Have you tried renting textbooks?
As are many homeschoolers, we’re big-time library people. For anything we can’t find free at the library, I’ll first look to see if I can find what we’re looking for used. Today, however, I was comparing prices and discovered that, for many textbooks, you can save even more by renting!
There are several places that offer textbook rental, and many of those even allow you to earn money by renting your textbook through their service. You may have seen textbooks for rent at Amazon
As a general rule, it appears that college and high school level textbooks are often cheaper to rent, while textbooks for younger children are cheaper to buy used.
Here are a few of the top examples with prices listed at the time of this post (best deals are bold & red) so you can see what I mean:
Popular Textbooks |
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Campbell Biology
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Rental Price:
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The Art of Public Speaking
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Rental Price: $24.56 |
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A History of US; 11-Volume Set |
Rental Price: $156.38 |
Buy Used:
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Buy New: $149.13 |
Saxon Algebra II |
Rental Price: $40.46 |
Buy Used:
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Buy New: $83.46 |
Textbooks are so expensive these days! Renting them is a good option! My hubby goes to school and one book can run over $200 – it’s crazy!
Renting many times can be a good idea, but you need to be sure you can return the book on time !!! Also do a price comparison if you want to find cheap textbooks.
For example if you do a compariso for the biology book above:
9780321558237
You can see that you can rent it for $48.98 but also can buy new it for $59 which may be better for you (all data as of 2.1.2013)
As you write – the cheapest option is different for different textbooks, don’t assume that one online bookstore always has the cheapest prices. Also remember always to take shipping cost into account
Ofer
The Cheap Textbook
I’ve never rented textbooks, but only because my kids are still young. I’m definitely considering renting them when they go to college.
We don’t use a lot of textbooks now, but I am sure as my boys get in to upper highschool level we will. I didn’t know you could rent them, but it’s a nice option to have
I think renting textbooks is such a great idea! I wish they had this option when i was in college. It never failed that I would buy a book and the next semester they weren’t buying it back b/c they decided to use a new book! RENTING – YES!
My SIL homeschools and this looks like a much better option for her. I knew you could buy used and sell them back but I have never heard of renting them! Great post!
I love this idea. Unfortunately I didn’t discover it until my last semester of grad school! But at least I saved a little!
I think it is a great idea, although I couldn’t get my sons to do it. I think as it becomes more popular, more students will give it a try.
I think renting textbooks is a great idea. I bought all mine in college and now I have some boxes in the basement full of very expensive dust collectors.
Dawn
I just rented a text book from Campus Book Rentals because of the very reason you stated – it was less expensive than Amazon. I love Amazon and usually find better prices there but that wasn’t the case with text books. I only have 2 more semesters of school but you can bet I’ll continue to rent my books.
Textbooks are the most expensive thing about school, no matter what grade you’re in. It’s amazing that you can rent books so cheaply!
This list is a great resource! Textbook renting makes great sense. Like many, I swore by it in college. Thanks for sharing!
I never rented a text book before, I really never had to, but it seems like a great idea
My children are still young and we homeschool but I checked out CBR just to see and for example, we use Mystery of History and doing Vol. 2 right now which I bought brand new for $45 to rent it is $59.31! Our science which is Apologia’s Swimming Creatures and I bought it used for $20 rents for $70.90! Having gone to college books can be expensive but there are sources for buying them used and I’d go that route before renting and then sell them back.
Renting textbooks was pain in the butt. But couple of websites like amazon and valorebooks made it quite easy for me (a mother of three kids). Some of the sites even allow you to sell your own textbooks.