Well I am sure many of my blog readers have either been through college, are currently in college, or will be having children attending college in the near future. For those of us who have been through the lovely higher education experience, we all know of the extremely high cost of textbooks. Now luckily I had scholarships that covered the cost of all or almost all of my books, but not everyone does. I do remember going to the student book store and having them ring up all the prices of my books and being extremely glad that I didn't have to pay out of pocket for them. I always wished I could just rent the text books and return them when I was done with them. I kept the books that were related to my major, but I sure as heck didn't need to keep my algebra book, so I went and sold that baby right back as soon as the semester was over. Of course I didn't get nearly what I paid for it, but got a pretty decent amount. The books that they were giving me a decent amount for I just kept though. The book below would be one of those:
The list price is almost $150 and when I went to have them buy it back (in mint condition!), they were offering me $15. Seriously?!?! Are you kidding me! You are giving me 10% back of a perfectly good book. Um no thanks. So now six years after being out of college I am still stuck with this stupid book.
I really wish I had known about CampusBookRentals.com when I was in school. This is a website that allows you to rent books for either a semester, quarter, or summer (you can also enter the exact number of days you would need the book and they will give you a custom price). For example, I entered the name of the lovely book shown above and learned that I could have rented it for the semester (130 days), for $18.41!!!! Seriously?!?! That is 88% off the list price! Oh and did I mention that shipping is free BOTH ways! For those of us that like to highlight important points, that is allowed in these rented books also. How can you beat these prices...seriously?!
When I decide I want to pursue a different career and return to college, you can bet I will be renting my books from Campus Book Rentals. No more paying absurd amounts of money for books I won't use when I am done with the class. Oh and as an added bonus, they donate a portion of their proceeds to Operation Smile. For those who don't know, Operation Smile performs surgery on children who have a cleft lip, who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it. So you are saving yourself a boatload of money and helping kids at the same time. How can you beat that?!
I was contacted to do this review, but would definitely use this site personally!
I definitely agree that one of the best inventions ever is the option to rent textbooks! some sites provide better prices than others, however.
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