There has been a lot said about renting textbooks recently. However, when reading some of these articles, one thing has been bothering me, and that is: no one has considered the re-sale price of purchased books in the comparisons.

Take this recent L.A. Times article. While it does have some great tips for saving money on textbooks (such as finding older editions, or seeing if there is a paperback edition of the same book) the journalist missed a key point when she compared textbook rental to buying textbooks.

When you rent a book, you essentially buy and sell your book in one step, so to compare rental prices to purchase prices, you must factor the resale value into the equation; otherwise you compare apples to oranges.

The paragraph I refer to explains that she found a brand new copy of Exploring Psychology for sale online for $86, and that the same book was available to rent for $28 (note: that price has now crept up to $34.15 from the same site).

This sounds like a great savings, but the Times did not provide the whole story. First, you can buy the book used for about $60 on AbeBooks, which is an instant savings over the new price they quoted. And second, when you buy a book, you can sell it when the class ends.AbeBooks’ Buyback program is currently offering $32.72 for this exact book, which is a big reduction in your final cost.

So now when you do the math, the rental costs $34.15 and purchasing and then selling though AbeBooks would cost you ($63.75 – 32.72) = $31.03. A savings of just over $3, and it gets better:

Comparing buying/selling and renting on the 5 bestselling textbooks:

1 Biology (Campbell’s 8th Edition) – 0321543254 / 9780321543257.
List Price: $183.53
Best new/used from AbeBooks: $116.15 (AbeBooks Buyback offer: $82.51)
Price from leading Rental Company: $44.05
Final price buying and selling with AbeBooks: $33.64

2. Human Anatomy and Physiology (8th Edition) – 0805395911 / 9780805395914
List Price: $196.33
Best new/used from AbeBooks: $149.99 (AbeBooks Buyback offer: $82.51)
Price from leading Rental Company: $75.22
Final price buying and selling with AbeBooks: $67.48

3. Biology: Concepts etc (6th Edition) – 0321489845
List Price: $154.53
Best new/used from AbeBooks: $97.80 (AbeBooks Buyback offer: $64.15)
Price from leading Rental Company:$52.76
Final price buying and selling with AbeBooks: $33.65

4. Chemistry: The Central Science (11th Edition) – 0136006175
List Price: $194.40
Best new/used from AbeBooks: $108.95 (AbeBooks Buyback offer: $81.15)
Price from leading Rental Company: $69.65
Final Price when buying and selling with AbeBooks: $27.80

5. The Art of Public Speaking with Connect Lucas (10th edition) – 0077306295
List Price: $90.30
Best new/used from AbeBooks: $86.27 (AbeBooks Buyback offer: $49.19)
Price from leading Rental Company: $61.93
Final Price when buying and selling with AbeBooks: $37.08

So you save over 50% of the cost of renting when you buy and sell Chemistry: The Central Science (11th Edition).

Remember when you are looking for the best price on textbooks to compare your final costs.

All of these prices were based on searches made on August 17th 2009, and are based on the rental price for a single semester.