Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Buy New Textbooks

You may be tempted to buy new textbooks when you first start college, but they’ll waste you a lot of money.  Whether you’re buying your textbooks at your college bookstore or online there are several reasons you should not buy new textbooks.

New textbooks are going to have the same information as a used book.  I don’t know why people think that used textbooks are going to be any different than new textbooks.  You will of course have to purchase books that aren’t missing any pages.  Usually if you buy books online there will be a description of the condition of the textbook that will tell you whether or not the textbook is missing any pages.  If you buy your textbooks at your college bookstore, quickly scan the book and when you get home look at it more thoroughly, if there are pages missing, simply return it to your bookstore.

New textbooks often come with CDs, but the used versions are going to have the CDs too.  Now I will be honest and tell you that I bought a used textbook from my college bookstore and it was missing the CD, BUT that was my fault for not checking.  If you are buying textbooks online, from a place like Ebay, ask the seller if the CD is included if the description doesn’t mention it.

A new textbook is free of highlighting, but is that really a big deal to you?  I have often found that the information that is highlighted is important information anyway.  Plus, a book that has been highlighted will usually be much cheaper.

Some teachers will allow you to use previous editions of the textbook they are using for their courses.  Most of the time, you won’t find these older editions new. 

New textbooks are often $50 to $100 each, but used textbooks can sometimes be found online for 5% of that price.  Yes, that’s 5% not 50%.  I bought several of my textbooks online this year, used.  One of the books I needed was only $0.35 on Amazon’s Marketplace!  New, the textbook cost over $70 and even used it was $55 at my college bookstore.