Because Textbooks Won’t Buy Themselves

With less than two weeks before instruction starts, I’m sure some students are scrambling to check off book lists for classes.

You can always rent textbooks for less, but (despite what ill-informed Bears think) you don’t get your money back. Here’s a treasure map to find the cheapest textbooks.

1. Used bookstores – Novels are usually $1 or less in used bookstores, and old editions work. Check out a relevant Caliber post, To the Idiots Who Are Overpaying for Books, for a guide to used bookstores in Berkeley, including Half Price Books, Pegasus Books, Moe’s and more.

2. From a friend – Have a friend who took the class in a previous semester? Beg them for a textbook discount; emotional appeal always works in these kinds of situations…

3. Textbook search engines – ComeGetUsed.com lists books from student sellers on campus for any registered Berkeley student, while BerkeleyBooks will hunt for the latest book deals, by course, from the Cal Bookstore, Amazon, Half, Chegg and BookRenter. CampusBuddy, my personal favorite, has a cool textbook feature that searches deals for a single book from Amazon, Half, AbeBooks, BetterWorldBooks, TextbooksRUs, Textbooks and more. (In my experience, AbeBooks often has the cheapest prices, but beware of hidden costs like commission and processing fees from foreign transactions there.)

4. eBay – Use the option “Price + ship: lowest” when searching. Buy It Now is almost always more expensive than the auction proposal, but the latter is more risky, of course.

5. Cal Bookstore – Use the store below the Student Union as a final resort. Whoever heard of paying $5.25 for a used copy of Huckleberry Finn? Let’s face it: everyone older than 13 has a copy of this book, and you can always find 15 copies on a used bookstore shelf for $1 each.