As a college student in this economy, I’m looking for every opportunity to save money and spend less. Although the university offers the Archie’s Book Bundle program, which makes it easy for students to receive all their course materials before the first day of class at a bundle price of $24 per credit hour, I dislike the fact that I can not keep the textbooks since they are rentals. Of course, depending on what course you’re taking, Archie’s Book Bundle may be a preferable choice since some textbooks are pricey at major retailers. However, here are three alternative websites that I’ve used to buy books at a lower price, and I get to keep them.
1. Thriftbooks.com
ThriftBooks is an independent online book retailer for buying and selling used and new books. It offers low-priced books with free shipping on orders of $15 or more. Last semester, I was enrolled in a women’s literature course that required reading four to five novels. I purchased four of those novels in acceptable condition for $30.13 on ThriftBooks. The best part is knowing you get to keep the books after the course without having to worry about the next person reading your annotations. This site is also ideal if you’re looking for affordable novels in languages like Spanish, French or German.
2. Abebooks.com
Another reliable website is AbeBooks, an online marketplace for new, used and rare books. AbeBooks connects buyers to independent sellers worldwide, offering low-cost textbooks. I’ve purchased “The Copywriter’s Toolkit: The Complete Guide to Strategic Advertising Copy” for $5.34; however, shipping was $3.75, and sales tax was $0.64. In total, I paid $9.73 for the textbook, which I got to keep after the course was over.
3. Gettextbooks.com
If you feel like you can’t find the materials you are looking for, GetTextbooks.com is my go-to website for mass searches because it finds the best prices on new, used, rentals and digital textbooks. It’s also easy to navigate. Simply insert the ISBN, title or author in the search bar, and it will provide a list of sites where you can purchase the material.
A few honorable mentions…
1. David L. Rice Library
The library is a great resource to take advantage of, especially if the course material is overpriced online and you don’t necessarily want to keep the book. The library is perfect for borrowing materials. Students can borrow items using their USI Eagle ID card and can renew books online through their account before their due dates. Overdue books must be brought into the library for renewal.
2. Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit library with a digital library offering free access to digitized media on archive.org. Whether you prefer digital media or you want to save money, the Internet Archive includes textbooks and readings for free. The kicker is that only one person can view the textbook at a time, so when the book is unavailable to borrow, it means someone else is borrowing it. Therefore, you might run into a problem if you’re trying to complete a homework assignment at the last minute.
