Anyone know a reliable and reputable textbook site?

JaysonFour

So. My first semester of "real" college starts in... eleven days. Real dorm room, real college ID, real everything.

I looked up all the books for my classes and come to find out, I'll need $China if I want to buy new books, and used I'll end up paying $Texas. (Five textbooks, four novels, and a course pack of statistics worksheets.)

My budget right now is $ramen.

So, I figured I'd go online and hunt for textbooks and see if I can save some cash.

I checked out Amazon, but I'd like to hear some recommendations from anyone who's bought textbooks online and what kind of experience they've had with it.

Fletcher

my favourite site at the moment is Book Depository

i don't think they do second-hand at all, but they seem cheaper than amazon for the ones i've tried

also free shipping worldwide

i got a chunky computer science textbook from there, shipping from england it got to me (in new zealand) in six days

it's really good for books in general; i buy a lot of fantasy stuff on there, and brand new they've been a hell of a lot cheaper than buying in stores

VisionOfClarity

I use Half.Com and Amazon.

oldsak

I managed to get Indian versions (paperback on newsprint) of my computer science textbooks off ebay when I was in school.

jhunter46

Chegg.com. You actually just rent the text book and then send it back at the end of the semester. I've been using them for about a year now, no problems.

Hedgethorn

Amazon, Half.com, and (if you want to support third-world literacy on your college budget) Better World Books.

EggyToast

What I do is check the used price on Amazon, and assume I can sell the book for half of that cost. If the difference is less than the price of renting on Chegg, I go through Amazon.

Dog

Amazon and Half.

Buy my books!

Hypatia

If you do go through Amazon, don't buy from Joshua Tree Books (as a reseller on Amazon), their customer service really really sucks and it'll take them forever to get to your stuff.

kaliyama

textbookx is a good book searchaggregator that I used when I was in college. Just have the ISBNs.

Resilient

I have used alibiris.com in the past with good results.

Jebus314

The used and new section on amazon, and half.com, is usually about as cheap as I ever found. Unless of course you want the indian version. But I always felt guilty about going to my classes with a book that says in bold print 'Not intended for sale in the United States'. Especially when the professor wrote the book. Plus everyone knows your a cheapskate who breaks copyright laws when you show up with a bright red paper back text book.

Resilient

Another thing to consider if you are really trying to be cheep is to just get the books from the library. You can generally set up a cycle with inter-library loan where you always have a copy of the book available and don't have to pay late fees.

Improvolone

Consider not buying the book untill you think you really need it and can no longer borrow it for a night from a friend.
Especially with into level courses you should be able to get away with this.