Yeah, we all deal with it. Books! Money! Broke… So question is… how do we get our books and not break the bank in the process? Well first things first, only buy books when you need to. That’s right, gone are the days of being an overzealous freshman who desperately needs every single book you can lay your hands on, we gotta keep budget in mind here. On top of that, check with your professor if the older edition is acceptable. Often times that new editions are simply ways for the authors to rake in more money by doing very little work and making poor students pay for new books, instead of buying used ones from their buddies. Sure we can always just go to Barnes and Noble or Borders, but that just wouldn’t be very slick now, would it? With that said here are some ways you can get cheap books or free even:
Amazon.com really this place has a lot of books for much less than MSRP, and great place for review books for MCAT, LSAT, GRE, DAT, whichever poison you like.
Bookswaps
Bookmooch – You give away books to earn credits. Free, but pay to ship the books you give away.
PaperBackSwap – Same as above.
ReadersUnited – Same as above.
FrugalReader – Same as above, but this one has a premium feature that you can pay for.
TitleTrader – Same as above, but also has CDs and DVDs
Bookins – This one requires a $3.99 fee for each book you receive. You don’t pay for shipping though.
WhatsOnMyBookshelf – Same as the first few.
NovelAction – Membership fee of $25 a month, and you pay $4.80 for shipping up to 6 pounds of books.
BookSwapTextbooks
CampusBookSwap
BookHopper
SwapThing
BookCrossing
America’s Book Shelf
Free e-books
Other ways to get cheap books
Booksfree – Looks to me like Netflix, same type of payment plan as well.
Flea markets / Swap meets
Thrift stores
Yard Sales
If all else fails, CHEAP places to buy books
Bookbyte Half CampusI Bookfinder AbeBooks BigWords DealOzand last but not least FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE, my personal favorite, especially since you even get to know who you’re buying the book from. As an added bonus, you can potentially make a new friend… or better!
One option that also seems to be popular are torrents, for books. I in no way condone pirating, however many people have been able to find the materials they need through torrents.
If you have any more websites I missed, post and I will update links!