Cheap Textbooks

1. Rent Your Textbooks

The absolute cheapest way to get textbooks is to rent them. Even if you buy a textbook and sell it at the end of the semester, usually you'll still end up spending less overall with a rental.

Renting textbooks can be little strange for some people, since we’re used to owning things. However, if the textbook is for a general education class you aren’t passionate about, you probably don’t want to own the book anyway. On the other hand, it’s important to critically consider if a textbook will serve you after you graduate. If it will, by all means invest in purchasing it. If it won’t though, you don’t really have any reason to buy it.

Rentals are awesome too because they have variable rental terms that offer lower prices. If you only need the book for 2 months, rent it for 60 days instead of paying for a full semester’s worth of textbook.

The second best way to get cheap textbooks is to buy an International Edition.

These books are usually identical to the Student Edition of the textbook, except they are cheaper. The differences they do have are usually aesthetic or very small.

Don't judge these books by their covers, because cover art is one of the main things publishers change when creating an alternate edition. It may not have the same picture of a hot air balloon on it, but it’s almost always the same under the covers.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a student in possession of a textbook must have overpaid for it. That is, if you live in the United States. Students don’t actually control demand in the United States, so textbook prices can rise and rise without any consequences for the publisher. Fortunately, there are a few ways students can get around the supply and demand problem they’re faced with.

International Edition textbooks are priced for the rest of the world (which means reasonably). However, there's a lot of mystery surrounding International Textbooks and the different places they come from around the world. Are the Global Edition and the Eastern Economy Edition the same, or is one better than the other? Is it even legal to buy International Editions in the US? (hint: yes it is)

Textbooks are a lot like used cars: last year's model is cheaper and still drives, but it might not have the bells and whistles of the newest model. Often buying the previous edition of a textbook or a spiral bound version will save you a great deal, but you need to make sure the old version has the content you need before you buy.

If you're willing to buy a used textbook instead of a new one, you can save a huge amount of money. Most places sell everything from brand new to heavily used, but the terminology used to describe book quality can be confusing.