How to get textbooks for free

by Bob on January 2, 2008

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This was a trick I discovered late in college, that I wish I would have known about earlier, it could have saved me thousands over my college years. It shouldn’t take more than a hour and could save you hundreds each semester. Basically, the goal is to buy and sell the textbook for the same price – making it ($75-$75=$0) FREE!!

1. Find the cheapest priced textbooks.

Check Amazon and eBay. Get the ISBN# from the barcode of the book and do a search on both for the cheapest used book. Feel free to look other places like textbooks.com or Barnes and Noble, but Amazon and eBay are likely to be the cheapest. Make sure you are getting the right edition for the class (I had many classes that it didn’t matter, but for the purposes of reselling, the newest edition will help).

2. Use it, but don’t abuse it

Folded pages, highlighting, rounded edges don’t affect the price very much, but missing covers or pages do. Don’t eat your book! I know you are in college and probably short on cash, but if resorting to eating paper as a dietary supplement, stick with looseleaf; it is cheaper.

3. Get ready to sell those textbooks

After the fall semester you are going to want to sell them right away, because other anxious college kids will be looking to buy them up for the spring semester. After the spring semester on the other hand, you should probably wait a couple months before looking to sell. Remember: supply and demand. How many college kids are looking to buy their textbooks for fall, when classes let out in May?

4. List and sell them

There are many options for selling your books, but you want to find one where YOU are selling to the customer. What you will find is that as long as every school in the U.S. hasn’t switched to a newer edition, you shouldn’t have a problem selling them for what you paid. I like Amazon’s textbook store the best. They move a lot of books and if priced appropriately, you should be able to sell it quickly. eBay is another good option, but I don’t think it is quite as easy as Amazon. Once you go to Amazon’s textbook store you can begin the selling process by entering the ISBN#. The whole process is very quick and easy – it shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes for each book.

When setting your price, look to see what the lowest price is and go a few cents below that. This will help you to sell your book as quickly as possible. Check back every week or so and adjust your price so it is the cheapest listed. If your book is not in the 5-10 lowest priced books, it is unlikely that it will sell.
When you do sell your book, you will receive a notice via email with the buyer’s info. It is your responsibility to get it shipped ASAP. Not doing so will result in poor ratings and will make it more difficult to sell the next book.

I did profit off a few books over my last year in college doing this. You will find that some are winners and some are losers, but no matter what I suggest that you sell textbooks online – you will be doing a whole lot better than those who buy their books new and sell them back to the campus bookstore.

Technorati Tags: free textbooks, cheap textbooks, save money on textbooks

Article by Bob

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, doing things the "long" way, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and has been having a blast ever since. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

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The Dividend Guy Blog: January 30, 2008 at 8:22 am

{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }

Becky January 2, 2008 at 5:36 pm: I wish I’d known about this when I was in college! Of course, that was almost 10 years ago now, so I don’t know how much the Internet was used for buying and selling textbooks at that time. Very good tip
Centsible Shopper January 2, 2008 at 5:43 pm: One great comparision site I’ve used for textbooks and other books is http://campusi.com/.
bob January 2, 2008 at 6:19 pm: @Becky,
well – as I mentioned, I wish I would have figured it out earlier, but better late than never I guess…

@Centsible
Thanks for sharing…
Money Blue Book January 3, 2008 at 9:24 am: I’ve sold many textbooks in my day but I’ve never actually profited from the sale. By definition they are always sold at lower used prices. You sold them at cost? Impressive.
-Raymond
bob January 3, 2008 at 12:12 pm: @Money blue book
I did sell a few below my cost -nicely discounted “USED” cost – most were right around what I paid for them – the goal was always to break even
Tristan January 3, 2008 at 1:08 pm: Textbooks are such a ripoff…at least at college bookstore prices. Oy! Online is definitely the way to go. I wish I had taken this advice a few years ago.
Free From Broke January 16, 2008 at 3:48 pm: I just saw what some of the textbooks that I need are gonna cost…I’m definitely gonna try to re-sell them once I’m done. Thanks for the info!
NoDebtPlan January 28, 2008 at 10:50 am: I do the same thing and end up with books costing me $10-20 each (due to Amazon taking their cut and shipping costs). Sure beats a 75% loss selling back to the bookstore!
Russell February 10, 2008 at 4:44 pm: http://www.CheapestTextbooks.com is very useful website to buy cheap textbooks they find the cheapest store online that sells your books.
Patricia February 18, 2008 at 1:37 pm: Off Campus bookstores are cheaper than online and on campus. Did you know that Half.com (eBay) calls the bookstores to list their Textbook online because of volume selling (more fees) than a single student.
If you will check the feedback, note the one’s with 4ooo or higher they are bookstores. Also, the bookstores are laughing at students that buy online, because they list the books at a higher cost, and do not have to worry about returns due to drop/add.
I know this because I worked in a College Bookstore for 4 years..
bob February 18, 2008 at 9:04 pm: @Patricia
Thanks for sharing – it is good getting some insight from a textbook “insider”
Sal January 3, 2009 at 2:31 pm: Thanks Bob and all the posters for this post. It has definetly hit home. My wife recently decided to go back to college after a 10 year break =). I was blown away with the cost of these books. $50 -$100 each. Wow!!!! Thank you so much for these ideas. I plan to resell the books for her and shop around for better prices and will definetly use the difference to pay down debt.
Steve's Free Books January 8, 2009 at 7:23 pm: That is just like what I have written an ebook about. Currently it is selling for $7 which is peanuts in comparison to what you will loose if you dont use this method. It has saved my friends and I thousands of dollars compared to buying new and selling back at a huge loss. The book actually details step by step how to do this and gives you 8 different methods in which to accomplish getting books for free. It is ready to download at anytime. The manual is called Get College Books Free, just search the net with quotes around it or click my name above to go to the site if you are interested.
Matthew May 15, 2009 at 8:32 pm: This is something I absolutely did during college. My best semester went something like this: I sold all the books from my current semester, bought all the books for my new semester, and somehow ended up with about a $100 profit. My friend (who just so happened to manage a local bookstore near campus) always makes fun of me and tells that story to people because I am the only guy he knows that bought all my books for the semester and made money in the process.