One of the most expensive and tedious things I had to worry about in college was purchasing my textbooks for class. I hated trying to find the best deals online, or holding off for the first week or two after classes started, hoping that someone who dropped would try to unload their books at a discount.
There were many times when I did give up the fight and just pay whatever exorbitant price the school’s book store was charging, of course buying used if it was available.
Thankfully, things have improved quite a bit over the past few years, and smart students have many resourceful ways to save money on textbooks. Seeing the necessity, websites like ecampus.com and the ValoreBooks textbook marketplace are offering, not only great deals, but making the process quick and simple for textbook consumers.
Textbook Rental Reviews: eCampus
Right from the home page, one has the option to buy, rent, or sell textbooks. RENT TEXTBOOKS? This was something I would have done all through college. There is nothing worse than buying a textbook new for $200, and then selling it back to the bookstore for $17. The renting option is broken up into three price tiers based on the length of the rental: the longer the rental, the better the deal in price.
Save Money On Textbooks With e-Textbooks?
I was also impressed that many textbooks are available in an e-textbook format (no more lugging heavy texts around). With the examples I perused, one would be purchasing a subscription for the e-textbook for a period of 180 days. In these examples, the cost of the e-textbook was quite a bit higher than purchasing the physical texts.
In at least 2 cases, it was almost twice as much as purchasing a new hard copy. While this would dissuade me from using this function, I can see how one could justify the extra cost for the convenience.
Besides showing the available new, used, rental, and e-textbook prices, there is also a “The Marketplace” tab, which allows you to purchase the text from private sellers at prices set at their discretion. This option could offer you possible additional savings, and makes it quite easy to provide textbook rental reviews, when their are multiple options to save and make money on a site.
The site offers other products such as DVDs and college clothing and other paraphernalia. I compared the price of the DVDs to Amazon.com, where I usually purchase them, and the difference in prices were negligible in many cases.
I also compared a few textbook prices to my favorite site for textbook purchases, and that is where the difference was more noticeable. In all fairness, this site in particular is all “marketplace”, and so the private sellers were asking for a great range of prices for the textbooks.
Compared to the prices at other bookstores and online retailers, ecampus.com is definitely a great bargain.
Since I am considering re-entering academia again in the future, I am glad I had a chance to review this site. I will certainly revisit it for the textbook rental option, especially since they have free shipping on orders over $59. Not only that, but they supply you with a shipping label to send the book back at the end of the semester.
Good prices, stress-free experience, and finishing touches to make sure you’ll come back – ecampus.com is worth a look.
Reader Questions
- How have you been able to save on textbook costs?
- Do you have a lot of professors who don’t require them at all?
- Have you had success using and following the previous edition of a textbook?
- Do you have any other tips that should be included here?
