Bargain Book Alternatives Abound
There are numerous options to finding lower cost textbooks.
Here are some options to get you started:
Chegg allows students to rent or buy their textbooks for a cheaper price, as well as sell their old textbooks.
A used copy of Environment by Peter H. Raven, a required text for Biology & Environment (BCS1050), is listed as low as $55.99 on Chegg. At the bookstore it costs $106.25.
Some popular textbooks on the website give students access to online versions of the textbook to use while they wait for the physical book to come in the mail.
To return the textbooks, students must save the box their books came in, print the shipping label from the website, pack their textbooks, and drop it off at a local UPS store.
Amazon lets students buy or rent old or used textbooks for a cheaper price. Ebooks are available for rent as well.
Students can trade their textbooks for Amazon gift cards – even textbooks not purchased from Amazon.
There is a due date to return the books with a shipping label printed from Amazon’s website. The company offers two-day free shipping when students join Amazon Student.
Occupy The Bookstore is an extension that can only be used on Google Chrome.
When students go onto their campus bookstore’s website to find their textbooks, the Occupy The Bookstore app immediately turns on and searches for other websites where the book can either be rented or bought as new or used.
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The Wolfson Campus bookstore’s website listed American Government, 2014 Election Edition by Larry J. Sabato, a required text to American Federal Government (POS2041), at $94.00.
Occupy The Bookstore found that Abebooks was selling the same book for $80.00.
Texts.com compares textbook prices. It is a student-to-student textbook marketplace wrapped inside a price-comparison engine.
All students have to do is enter the title or ISBN number of the textbook, and then Texts.com gives a list of website where the book is sold or offered for rent.
So instead of paying $161.75 at the Campus bookstore for iSpeak by Paul Nelson, a required text for Intro to Public Speaking (SPC2608), Texts.com showed a student can rent the book at eCampus $56.59.
S.A.V.E. is a textbook rental program at North Campus and the Carrie P. Meek Entrepreneurial Education Center that keeps textbook costs to $35.00 for over 17 courses
No financial aid is needed to participate. All students have to do is complete an application/rental agreement. Students then pay $35.00 in cash or with a credit or debit card at MDC-NC bursar’s office and present the receipt of payment.
Students must be enrolled in the class that the textbook correlates to and are advised to wait until the first day of class to make sure the textbook needed is the correct edition.
Rent-A-Text allows students to rent old or new textbooks directly from the campus bookstore or the campus bookstore’s website.
“If there’s an established use for a book at MDC, or a faculty commits to using a title for multiple terms, it is very likely it’s available for rent,” Elio Distaola, Director of Communication at Follett, said.
