Have you ever found yourself waiting half an hour in a bookstore line only to pay extravagant amounts of money for books you'll open twice to cram for exams? Or shuffling through a crowd of students just to find an On Order sticker above the book you need for class tomorrow?
Avoid the hassle, lines and frustration and order your books online. With many options for used books, ordering books online can be convenient and much cheaper than dealing with the on-campus bookstores.
Many websites, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble, sell both new and used textbooks and, since they deal with higher quantities of books, have more options for used books. Other websites, such as Chegg.com, offer students the ability to rent textbooks on a quarterly basis, a service also being picked up by on-campus bookstores. However, with the numerous options to buy used textbooks online, renting is not always the cheapest option.
When compared, buying used from online sellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble proves to be the most cost-effective. BioInquiry, a 100-level biology course textbook, costs $105 at the on-campus bookstore, $22.54 to buy used from Chegg - which sells textbooks in addition to renting them - and less than $19 on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Microeconomics, a textbook that costs $115 at bookstores, costs $45.98 on Amazon and $48.56 on Barnes & Noble's website; it can be rented on Chegg for $36.99. Shipping - usually about $3.99 - costs extra to buy from Chegg, Amazon or Barnes & Noble, but even with these costs factored in you still can save more than 50% by using these sites. Renting sometimes offers a slightly cheaper option, but the books can't be sold back at the end of the quarter, and the rentals can be used for either a semester, quarter or 60-day period, each with specific due dates designated by Chegg.
This option is even more convenient with the new feature on the course offerings portion of Ohio University's website. Now the books needed for each class can be posted by the professor. This includes title and ISBN number, so you easily can find the exact book online. Some classes do not have books listed, but the majority has a complete list of what is required and recommended for the course. Because this information is posted prior to the beginning of the quarter, you can order books with plenty of time for them to arrive before the start of classes.
So before you brave the bookstores and leave with your wallet empty, check out online options and you might find that your wallet stays much fuller.
Whitney Thompson is a senior studying English literature and columnist for The Post. What is the cheapest textbook you have bought? E-mail her at wt365806@ohiou.edu.
4 Opinion
Whitney Thompson
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