Buying college books online. Is it worth it?

[gypsyman]

Starting UC Santa Barbara chemical engineering in September. Has anyone tried ecampus and Varsity Books? Can you save a lot? Is it much of a hassle? Please tell me your experience. Thanks.. 😀

 

[AndyTriboletti]

I used half.com last quarter, and saved about 100 bucks. It was worth it for me. What I did, although I don't endorse it, is buy the books at the local rip-u-off bookstore and then return them once the online books come in. Good luck at UCSB!

 

[AUMM]

its definetely worth it by the amount of money you save, works best if you know ahead of time which books you need and order them a week or so in advance

 

[Spoooon]

Someone posted this in the Hotdeals forum.

Go to your bookstore and write down the ISBN numbers for all the books you need.

Go to Addall and search for your books.

I bought mine from Fatbrain, Half.com, and Amazon.

What's funny is that the bookstore I got my ISBN numbers from is a Barnes and Noble. They own Fatbrain. The book on Fatbrain was almost half the price. 😉

 

[iamwiz82]

i decided to this term for 2 classes, to test. I would have had to pay $210 + tax at the bookstore. I ended up getting both for $80 shipped.

 

[b0mbrman]

It's worth it if you're not stressed for time. If you know your classes months in advance, go for it...if you plan to "shop" for classes, then just swallow the extra $20 bucks to buy it at the campus store

 

[bizmark]

I've saved substantial bucks by buying books online. At www.bigwords.com you can compare prices across all book-selling websites. I used ecampus last quarter, I prolly saved $30 on two books. Plus the shipping is usually pretty quick and reliable.

 

[weezergirl]

i buy from half.com or streetsonline.co.uk

the last site is overseas but even with shipping it comes out exremely cheap compared to any price i can find in the US. my roommates and i have used it with no problems and it doesn't take forever to come.