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Cheap online source for used textbooks??

euphoria

euphoria

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Dec 23, 2004
Messages
8,946
Hey all-

Anyone know of a good place to get cheap used textbooks online? The used ones on Amazon are still kinda pricey for my current budget.

Thanks

pEaCe*lOvE
 
^^youre in ohio right? i dont know what university/college you go to but theres something called OhioLink and you can search for books online and they will be sent to your schools library for FREE (if your school participates)! its just like your library had the book, but it searches all over ohio.

it doesnt take long to get the books either, and you can renew them. :D i wish i wouldve found out about it before my last quarter of college.

hope this helps.

http://www.ohiolink.edu/

and heres a link of all the participating schools: http://www.ohiolink.edu/members-info/
 
ohiolink is niiice... but the book i was looking for has no more copies to be borrowed!!! FUCK lol i seriously cant find this stupid book anywhere except paying full price in my school's bookstore.
 
My God, someone's posting on BL about the benefits of inter-library loan :) *jaw drops*.

firefighter: does your library let you recall books? (In mine, if a book is on loan, you can put a request on it, and the person who has it has to bring it back within the next few days).
 
we have the inter-library stuff as well however they dont have the textbooks most professors require. At least for my stuff.
 
dreamgirlie19 said:
we have the inter-library stuff as well however they dont have the textbooks most professors require. At least for my stuff.
Click to expand...

A lot of libraries (here, anyway) don't stock textbooks; we're specifically told not to - students are expected to buy them.
 
^ Yea that is mostly true for my school however I had some professors use books that WERE available back when I was going my liberal arts courses. The OP asked about textbooks so I was just letting him know that primarily the library isnt a good source for what he wants :)
 
Well....I aint sayin nothin....But I used to know somebody who would "obtain" the books from the school bookstore for free and then sell em for like $20 each. You would just tell him what books you need and he would get them for you. He made money, you saved money, everybody was happy. I aint suggesting that but its just a suggestion. ;)


Sorry. im just sayin my experience here in case it would help anyone if they were writing a paper on how students get textbooks. %)
 
I got some of my books on Ebay. I paid about $50 including shipping for a new calculus book that costed $200 at the book store and >$100 on various websites.

The prices at the college bookstore are much higher than most websites and higher than the offline, off-campus bookstore. I don't know if it is that way everywhere, but that kind of price markup is a ripoff.
 
I used to use Amazon.com, half.com, and eBay to get cheap used textbooks or just used books for classes.

I'd also get them from friends that had taken the same classes before, or from people who had old textbooks that they wanted to sell just to get rid of.

If you know the ISBN you can look up prices on Bookfinder.com
 
Also, be sure to check out Bittorent just in case they may have it, or perhaps an older version (especially for really well known books). This is worth checking out.

I'd use Half.com, like other posters have suggested - and then resell when you're done with them. However, they lose value every time a semester passes (and they get that much more outdated) so, keep that in mind.
 
www.abebooks.com


Most of the books on the site are low-price editions intended for distribution in countries with economic issues, so you can get books for mad cheap. I got two of my math books, both for about $115 on amazon, for only about 20-25 bucks each shipped to my house. Awesome stuff.
 
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A few things to add that one might first not consider:

1)* If you have friends who go to nearby universities, ask them to look up your textbooks in their school library. Given the obvious (that they're not in yours), you can have your friends check the books out for you, you try and do the same for them, maybe throw in a bottle of wine, etc. I've done this with my sister before and found success.

2) Google books. I've actually found a few textbooks on there, too. It can get annoying, since they'll miss pages haphazardly, but it's still better than nothing.

*This might be slightly unethical :\
 
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