Reading Copy Book Blog

So while you’re looking to buy textbooks for your upcoming semester why not check and see if any of your old books are worth selling?

Just because your school wouldn’t want to buy your textbooks back doesn’t mean that they are worthless. AbeBooks textbook buyback is on a national scale, so even if your local professors stopped using your book it may have value to a student in another state.

Also if you missed your buyback dates at the beginning of summer that’s ok our textbook buyback is year round.

AbeBooks.com has become the first textbook marketplace to offer Two-Day Shipping on not only new but used textbooks which allows students to have the chance to save the most on their textbooks even if their professor is late giving them their reading list.

View the textbooks that are available with two day shipping

The two day can cost up to $25 but when you are saving $100 on your books like this student, it can be worth it.

Also remember if you have a little bit more time you can save even more money with our regular shipping speeds.

Most students are gearing up to head back to class in two weeks which means it’s a busy time here at AbeBooks HQ. This week is when the largest number of students will go online and search for the textbooks they need for the coming year. AbeBooks recieves upwards of 90 searches per second from eager book-buyers during this peak time.

AbeBooks recently conducted a student textbook survey and with just over 1500 students responding I thought the results were fairly interesting.

According to the survey most students spend between $200-400 on their textbooks for one year, but an astounding 29% spend over $600 on textbooks alone.

Another interesting fact is that 23% of the students surveyed have purchased an electronic textbook in the past. While they are catching on students want to see a discount on the purchase price of the e-books with 32% of students expecting at least a 40% discount and a further 52% of students requiring a range of discounts from 60% and up to shed the physical copies.

I can definitely see e-books catching on as more people buy e-reading devices and laptops keep dropping in price however when it comes textbooks being able to write in the margin, trade with your classmates, and get out of a stuffy classroom and read under a tree are all features students desire.

So like I said in my last posts, go to AbeBooks , buy early, and find those cheap used copies!

Tips For Buying Cheap Textbooks

1. Ask your profs to supply reading lists as early as possible, many of them have websites or blogs and a quick email could save you hundreds.

2. Compare AbeBooks prices to the bookstore prices, this will ensure you have found the cheapest textbooks and let you copy the ISBN to ensure you are getting the right textbook.

3. Search by ISBN, this way you are sure to have the exact book you are looking for and not a different edition

4. Compare our prices again - our stock changes hourly.

5. Order your textbooks early, by doing this you can ensure you buy the cheapest textbooks before other students, and you can save money with cheaper shipping methods.

6. Double up on your orders, most AbeBooks sellers offer discounted shipping when you order more then one item. So a book may be $2 cheaper from a different seller, but you might save $4 in shipping by ordering a second book from the same seller. So double check your orders.

7. Free shipping - look for booksellers offering free shipping

8. Buy local - choose from a bookseller in your area. The book will show up faster, and leave less of a carbon footprint if you choose a local bookseller. Plus you will be supporting a business in your own state or province.

9. Consider used textbooks - used copies will save you lots of money. You can take this one step further as well and ask your professor if an old edition will work for their class, and many old editions can be had for a couple dollars.

10. Sell your old textbooks to AbeBooks Buyback or another student at your school.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be posting tips to help students find the cheapest textbooks on AbeBooks.

Today I want to explain why the early bird gets the cheapest textbooks. Just like with your local collage bookstore the cheapest books on AbeBooks are the used textbooks. These used textbooks are often 50% to 80% cheaper then their new counterparts, and are you best bet for saving the most money; which means everyone else will be gunning for the used copies as well.

Even though its only July check to see if your reading lists have been posted, the earlier you can order your textbooks the more money you will save.

The other bonus about buying early is you can order with standard shipping which also costs less!

If you are one of thousands of US students heading back to university, then here are a few tips for buying textbooks on the Internet. AbeBooks.com has been a player in the online textbook market for more than three years now so here’s some very simple advice for saving money on books.

1. Buy early – plan ahead and avoid buying just before classes begin because prices rise when supplies begin to decrease. Textbooks sell fast and furiously over a short period of time, so the best prices can be found early when the numbers of books online is far greater.
2. Buy used – secondhand textbooks offer large savings and it is not hard to find significant savings of $50 or more on list prices. It’s possible to find books at less than $10, sometimes even $1, if you are prepared to use a book that is several years old.
3. Consider older editions as they offer massive savings on list prices – if there have been no major updates to your subject (eg biology, chemistry) then an older edition will be fine. Contact course tutors and simply ask if an older edition will suffice – some courses change very little over the years.
4. Use the ISBN for rapid searching. Every book published since 1970 has an ‘International Standard Book Number’ (it used to be a 10-digit unique number but is now 13-digit) and searches by ISBN locate the exact book and disregard titles with similar names.

(Many courses do not issue reading lists with ISBNs – however, AbeBooks.com has a tool in its ‘Textbook’ section that allows students to search for textbooks by university and course.)

5. Look for the growing number of independent booksellers offering free shipping.
6. Don’t write on textbooks. Help keep its value for resale. (It’s also possible to sell textbooks at AbeBooks.com through its competitive buy-back program that includes free shipping.)