Frugal Book Buys for College Students

I  t is the beginning of fall semester and the lines at the  bookstore are long from students focking to  purchase  all of the textbooks they need for their classes. Charges  for  these  purchases  can  easily  cost  hundreds  of  dollars.  However,  for many  students,  what  other  choice  is  there? 

One Fullerton  college  student  (me) fgures  since  she  goes  to  school here,  she might  as well buy her books here  too.  While standing in line she overhears passers by talking about  Affordabook.com.  She  takes  another  look  at  the  long  line  ahead of her and calculates the $215 subtotal of the textbooks  she’s currently holding and decides to put them back on the  shelves. She will try her luck online.  Affordabook is just one  of  the many money  saving  options  available  to  a  student.  Other sites offer prices that can be 20-60 percent off the price  of a new textbook at the  store,  and  Affordabook  helps  you  fnd  them.  It  is  a  great  site  to  cut  down  on the diffculties  of going from site to site  and  creating  a  billion  accounts.  

Affordabook. com  will  do  all  that  hassle for you. EBay  is a  well known online store.  You    may  not  have  as  much luck here, as  you  would  with  ‘in  person’  book purchasing. The  reason is because of the bidding. You  have a great chance of being out-bid, and paying more than  you expected. Maybe if you are lucky, there is  a ‘buy now’  button. You can also make your  money back by selling the  book on the site. Despite the cons, it never hurts to look. A  site you may come across is Amazon.com. Although you can  buy other items, it is great for fnding low prices on textbooks.  Half.com  is  similar  to Amazon;  you  can  fnd  things  other  than books. Chegg.com is something different. At this web  store,  you  can  rent  textbooks  for  given  time  periods  such  as a semester or a quarter.   This will save you a signifcant  amount of money, because there is no shipping charge.    

Of course, not everything has to be bought online. You can  fnd ways  to  save  by  shopping  around  at  local  bookstores  like California Book Exchange,  located quite conveniently  across  the street from Building 100 on Associated Avenue.  Look and scan their prices before going to the FC bookstore.  Who knows? Perhaps they will have the better deal. 

The FC bookstore may have the overall better deal when  you  take  into  consideration buy back, used  editions, older  editions and rentals. If your books are kept in good condition  it is possible you will only pay $10 in the end.  Don’t  forget,  just  because  big  chain  stores  mostly  sell  recreational and research books, does not mean you should  not check Borders and Barnes & Nobles. Often  times  they  have book sales and coupons. Find the best way to save your  money;  you  will  need  it  for  scantrons,  notebooks,  paper,  folders, pens... fc