How College Students Can Save Money on Textbooks

Textbooks are more expensive than ever before, and it’s time for educators, analysts, manufacturers, and even students to stop making excuses—to stop rationalizing the unacceptable cost associated with college books.

The rising cost of educational books comes at a time when higher education also happens to be at its priciest point in history; experts have concluded that rate hikes are unrelated to inflation. The reasons why college’s courses and textbooks cost so much are up for debate, but the harmful impact of these realities on students are not. College is still worth attending, dollars-wise, but student debt can follow graduates well into adulthood.

Reducing college costs will require careful analyses and hard work from industry professionals. But the sky-high costs of college books can be responded to presently by students, educators, and college faculty members. This battle begins with students, who should explore one or more of the new and exciting ways to access and/or buy textbooks.

To help as many students as possible save as much money as possible, let’s take a look at some of these ways!

Rent Textbooks

College books that are unreasonably expensive—those that cost hundreds or, in some unacceptable instances, thousands of dollars—should be rented. Not a few college book stores and online companies allow students to find the books they need, use them throughout the semester or the year, and return them when the corresponding class concludes, all for a comparatively small cost.

What’s more is that textbook rentals are helping students save in multiple ways. Besides providing them with a cheap way to get the college books they need, rentals force publishers and manufacturers to respond to sagging sales by reducing the retail cost of their books and increasing production.

In the long term, this latter point will prove very, very beneficial to college students. But in the short term, there are plenty of reasons to rent textbooks and virtually no reasons not to do so.

Utilize Online Books

Many college books are available, in their entirety, online, and they can be accessed by students for a small one-time fee. To be sure, compact laptops, tablets, and even cell phones can contain thousands upon thousands of pages of integral material! Additionally, online books can be searched for key terms and subjects in seconds—a fact that saves students time and energy.

Students who’re interested in taking their college books digital can perform an online search to see if the title at-hand is available for download. Books that are available for download should be shopped around for, as different providers charge different prices.

Music, traditional books, movies, television shows, and all manner of other media have gone digital. Why shouldn’t the textbook follow?

Trade-In and Purchase Used Books

Online trade-in platforms and secondhand college books are redefining the way that students purchase their required materials.

In terms of the first point, many college book trade-in platforms are ready and waiting to buy students’ unneeded college resources. The process of trading a book in as simple and straightforward as can be; students search for their book, arrange to mail it away, and drop it in the mail using a prepaid shipping label. Then, when the item arrives, payment is dispatched.

College book trade-ins relate directly to the second point that was mentioned initially: secondhand buying. Students can pick-up extra cash by trading their books in, and by doing so, they can make affordable books available to others. These individuals can then pay less for required college materials than they would if they bought new, and if they take the time to trade this book in after they’re done using it, the cycle can continue.

Stated in brief, college book trade-ins and secondhand buying, in coordination with occasional renting and the utilization of available online books, can allow students to forego multi-thousand-dollar expenses and maximize convenience.

And it’s hard to argue against either of those things!

As was highlighted at the beginning of this text, college books are unacceptably expensive. That fact, and the unfortunate reality that many students overpay for these materials, is the bad news. The good news is that students do have alternatives to spending an arm and a leg on college books. Better yet is the fact that by exploring these alternatives, students can prompt textbook authors, publishers, and manufacturers to reduce their prices and focus on volume.

In the coming months and years, expect to see college materials become much more affordable. In the meantime, though, students should do everything they can to explore money-saving opportunities. The information highlighted above provides a great starting point.