Why You Should Buy Your College Textbooks Online

College isn’t cheap. Tuition rates are constantly on the rise with no sign of slowing down, and if that’s not bad enough, the cost of textbooks has gone up by over 1400% in the last 50 years.

If you’re a college student or a parent paying for a student, you’re undoubtedly looking for ways to save some money on the cost of going to school.

The good news is one easy way you can save big is by buying college textbooks online.

When you buy college textbooks online, you can save money, time, and the hassle of searching through physical bookstore shelves, all while enjoying the convenience of having your books delivered right to your door.

Why Buy Your College Textbooks Online?

Textbooks can add up to an eye-watering amount every semester. In fact, textbook prices have grown at nearly 3 times the rate of inflation over the past 50 years.

These lengthy resources often need to be updated and edited every few years, which leads to increased printing and publishing costs.

Plus, with a reliable market of buyers, textbooks are often sold at a huge markup.

It can be grating to fork over hundreds of dollars for resources you’ll probably only need for a couple of months.

Sure, many campus bookstores claim to offer “buyback” options, creating the illusion of being able to offset textbook costs at the end of the semester…but the real story is often a little different. It’s typical to find that the store where you bought your textbooks in the fall is no longer accepting that edition by the time spring semester rolls around.

Even if the store is willing to buy your textbooks back, these sellers will likely offer only a fraction of the price you handed over just a few months before.

Spending all that cash on course materials is a challenge, but there’s no denying that having the necessary textbooks is essential if you want to do well in your classes.

Anyone who’s ever tried to skate through a course without the book knows just how impossible that can be.

There’s good news in the textbook buying world, however.

By purchasing from online textbook sellers, you can save a chunk of change compared to buying at your local college bookstore.

Online textbook sellers can keep their costs low by offering used options from students around the world.

Even new editions are often less expensive when purchased online, because digital sellers have lower overhead costs and tend to include less markup than brick-and-mortar textbook suppliers.

Plus, when you purchase your books online, you can easily weigh different options and compare price points… unlike traditional textbook stores, where there is typically only one option available.

You can also enjoy the convenience of having your books delivered right to your door, which can be a lifesaver if you’ve got a ton of heavy tomes on your required reading list.

Some online textbook sellers even allow you to resell your books at much better prices, so you can get that much closer to breaking even on the cost.

So save your money for the books that really spark your interests at the brick-and-mortar bookstore and buy those costly, quick-turnaround textbooks online.

AbeBooks Offers Cheap College Textbooks Online

AbeBooks is an incredibly comprehensive online book hub that includes everything from bestsellers to vintage novels to cookbooks and more.

In addition to just about every genre you can imagine, AbeBooks also has a huge array of textbooks, all at remarkably low prices.

Their academic catalog includes textbooks, reference materials, study guides, academic journals, test prep handbooks, and more.

Whatever your professor requires, you can probably find it here.

The company is one of the most longstanding digital booksellers, dating way back to the early internet days of 1996.

Now a subsidiary of Amazon, AbeBooks connects millions of independent sellers and buyers around the globe in one secure online location.

I love this resource because their collection is so vast.  With AbeBooks, you’re sure to find the textbook you need – and most likely, you’ll be able to find the best deal on it, too.

AbeBooks even owns and operates BookFinder.com, a shopping service solely dedicated to finding the best book prices online.

AbeBooks also offers superior convenience when it comes to searching for the academic titles you need.

Many courses rely on a specific edition of a textbook, which can sometimes be hard to determine online.

With AbeBooks, you can search for the exact textbook you need: by subject, author, title, all the way down to the ISBN number.

This eliminates the potential setback of spending money on the wrong edition of the textbook you’ve been assigned.

AbeBooks also guarantees the quality of their books, so you can be sure that the “Used – Like New” you pay for won’t actually be tattered and falling apart.

You can even qualify for a refund for the first 30 days after purchase if you’re dissatisfied with your order.

Plus, AbeBooks is guaranteed to be secure, with your personal information protected at all times.  This eliminates the risk factor that you may have to take with other independent sellers who might just be running a scam.

The affordable prices and high level of convenience and security make AbeBooks my number one choice for online textbook purchases.

Click here to shop AbeBooks’ full collection of college textbooks online.

Final Thoughts

Buying your college textbooks online is an easy and effective way to save your hard-earned money as a student.

Instead of spending hundreds at the campus bookstore, you can search for new and used options at much better prices online.

When you buy college textbooks online from sites like AbeBooks, you can get the materials you need to succeed in your classes, without destroying your budget.

After all, a college education is costly – but it’s also one of the most valuable investments you can make in your future.

Are you a college student who has saved money with online textbook sellers?  Have any textbook tips we forgot to mention here?  We’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below!