Students Tips to minimize textbook costs

1. Buy Used - While textbook costs can add up to extravagant amounts, it's easy to avoid by buying used.

If you work hard enough at it, you can even come out close to spending $0 (excluding lab manual purchases) by buying used and selling it back. Often, you'll find good condition books that are priced so low that you can make a profit by selling it back to UBC via buy back (but it's always nice to pass on your savings to other students instead of the university).

Here are some resources that are invaluable (at least for UBC students):

• Save on Book
• UBC Textbook Exchange - Facebook Group
• UBC Textbook Student Exchange - Facebook Group (different from above!)

2. Search online first (rapidshare, megauploads, torrents, forums, etc) - Many first year introductory textbooks are readily available online in PDF formats if you know where to look.

3. Watch out for access codes for online content - This is a new trick that the textbook publishers are pulling on students. They include one time use access codes to online content (eg: Mastering Physics, ACE Organic Chemistry, etc) to prevent reselling textbooks. If your course requires the online content & quizzes, be sure to factor in the cost if you choose to buy a used book. You can purchase the access codes separately at the bookstore, but they are often available from the publishers' website. A few years ago, I saved some money by buying the access code online to ACE Organic for Chem 233.

4. Use the discount bookstore - There is a discount bookstore on UBC that is usually cheaper than the official one. It's not always cheaper, so do an actual comparison rather than just assume.

Feel free to add your own tips .

 

shop early , maybe you can get some of the used copies, those are usually gone fast,
also avoid long line ups ^_^

website...craigslist has postings too, there's another one called Locazu

if your course needs novels...try used bookstores or borrow from the library



>___< " textbooks are a pain !