If you're headed back to campus this semester, your syllabus probably has a list of expensive books to buy. You can make your dollars stretch a little further if you buy used or secondhand, and this week we're looking at five of the best sites where you can score cheap textbooks without breaking the bank.
We already have a complete guide to saving money on textbooks that's well worth a read—we cover your bases there, along with some of the the options we think are best, like buying used, renting, or just seeing how far you can get without specific books. Beyond that though, when it's time to buy, we asked you which sites you turned to for good, cheap textbooks, and you responded with tons of nominations. We only have room for the top five, and here they are, in no particular order:
Amazon
Amazon wasn't the most popular nominee, but it's certainly the biggest name and the biggest company in the roundup. Odds are you can find just about any textbook you might need for any class here, assuming it's not a self-published draft that the professor of your class insist you buy from the campus bookstore. Amazon's prices aren't always the best, but even if they're not, odds are there's an Amazon seller in the "New and Used" section that's offering your textbook either brand new or used at a significant discount. Combine Amazon's huge selection, great prices, and plethora of individual sellers and resellers with fast shipping (especially if your books are Prime-eligable), and you can save serious money. Plus, once your class is over, you can always sell those same books on Amazon for the next term.
Those of you who praised Amazon in the nominations thread were the first to remind us that there are tons of Amazon resellers who often sell gently used or slightly old versions of textbooks as significant discounts compared to just about everywhere else on the web. Since it's super easy to sell your used stuff at Amazon, it makes sense that students would flock there to sell their textbooks. Many of you also praised Amazon for making tons of your textbooks available in Kindle format so you don't have to carry around the physical books at all (even if they're often difficult to search for.) Read more in its nomination thread here.
Chegg
Chegg was one of the most popular nominees, and for good reason. The site has been around for years, offering students incredible discounts on their college textbooks, both new and used. The site promises discounts of up to 90%, and while you'll rarely see price cuts quite that high, you will see some pretty big cuts compared to your local campus bookstore, or even other major book-selling sites. The site is a simple search engine—just type in the ISBN or title of the textbook you're looking for, and Chegg will show it to you, show you how much it costs to buy, how much an ebook version will cost you (if one is available), and how much it'll cost you to rent over the course of your semester. In many cases, you'll save even more money renting the book, as long as you can keep it in good condition and get them back to Chegg at the end of the term. Chegg will even give you free access to the electronic version of your textbook while the physical copies ship to you, just so you don't get behind in class.
In Chegg's nomination thread, we highlighted how competitive the company's prices were, and their vast array of textbooks. Odds are that if your book is used in an actual class somewhere, you can find it—and its various editions and versions—for sale at Chegg. To boot, they'll also give you a decent amount of money back when it comes time to sell those books as used, even if you purchased them used. Some of you also noted that Chegg features local deals and discounts with retailers on and around your college campus as well, which sweetens the pot a little bit when you're already spending a ton of money on textbooks. Chegg does more than textbooks too—they offer homework help in various subjects, and even resources to help you find a job or internship if you're looking for one. Read more in its nomination thread here.
BIGWORDS
BIGWORDS (yes, that's how it's officially written) isn't really a texbook retailer on its own—instead the service is an aggregator and search engine to help you find the best prices on whatever books you need to buy, for all of your classes. You may wind up buying books through different retailers this way, but you'll be certain to get the best prices and the best shipping costs. The site supports both buying and renting books, both new and used, and when the term is over, they even support selling those books back to the highest bidder so you get a good price at the end of the term. BIGWORDS makes the entire process super simple, and the main site works like a search engine, just like many of the others in the roundup. BIGWORDS gets a cut of your purchases, of course, like any affiliate program, but you'll get the absolute lowest prices for your effort.
In the nomination thread for BIGWORDS, many of you pointed out that it's not that much extra work—especially since you'll save the most money, and that BIGWORDS makes selling those books just as easy as buying them at the end of the semester. Many of you shared your experiences saving hundreds (if not more) using BIGWORDS to shop for textbooks, and noted that the site has the ability to adjust for shipping costs, memberships, and book rental prices, so you can buy the books you want to keep at their cheapest prices and rent others. One of you even compared it to Kayak, just for textbooks—which is pretty high praise. Read more in its nomination thread here.
AbeBooks
AbeBooks has been around for ages, and changed remarkably little over the years, but that's a good thing. The service still searches and offers massive discounts on textbooks from thousands of different retailers, all to make sure you get the best possible prices on the books you have to buy. They're also a marketplace in and of themselves, meaning you can get many of your textbooks right there on the site, and sell used textbooks back to them directly instead of going to multiple retailers. AbeBooks consistently offers deep discounts as well, partially by selling both international versions of textbooks as well as used and secondhand versions—it's not uncommon to see some of the discounts there get up into the fabled 75%+ range compared to retail prices, and definitely compared to your campus bookstore. The site also partners with local booksellers in select cities for even more inventory.
Those of you who nominated AbeBooks pointed out that its discounts are extremely deep, and it just takes a couple of searches for hypothetical books compared to even big sites like Amazon to see that. Some of your pointed to AbeBooks' fast shipping, and one of you reminded us that international versions—which come with low prices, as we mentioned—also sometimes come with thin paper, even if they're secondhand. It's also worth noting that AbeBooks offers a money-back guarantee on your books, and even outside of your return window will still buy those books back from you at a decent rate. Read more in its nomination thread here.
DealOz
DealOz is another book aggregator, which searches tons of sites including some of the ones mentioned here for the best possible discounts. The service makes it easy to compare book prices across multiple online retailers, and takes into account things like shipping costs so you can get the best overall prices, and even shows you different prices for renting versus buying so you can make the best decision for you. DealOz boasts discounts well north of 95% on all of your purchases compared to retail. You can search for new and used titles, multiple editions, and more, then compare them all before you actually make your purchases. To boot, the site even includes discounts and deals on movies and TV releases, video games, and music, so you can do a ton of comparison shopping in one place.
Those of you who nominated the site mentioned that you've saved tons of money—sometimes over a thousand dollars—comparison shopping through DealOz for your textbooks, and the site also makes it easy to sell your textbooks back to the site once you're finished with them, whether you're just out of school or you've been out for a while. We've also heard great things about DealOz's customer service, complete with live chat on their website so you can get questions answered immediately. Read more in their nomination thread here.
Now that you've seen the top five, it's time to put them to an all-out vote to determine the Lifehacker community favorite.
This week's honorable mentions go out to Half.com, which missed the top five by a single vote. The site has changed a good bit since the last time it was in our roundup—now you can buy, sell, and rent textbooks, regular books, and even music, movies, and video games. The site is owned by eBay, which explains its foray into other media, but it's still a great place to look for affordable new and used textbooks for your classes, not to mention fast and often free shipping to your dorm room. You can read more in its nomination thread here.
Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below.
The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at [email protected]!
Title photo by wohnai.