Where you buy textbooks could end up saving you hundreds of dollars.
Locally, students have the option of buying from the UF Bookstore and Florida Bookstore, among others. Online, there’s the obvious Amazon, Chegg, Barnes & Noble and Campus Book Rentals.
Maria Llorens, 22, said she usually finds the best prices for used books and e-books on Amazon.
“I almost never shop at the campus bookstore or buy new books since it’s too expensive,” she said.
Freshmen tend to spend more on books by buying them new.
“I thought I always needed the edition the professor required,” Llorens said. “Now I know you can save $50 to $100 or more by buying an older edition and still do well in the course, even though you’re missing a few pages.”
Monica Uy, a recreation, parks and tourism senior, rents textbooks through College Book Rentals.
Purchasing books from UF’s bookstore “was a joke,” she said.
Another way to save money is to sell books back at the end of the semester. Uy, 21, sells some of her books on Amazon.
“I don’t sell all of them back,” she said. “I feel like some of them will eventually become useful to me in life.”
This story originally ran on page 4 on 8/14/2013 under the headline "Bookstores local and online provide options for students"
