What is one of the biggest recurring pains in your wallet at the beginning of every semester? Answer: Absurdly inflated textbook prices. A simple visit to any college bookstore will reveal that textbook prices are completely out of control. It is truly saddening to walk around campus and even hear upperclassmen complaining about how they just spent $500 on books. A major percentage of college students have yet to learn the tricks of the trade. There are several alternate approaches one can take to keep book spending to a minimum.
Many students will skip buying a book, whether they need it or not, if it is too expensive. Just a little more effort will make this approach more logical. For starters, attend class for the first few weeks and see if you will need the book. Often professors provide adequate notes in class or online that effectively prepares you for solid exam grades. I will never live down buying a $150 textbook for my first finance class and never needing to open it. If you are lucky this method will work for about 50% of your courses.
For the classes where there is no way around it (typically your major courses), online shopping is where you will be buying your books. Campus Throne has ranked the Top 5 websites for textbook purchasing based on low prices and high availability.
#1 Amazon.com (Hands down has best selection of new and used textbooks out there.)
#2 All Book Stores.com (A very handy site that compares prices of hundreds of bookstores in its database.)
#3 E-Bay (What it lacks in selection is made up for by its offering of international versions of textbooks that contain identical contact for a third of the price.)
#4 Chegg (Allows you to rent textbooks online rather than purchase them at a small, flat rate.)
If for one reason or another the book cannot be found online, it would never hurt to be creative. For example, many college websites have some type of student book exchange for students to advertise to each other. Check the campus library for copies. Never hesitate to sell old books you still have to underclassmen seen in line at bookstores. In this scenario both parties benefit, because if there is one thing worse than the selling price, it is the buyback price.
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eTextbooks are also typically around 50% less for college students. I hear http://www.CourseSmart.com is a good source for those.
Another textbook rental site worth checking out is http://www.skoobit.com, they are very convenient and cheap. Its only like $10.99 a month per book. The price comparison sites are very useful as well.