College is incredibly expensive. You fork out a ton of money for tuition and student fees and finally register for classes, and then suddenly your professors are asking you to spend hundreds of dollars more on textbooks. You can’t afford that. You don’t want to afford that! Who spends that much money on books anyway? Luckily, there are ways to cut down the cost, and as always I’m here to help you out. Let’s talk about the best way to get the textbooks you need without breaking the bank.

1) Find out what books you need.
My school provides a list with all of the textbooks that I need in one easy place, but your school might be different. Do a little digging and figure out exactly what books you need. If your school doesn’t provide with one already, make a list with the books’ title, author, edition, ISBN (the number assigned to each book by the publisher), approximate cost and whether the book is required or recommended. If a book is only recommended, you don’t absolutely need it and can hold off on buying it.

2) Start early.
Right at the end of the previous semester, everyone will be trying to sell their old textbooks. This is a great time to get cheap books. The longer you wait, the more the prices will go up as other students start buying their books as well. You want to get to the best prices before others beat you.

3) Always buy used.
You don’t need a pristine textbook, and new books will cost exponentially more than their used counterparts. I always try to buy my used books in “good” or better condition just because it’s nice not to have books that are falling apart or water damaged, but in the end I can put up with some torn pages in order to save a hundred bucks. Most used textbooks I’ve bought are in really good shape, and as a bonus, some of them are highlighted or include useful notes that help me study!

4) Don’t buy from your bookstore unless you have to.
Some professors write their own textbooks (or even more insulting, just print off things written by other people and stick them in a binder) and require you to buy them from the bookstore. You won’t be able to find these online and may have to suck up the steep price and buy them from your bookstore. Don’t buy other books here unless you can’t find them cheaper anywhere else, though.

5) Buy from other students.
The one place you might find used textbooks written by your professor is from other students. My school has both a textbook selling Facebook group, and a texts.com site where students can sell their books. Look and ask around to see if your school offers something similar. You can usually buy your books from other students for really cheap just because any money is better than a bunch of old textbooks taking up space. Additionally, if you buy from a local student you don’t have to pay for shipping and your money goes into the pocket of a fellow struggling student and not a giant corporation.

If you do buy from other students, you’re probably going to have to meet in person to complete the exchange. If this is the case, make sure that you do it safely. Make arrangements to meet in a public place. I always ask them to meet me in the campus library, because everyone knows where it is. Additionally, it’s a busy and yet quiet enough place that if something were to happen, someone would notice. If you can, bring along a roommate or friend; if not be sure to tell someone where you’re going and who you’re meeting with. 99.9% of the time, meeting up with a fellow student to buy or sell a book is fine and totally safe, but it’s always better to be prepared just in case. That said, I have had nothing but good experiences selling and buying textbooks from my classmates and highly recommend it!

6) Look online.
I always check Amazon and Barnes and Noble (look in the marketplace where users can sell their own used books!) and I can usually find great deals. There are other sites out there that sell cheap textbooks, but I like to stick to sites that I can trust. With these sites, I know that if I don’t get the right book or have a complaint, I will get good customer service to get the problem solved.  Other companies don’t always have the same guarantee. If you do decide to buy from another company online, be sure to look up their reviews before you do so. There are a lot of legitimate textbooks sellers out there, but there are also a few scams and very poorly run businesses.

7) Consider renting.
You can rent textbooks from sites like Chegg and Amazon for a semester for a lot cheaper than buying them. At the end of your rental period, you just send them back in the box you got them in with a prepaid shipping slip and call it a day. This is a cheaper option upfront, and a lot less of a hassle than trying to sell back textbooks. However, I usually find that I can sell back my books for enough that it ends up being cheaper to buy than rent. If you don’t want to deal with selling books, or you don’t have a lot to spend on textbooks upfront, renting can be a cheap and easy option.

8) Consider getting the ebook instead of a hardcopy.
Ebooks are usually cheaper than their hardcopy relatives. A lot of students prefer the print versions of textbooks because they’re easier to take notes in, never need to be recharged, are easier to focus on (Facebook is always calling for your attention on your tablet), etc. However, if you can put up with an ebook, it’s sometimes much cheaper to get digital textbooks. Just know that, like with renting books, you can’t sell them afterwards.

9) Consider getting an older edition.
They can cost pennies compared to the newest edition your professor asks for. Be aware, though, that the page numbers may be different. Additionally, the professor may assign problems that may not be in older edition. If the textbook is just a supplement to the in-class lectures, an older edition will probably suffice. If it’s a workbook with problems (like a lot of math books), or an anthology or something similar, you’re probably going to need the newest edition. If you’re unsure, it never hurts to shoot the professor an email and ask their opinion.

10) Watch out for illegal copies.
There are a lot of places on the web where you can get “free” textbooks. Most of the time, these are illegal, and I absolutely don’t recommend them! They can get you into trouble, especially if you download them on school computers or over the school wifi. There is also the risk of viruses. Overall, it’s just not worth it. Stay away from illegal downloads.

Where do you get your textbooks? Do you have any textbook tips that I missed? Let me know in the comments!