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The manchild, my oldest, returns to college next week. Due to an unplanned schedule change we find ourselves needing two more books. As the term begins one week from today I checked the college bookstore first. Let me tell you nothing wakes you up in the early morning faster then seeing how much the college textbooks you have to have cost. It’s stronger then the strongest coffee and louder then any alarm clock. Take a look.
That Microsoft Office textbook is required for a required course. The college bookstore doesn’t rent this text, and they don’t have any used copies to buy. They charge $199 for the text. That’s so expensive! And, they get it! Why do they get it? Not all people realize there is another game in town besides the college bookstore.
Isn’t that much better! The identical textbook can be rented from CampusBookRentals for under $40. Now that’s reasonable! The difference between buying at $200 and renting at $38 is gigantic! Students can save 40-90% off of bookstore prices by renting their texts from CampusBookRentals. They carry a huge selection of books. All of the textbooks are US edition, meaning they’re the same textbooks you’d get from your college bookstore. Rental periods are very flexible. Common time frames for rentals are shown when you’re checking out. If one of those doesn’t suit you can can set your own return date. Speaking of checking out, unless you need your book in a hurry don’t expect to see crazy shipping charges. CampusBookRentals offers free shipping – both ways.
That would be the English book required for the required English course my son is taking. Almost $87 to buy it new from the college bookstore. They do rent it, and $35 doesn’t really seem like highway robbery.
CampusBookRentals rents the English text, and their rental price is a couple of dollars lower then the bookstore’s rental price.
By renting the two textbooks from CampusBookRentals we’ve saved about $165! Savings like that is enough to make you smile. Worried about being able to really use the text book and make notes and highlight in it? Turn that frown upside down! You can highlight in rented textbooks. You’ll still be smiling when you pack you book into the free return envelope to send it back, thinking of all the money you saved.
Speaking of smiling, for every textbook rented CampusBookRentals makes a donation to Operation Smile. Operation Smile is an organization that performs life changing cleft lip surgeries on children whose families could not otherwise afford it.
Here’s a brief video on how CampusBookRentals works.
We did have to buy one text from the college bookstore for the upcoming semester. I did search CampusBookRentals but they don’t currently have it. At the end of the term I will be turning once again to CampusBookRentals. Their RentBack program allows students to rent the textbooks they own to other students. On average a student can make 2-4x more money compared to what they’d make through college bookstore buyback programs. so, I’ll be looking to see if we can rent out the text we had to by, in order to recoup some of our money.
Here’s a brief video explaining how RentBack works.
If you or anyone in your family is attending college then they need to be checking out CampusBookRentals.
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CampusBookRentals website – CampusBookRentals on Facebook – CampusBookRentals on Twitter
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Book rentals are much more affordable than having to buy the books. We plan to rent textbooks for my son when he starts college.
Renting a text book makes so much more sense to me than buying them. They cost an arm and a leg, and you really don’t use them after the semester is over.
It’s funny how the market has changed so much since I was a college student. It’s so much more affordable to rent books now, but that wasn’t even an option that I was aware of when I went to college. The other thing that has changed is that books are much more expensive now. My undergrad was Engineering and books were usually $50 to $100, but the $100 book was rare. Now you really have to look for ways to save with how pricey they are and renting is an awesome idea.
Textbooks are crazy expensive. It make so much more sense to just rent them.
I love text book rentals because they are reliable and economical. Text editions change way too much, so rentals are great.
My nephew was all about this when he was in college. He said it was a great way to save money… 🙂
I wish I’d have known about this when I was finishing my degree. Even with the GI Bill paying part of my book allowance, I was shocked at the out of pocket. It felt a bit like extortion buying from the campus bookstore.
They are a really great company. I have used them several times. Great rates.
Oh man, thinking about all of the money wasted on college text books makes me cringe! Renting sounds like such an incredible option!
Fact is that most text once used are never opened again by the same student so this makes sense.
Book prices was the worst part of college for me, especially since the books change every year, they are not something you can keep and reference years later. I’m all for this idea – I’d rent over purchase any day!
That is such a scary thought, having to pay 200 dollars for a text book they will only need for one class. It’s great that there are places that are so much cheaper to rent the book
This is such a great idea. I will have to see if it is available in Canada. My daughter is in her first year of college.
This is such a great idea. School is so expensive and the cost of books is unreal.
college books were so expensive when i went i can only imagine the cost now. this is a great way to save money.