Save money on books

You've probably been to Amazon.com to purchase a book or two, but if you are really tight for cash, here's two other places you might consider:

1) The local used bookstore, or
2) books.half.ebay.com

There's a real easy way to save on shipping costs, go local. Used bookstores in the area are a great way to save some cash on needed books. Why do you need a book? Well, maybe you are going back to school or you need to do some studying for the new position at work.

Whatever your reason, there are ways to save.

The second way you might save money on books is through books.half.ebay.com. Books can be had for real cheap here, but you need to be willing to take some risk, such as waiting a while for the book to arrive.

Don't order what you need the week you need it. It probably won't make it to you in time.

These are great suggestions if you need to buy a book, particularly an expensive textbook, but you might also try the library. Of course, if someone else reserves it while you are using it, your out of luck since you'll need to return it. If you need it for school, you really should buy it.

Here's a good rule of thumb for knowing if you should buy used or not: if you can get the book, used, for less than the amount you'd get by selling it back to the school (book return) after your class, then go for it.

Just one caveat. Some text books come with special web access features that require a new book. If you need those features for class, you might just need to bite the bullet and buy new.

There are other ways to save money on books for sure, these are just a couple. I recently had to purchase a text book that cost over $100 so I'm always on the lookout for ways to save on these bad boys. A book just shouldn't cost that much!