I didn’t even consider doing it as I walked through the school book store, just thinking that I wanted to get it done and over with to get out of the tiny yet crowded bookstore. Little did I know that it would have been far cheaper to actually rent my textbooks!
Like this book here? It cost me $185, for a book that I don’t really think I’ll be reading again (and I’ll be honest, I kind of skipped around reading sometimes during class too.. *ahem*). Yet I could have rented it for only $42.46! Hmm, a bit of savings there, and money I could have used elsewhere. Instead, I can sell this book now on amazon for a $67 gift card, or see what my school will buy it back for. Which I doubt will be anyplace close to the price I paid for it.
So far, this has actually been my most expensive book. But I’ll be perfectly honest, if my next classes have any expensive books I’ll be looking into the rental option instead of the buying option! Sure I can sell a book back later, but it’s cheaper to just rent it, send it back and be done. Save money, have less clutter after a class is done. What’s not to like about the rental option?
One of the books I “had to buy” for one of my classes was only read once, during a one and a half week period, and that was it. $40 for a book that I’m starting to realize I could have rented for the short time I needed it instead of just having it sit around making me wonder what the point was.
If you’re a student, or a future student. I would highly recommend book rentals and seeing if you can just rent any of those expensive textbooks you’ll likely only want for the class and then be done with them! I wish I would have for my Soc 220 class there!
Being in college is expensive enough without having to pay through the nose for those textbooks right? Once I find out what books my fall classes require, I will be checking out how much money I can save by trying to rent textbooks instead of buying them. Goodness knows that I need to save what money I can.
I agree that renting would have been the best option in your case especially that the book was only used once for the entire semester. I guess its with the instructor telling students that they are better of renting than buying if they foresee that the prescribed textbook will not be used extensively all throughout the entire semester. That would be fair for students.
Jules of BookGator.com
Looking back, I also wish I rented textbooks when I was in college. Imagine all the money I would’ve saved! That’s a lesson for college students now. It’s never too early to start saving money.
Exactly! I wish I would have thought of it sooner, but at least now I know. 😛