Monday, September 1, 2014

how i totally won at textbooks this semester.



a while ago i wrote a post about ways to save money as a college student. one of my key points was to skip the school bookstore (and textbook rentals for that matter) and use addall.com to find the absolute best price, and then selling those books yourself on half.com. 

this has always worked really well for me, but at the time i didnt have a concrete example of exactly how beneficial this could be, since it had been quite some time since i had done such a thing. but this semester i did. 

and i totally won. 

for my "career opportunities in fashion" class last semester, i bought the book (which was $106 in the school bookstore, as if) from amazon for $76. i used it all semester, and when school got out i put it up on half.com for the going rate on that site: $90. 

awesome, right? it gets better. 

last week the book sold. right at the same time that i went to the  school bookstore to get the ISBNs for this semesters books. three classes, three books. obviously i went straight to addall.com and found that one was about $10, one was $17, was $56 (prices from addall.com, including tax and shipping). total for books this semester? $83. 

as of right now, im turning a profit on books. (not supplies though, seems like im going to need a lot of those this semester which i am not happy about). 

so this semester seems to be getting off to a great start. plus, i still have another $90 book up for sale...

have you ever defeated the textbook monster? id love to hear the story in the comments!

4 comments:

  1. That's awesome! I wish that I knew about that when I was in undergrad. But when it comes time for grad school (hoping of course that I actually get in) I'll definitely be going this route.

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  2. This sounds bad but I buy all my books from the campus book store. But the reason for that is this; I have a status card and a full scholarship including money for books, supplies and a living allowance while I'm in school. Although I probably could sell a couple of my books from last year because I don't use them. Ever. One we didn't even use in class at all! But most of them are books I will want to keep for the rest of my life because of how useful they are.



    But seriously, way to go on profiting from your books! That's awesome!

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  3. you have a scholarship that includes books and living expenses?! you are one lucky lady! because of our income i did qualify for a tuition waiver, but the only actual money i get is a small grant that comes at the END of the semester, so, the semester starts off pinching every penny :/. you should totally consider selling any (and all!) books you arent using, half.com is SURPRISINGLY profitable.

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  4. thanks! i was REALLY proud of this accomplishment, i hope this method can help you out too!

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