Have you ever considered renting textbooks instead of buying them? What about downloading a book?
Renting or downloading textbooks can save a lot of money. For example, my son’s Calculus book is listed at over $200 on his college bookstore’s website. He could rent the same book for a semester for about $59.
The popularity of a recent article about buying textbooks online indicates that overstrapped college students are definitely interested in saving money.
“The concept of renting textbooks is simple,” said Ashley Goode of BookRenter.com. .gif)
“You choose the book that you need from more than a million titles, rent it for a fraction of the cost, and have it delivered to your doorstep in as little as 1-2 business days”
Goode explained that after the rental period is over, “you just send the textbook back with a pre-paid shipping label provided by BookRenter.”
The idea of making textbooks truly affordable came from Colin Barceloux, a former college student who founded BookRenter in 2006.
“It was an effort to help others avoid the poor business ethics and outrageous pricing he experienced at local bookstores when he was in college,” said Goode.
Other companies offer rental books, too. To compare buying a book with renting it, you can go to Campusbooks.com, or Bigwords.com. Both of these websites allow you to shop among online bookstores, as they list the choices of purchase and/or rental prices.
Downloading books is also becoming somewhat popular. However, proceed with caution when choosing this option, as you may be violating copyright laws.
For example, a reader sent me a website started by a student who plans to scan her textbooks and allow other students to download the books for free. This could create a serious legal mess if it is done without the author’s permission. These issues are similar to those created when students download music for free.
A website that offers comparisons of rentals and downloaded books is called DontBuyTextbooks.Net.
Of course, there are some books that you would want to purchase instead of rent, such as thoe that you want to save as reference if they are directly relevant to your field of study.
For more information, see:
Buying textbooks online 101: save money
College student ordered to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading 30 songs
Comments
Renting is the way to go for some of the bigger books that you will only need for one semester.
What a excellent idea, I wish I would of thought of renting my books. I will look into this for sure. Any thing to take the pressure off the students is great. GOOD ARTICLE!!
I think you might want to check out this site:
www.DontBuyItTextbooks.Net
It has all of the rental and text download companies in one site. Easier to find the best deals and get everything over with at one time.
Oops! Sorry about that....It's
www.DontBuyTextbooks.Net
Check it out
Hi Donna--I just did an article on this as well. There are additional suggestions in the comments: www.examiner.com/x-17789-Salt-Lake-City-Single-Moms-Examiner~y2009m8d5-Campusbookrentalscom-offers-significant-savings-to-students
Mike, I incorporated www.dontbuytextbooks.net into the story, as it is a great website.
Another great site that you might want to add to the list is:
www.BookDealFinder.com
I use it every semester for my textbooks!
You can also check out www.DealOz.com , DealOz compares 200 bookstore prices and free discount coupons too. Their coupons are valid and have saved over $500 on my textbooks.
I love how www.bigwords.com lets you search for all the books you need at one time and it calculates the total cost of shipping allowing you to see just how much your textbooks are gonna cost you. It's so good to save money on textbooks cause honestly the sticker cost at the bookstores is terrible!
Another good site that I've used is www.CampusBooks4Less.com. It is not a rental site, but a textbook price comparison site like others you have listed
We love using Chegg to rent textbooks and save a lot of money. I wanted to share a code that your readers can use to get a discount on their text order with Chegg. Put in the code when ordering and hit the “apply” button. The code also gives you back an additional $5 when selling them your used texts.
The code does not have an expiration date so it can be used with every order. Here it is:
CC123047
Feel free to share the savings code with others.
Donna, you may want to check your math. Have you looked at the specifics of these programs? they are nothing more than a shell game.
B&N will say they are renting the book for 50% off the price. That is 50% of the NEW price. You buy used books for 75% of the new price. Plus, B&N's prices are at the highest end of the textbook spectrum. So if B&N sells the book for a $100 and rents it for $50 you think you save. But you can buy the used book for $75 and sell it back for 37.50 for a $12 savings over the rental. Since it is limited titles that can be rented it will be the titles that will be able to be bought back.
The real scheme is the fees imposed if the book is not returned or returned in saleable condition. Then the student will pay the used book price + a 7.5% fee so the student could spend $50 rental fee, $75 replacement fee plus $7.50 fee or a total of $132.50 for the used book they could have bought and sold for $37.50
These fees are no different at any other site
Also, if they are renting the book for more off than the 50-60% off retail then the book is probably an old edition book or late edition that could be purchased at a much lower price.
Books are on 3 year cycles and in the first 2 years of a book you will not find a better deal than your locally owned off campus books stores.
The problem is that the on-campus chain managed stores inflate prices greatley and do not care abou the studetns. Your off-campus stores are usualully owned and managed by alumni that keep prices low
Eric, I have the strong feeling that you are an alumni of a college and you own an off campus bookstore. I have bought, sold and rented textbooks for years since I homeschooled my kids, and find that each book is unique. Some of the larger more expensive books are definitely worth renting if you won't use them again. Others are not. Many factors come into play. I don't always rent, but I do occasionally if the situation fits.
Donna,
I have been on every side of the textbook situation from the student, publisher, bookstore and have a very clear picture of the situation.
I am not sure about homeschooling books but when it comes to college books this "new" rental model is a scheme.
The math on rental just does not add up as a savings. You actually will pay 33% more to rent the book than buy it an sell it back. On the $100 retail book that is $12.50.
The real scary part are the charges incurred if anything happens to your book or you decide you want to keep the book. These companies keep your crdit card information on file.
The only benefit of a rental is if you cannot find a used copy or pay the little extra for the used book.
I would tell students and parents that if the book is being rented at your campus store you can be confident you will be able to sell the book back and pay a lower net cost than renting.
Renting books is an excellent option for students. A lot of time the textbooks can not be sold back so even if you are out 70 bucks for a rental it is better than paying 150 for a new book and selling it back for 30 dollars.
(which is usually what happens)
Ecampus.com is a great site to compare prices they have new,used, rentals, and a marketplace (ebay style) to help students!
The code EE15009 saves you 5% on everything as well!
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