Fight the high cost of textbooks.
Save On Your College Textbook Purchases
Finally, you are out of that dreaded, stale high school atmosphere and off to college. You snatched the diploma with a smug look and said good riddance to that teenage prison forever. Now, the freedom of University life is just around the corner.
You’ve sifted through the various colleges, found the perfect one, and met your dorm mate for fall. This is going to be a cinch, right? Well, as great as college may sound when you’re in high school, it can be a reality check once you actually get going. It’s a whole new world out there. Unless your rich parents are footing the bill, the independence of campus life can cost you some serious cash. While tuition and living expenses are no picnic, you don’t want to forget to include pricey college textbooks.
While textbooks are certainly necessary for most classes, you don’t have to settle for one gut-wrenching price. If you jump online, you will notice that many college text books can be purchased at a cheaper cost. The key is to find out what college text books you will need for your next set of classes as early as possible. Then you can surf the web and locate the best deals on all your college text books. Just because the campus bookstore charges outrageous prices, doesn’t mean you have to settle. The Internet will provide you with a vast spectrum of college text books for more reasonable price tags. College is already expensive; you don’t want to have to worry about the smaller things.
The cost of college textbooks has been escalating at an alarming rate recently. The average price of textbooks has increased almost threefold since 1986, according to a report by the GAO, the investigative branch of Congress. But are you aware that, like certain prescription drugs, some textbooks can often be purchased at lower prices from overseas sellers?
Textbooks priced for the American market can often be found at online stores without the pricing constraints found at U.S. booksellers. Your local campus bookstore could be buying discount textbooks from an internet bookseller located in the UK or Canada and then reselling them to you at a profit!
So… why not cut out the middleman and buy your own books overseas? However, before buying textbooks from overseas websites, several factors need to be considered:
1) Not all textbooks are available at overseas sellers.
2) Editions may vary, books may be softcover instead of hardcover, copyright dates may be different etc. Students need to check with their professors and make sure which versions and editions of a specific book are allowed in class.
3) Currency exchange rates may vary. This will affect how much you actually pay for the book.
4) Books published in other countries may be tagged as not for resale in the U.S. Therefore students may not be legally able to resell the book after completing their semester.
4) Shipping is always more on overseas purchases. (Buying more than one book at a time may save on shipping though).
Even considering all these factors, textbooks can often be had at a 25% or more discount from overseas booksellers.
Where to start? AmazonUK is a good place to begin looking. Or try a search for U.K. and Canadian booksellers.
One final point. Regardless of whether you buy your textbooks from overseas sellers or not, it’s always a good idea to to check online prices before buying a book.