BellaOnline Forums Education Distance Learning Buying Books for Online Classes

One of the biggest challenges with distance learning is getting your hands on textbooks. Usually you do not have a "campus bookstore" right there to go visit. Make sure you plan for your books IN ADVANCE. It can easily save you hundreds of dollars a semester in fees. How can this be? Because buying a book new from a local store can easily cost $150 - PER BOOK. College textbooks come with outrageous price tags. If you can buy the same book used, through Amazon, you could get it for $30. The downside is that it can take up to 3 weeks to get to you. This is why advanced planning is KEY to maintaining a healthy budget.

For example, I am going to Northeastern with their online program. I have been comparing textbooks at Northeastern's bookstore vs Amazon. Here are some examples.

Organizational Behavior, by Kreitner
Northeastern Bookstore: $191 new (for one book!!)
Northeastern Bookstore: $143 used (what a bargain?)
Amazon.com new: $140, free 2 day shipping (I have prime)
Amazon.com used: $117, media mail shipping (could be 3 weeks)

So you can see what kinds of HUGE savings you can get based on the lead time you have. You need to sign up for classes EARLY. If you're worried about a class canceling, don't open the box when the book arrives until you are sure you're going through with that class. That way you can return it "unopened" if you really have to. Most bookstores have a return policy that requires the book to be unopened. Otherwise what would stop you from getting a book, reading it, then sending it back for a full refund?

It is critical, if you go with one of the used dealers, that you know ABSOLUTELY when the book will get to you. I know a student who tried buying a book through Amazon's used market for a class that began in less than a week. He was literally halfway through the class before his book arrived, which caused no end of trauma. You need to know those shipping dates and plan for it.

Yes, college textbooks are expensive. If you plan ahead, you can at least make them as cheap as possible. Still, even if you manage to get down from $191 for the book to "only" $117 for the book, that is still a lot of money for each book. Make sure you include those costs in your yearly college budget and plan for them.

Finally, do NOT mark in your book at all. When you are done with the course, turn around and sell the book either on Amazon or on another market that works well for you. You can easily get at least half the price of the book back again, since other students now also want to save money and want to buy your "cheaper than new" book. Just be sure to do this relatively quickly. Textbooks often come out with new versions every year, so if you wait a few months before you try to sell, your book may now be the "old edition" and no longer in demand.

Lisa, congrats on Northeastern!! That's so exciting!

Sometimes, Barnes and Noble has great deals on new books. We have a BN membership, and the savings have been up to 40% with quick shipping.

Congrats again!!

I think I read somewhere that several parents had started a textbook swap or something along those lines. The idea was to offer used books at good prices (like Amazon). This was a few years ago, but I'll see if I can find the article, and if they are still doing it.

Hmmmmm all my text books At Phoenix Online were provided as course materials...downloadable and printable.

When I buy from Amazon I can choose who to send the affiliate points to, so that definitely factors into my decision. I'm a Barnes & Noble member but when I do comparisons, it seems like Amazon is cheaper. I'll have to do another round of comparisons in the summer and see what the exact numbers are!

Granny - I would have to guess that the cost of the book was included in your course cost; I can't imagine a book publisher or author would allow their works to be given away completely free. It would be like Harry Potter being given away for free to thousands of people. So it's probably all incorporated into one cost, to keep it easier for students to understand!

That's just my guess

It's not uncommon for schools that produce all their own textbooks to include them in the cost of classes. Edinburgh Business School, one of the schools where I take classes, does that. I think the University of Phoenix may be the same way.

It's nice because it means you know well in advance how much you'll be paying for books. Books can get really expensive!

Julie

Wow! Kudos to you for managing your money well. I must admit that I did not go the extra mile to try to save money on my textbooks. I wasn't near the campus to check out second hand sales of the books there. I'm also not sure if Amazon sold second hand books when I was taking my courses. If they did I was not aware of it. But what I could have done was at least compare the prices of the books sold in the bookstore with the regular price at Amazon.

Those are some real savings on the cost of your textbooks that you bought and certainly it is worthwhile starting early and spending the time to do that research. That is a lot of money saved on one textbook so imagine what a person could save on 5. It could be over $350. I know that most of us and especially students can use an extra $350 in their bank account.

If one doesn't start early though, it could be the stressful situation you mentioned of not having your textbook until halfway through the term. That would not be a good situation and in my view would not be worth the money saved. So it is a necessity to start early for these benefits.

I am actually surprised that there isn't a website out there that organizes second hand university and college books for sale. Wouldn't it be convenient for students to check out whether a book they need is available and for people to be able to list their books they want to sell? I'll have to go over to the small business site and make the suggestion. Or maybe there's an entrepreneurial distance learning student out there who wants an idea for a business.

I think there are several websites out there that are textbook exchanges, I'm just not very trusting. I want to make sure I *will* have a book by the class start date, period.

I only attended the orientation last Thursday (i.e. two days ago) and my classes start on Monday (i.e. two days from now) so I did NOT have the luxury of advance buying my textbooks So for these, I had to order them in a convoluted way. I tracked down a company which uses Amazon for fulfillment (meaning I could get 2 day prime shipping, i.e. I'll have them on Monday) and I got "very used" books (rather than almost new). So I'm not going to have good resale value on them. On the up side though I *will* have them on Monday.

In fact there was some trauma because at first I tried ordering a normal used book and paid $7 for expediting shipping thinking it was 2 day. But then I got an email from the company saying "OK we sent your book, it could be there by April 20th". ARRGGHHHH. I can't wait that long!! I need it Monday!! So I had to immediately order a second copy of the book via Amazon's direct system. Meaning now I will have TWO copies of this book and will have to figure out how to return one of them. We'll see how that goes.

Bob was pushing me to just tell the instructors I didn't have the books for the first week or two and ask for delays. But I didn't want to start my college experience with that kind of dark cloud over my head! It was very important to me that I started properly, on time, and demonstrated myself as a good student. My aim here is all As, not to be making excuses.

Good work Lisa in tracking down a book at a great price and that you will receive on time! I agree that it is better to start a new goal that means a lot to you on the right foot. It would be rather ironical to be starting a leadership degree by making excuses rather than solving the problem - You are already on your way to all A's in those courses!

Lisa...absolutely the cost of books was included with the course cost. It sure helped not having to search out materials.

That sounds like a great system Granny!

I guess I'm a hard core type though - I'd rather pay the cheapest price possible for the course, and then scrounge for the cheapest price on the book. For example if I bought my Organizational Leadership book from Northeastern they would have charged me $171. So to me it's worth the extra time and scrounging and such, to save the money. I know I'm strange

Elizabeth - I have all my books here on time - but now I'm not reading either of the two I got in today So maybe that is telling me something. I guess I didn't need either one ON the first day. Still I am very happy that they are here. I would have been all upset if I was starting my classes and didn't have them.