Smart book buying is one college skill you might want to master quickly. Incoming freshmen may assume the campus bookstore and Amazon.com amount to the list of choices, but upperclassmen know better.
These days, there’s an entire arsenal of apps that streamline the process of buying and selling books. Or renting them. Pick your favorites and start searching for the best deals from your phone.
[Check out four ways to get free college textbooks.]
The higher-tech book acquisition methods appear to be saving students serious money. The National Association of College Stores published a report in July revealing that students bought the same quantity of course materials in 2014 as they did in 2007 but spent 20 percent less on average — $563 versus $701.
Because of the many options now available, which include buying new or used books, renting, choosing e-textbooks and using custom-created course packs, “we do see students doing their research,” says Elizabeth Riddle, director of NACS OnCampus Research.
The report found that for the spring 2015 semester, 38 percent of students shopped around using their smartphone and 23 percent used a tablet. The number of students who chose to rent, whether via app, online or in the store, has doubled since 2011.
Although campus stores were still the top source of textbooks, online retailers like Amazon are gaining ground. Apps for Amazon, Chegg and the many other textbook retailers can turn the book-buying chore into a bargain-hunting adventure.
[Get ahead with five must-download apps for college students.]
A Chemistry 100 textbook available in one campus bookstore this fall for $205.75 new or $154.50 used was recently available through the Chegg app for $30.99 as a rental, $103.50 as an e-textbook rental, $122.99 as a used textbook and $164.49 as a new book — still 20 percent less than the same version at the campus store.
Some apps, such as CampusBooks and Bigwords, do the comparison legwork for you, examining prices available through the most popular textbook apps and at other retailers to find the best deal. You can complete the entire transaction from your phone and email titles and prices to your friends.
If you’d rather not lug any books around at all, renting or buying e-textbooks can be an appealing way to bring your costs down. Apps such as Intel Education Study and CourseSmart allow students to rent e-textbooks and read them on any device.
Intel Education Study, formerly known as Kno, lets users highlight, take notes and master flashcards, for instance. Using the CourseSmart app, students can buy textbooks, search for topics in the book, add notes and print pages.
[Find other ways to score cheap college textbooks.]
Rather than buy a politics book at the campus store new for $89.95 or used for $67.50, say, students can rent the e-textbook for a semester from CourseSmart for $44.98. Although renting or buying an e-textbook is usually cheaper than getting a physical copy, one potential downside to consider is that you won’t be able to sell it back.
When your textbooks are novels or other trade books, the apps available for reading via Kindle, NOOK and iBooks might be a good bet. If a textbook you purchased is republished with new content, iBooks lets you download the updated version for free. When the time comes to get rid of your books, there are apps that can help with that chore, too.
Using Textbook Buyback, CampusBooks or Bigwords, you can scan the barcode on your book and see what different retailers would be willing to pay you; you then send the retailer the book, often with free shipping. (The three outfits also have websites where you can get a quote by entering your book’s ISBN number.) Cash4Books lets users scan all their barcodes at once and get an instant quote for the grand total.
This story is excerpted from the U.S. News “Best Colleges 2016” guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.
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Get Smart, Save Money When Buying College Textbooks originally appeared on usnews.com
