best prices for their textbooks: