Best place to get cheap textbooks online?

PizzaDude

Golden Member
Jan 12, 2002
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What's the best place to get textbooks online?

And by best I mean cheapest, most reliable, etc.
 

Ika

Lifer
Mar 22, 2006
14,267
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81
half.com? It's a part of eBay, so I'm not sure how reliable it is, but I've gotten some stuff from there and it seems okay.
 

krunchykrome

Lifer
Dec 28, 2003
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It's funny, a couple of weeks before every semester, a few people will post a thread like this.

Half.com is a decent one
 

duragezic

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
11,234
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Addall.com


/thread


(Addall searches many book sellers... Amazon sellers end up being my most often used)
 

StevenYoo

Diamond Member
Jul 4, 2001
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i go to amazon.co.uk for most of my books.

yeah you pay more for shipping, but i usually save so much on the book anyway
 

HombrePequeno

Diamond Member
Mar 7, 2001
4,657
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I usually check Amazon (the used section) and if it's not decently cheap there, I check Half.com.
 

jonessoda

Golden Member
Aug 3, 2005
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Amazon seems to have the best prices and actually has a good number of the books I need, whereas most places for some reason do not.
 
Feb 19, 2001
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I hit half.com because they have used for incredibly cheap.

I'm anal and I buy "brand new" usually and the prices for brand new on Half.com are sometimes only like 2/3 of brand new prices in the campus bookstore. THis means I'm getting brand new for far less than USED prices, and they even come shrink wrapped =).
 

Sentinel

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2000
3,714
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I used to use half.com and amazon.com- compared prices btw the two, never had a problem for 9 semesters.
 

duragezic

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
11,234
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Thats why you may as well use Addall (or something like BestBookDeal). It searches and sorts by price from Amazon, Half, Abe's Books, and a bunch of others. I dont think I ever found anything to be the cheapest or anywhere near it on Half so I think that place is overrated.

If its a book I want to keep after the class is over I will ALWAYS go for a softcover and/or international edition. My Systems and Signals book was brand-new for $35 shipped, when the US hardcover was like $120.

I can't believe people still have $500 bills per semester from the bookstore. I've hit $200 maybe once and thats not including what I can get for selling them back (tho I tend to do stupid sh*t like flip my new hardcover Diff Eq book for $5).
 

archcommus

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2003
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Do you guys order these before or after classes start? I won't know what I need until the first day of class and I'm afraid it'll take too long to get them if I order them online.
 

Sentinel

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2000
3,714
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I usually ordered after classes start, but some prof. require you to have them the first week so that was a pain.