Stress-free textbooks

Searching for the best value on textbooks is a hassle. Your college bookstore is convenient, but that’s not always where you get the best deal. With so many options and places to buy or rent, finding textbooks can seem as daunting as your courses.

CampusBooks.com aims to make that process easier. It allows you to search for a specific book and get a list of options with the best prices from places such as Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Chegg and Half.com. Conveniently, it also includes links to rent or buy the book right from the website.

Here are three great features CampusBooks.com has to offer:

1. The Buy vs. Rent tool

This tool provides detailed information and predicts whether buying or renting is the best option. The tool gives its recommendation based on the current book price and the future estimated value. The tool has four aspects:

Side-by-side comparison
The best buying and renting values are right there to see, so you can make your decision. For example, for Arthur Berger’s book, “Media and Communication Research Methods: An Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches,” the best option is to rent. The tool explains that to buy the book used is $41.52. The estimated sellback price is $12.42, which means the book cost you $29.10. On the contrary, to rent the book is $17.16 for 120 days. You don’t get money back after returning the book, but you saved $11.94 overall.

Historical buyback prices
In order to determine the sellback price, the tool tracks the price the book is normally bought back for.

Questions designed to determine your best option

• Is your book required for more than one term?
• Do you want to keep your book after the term ends?
• How well do you take care of your books?
• How would you describe yourself?

Feedback based on your answers
Based on the answers to the questions, the tool may alter its recommendation with confidence to get you the best value.

2. The opportunity to sell back

The selling back option uses the same process as buying and renting. It tells you which platform would get you the most money, along with clarifying if you get cash back or credit for the website, the process and who pays for shipping (most of the time it’s the company). For example for Berger’s book, you could sell it back to Bookbyte and get $25.50 in cash, ValoreBooks for $24.17 in cash or sell it to Amazon and get a $22.89 gift card deposited into your Amazon account. In all three cases, shipping is free.

3. Convenient smartphone app

The service is available as a free app for Apple and Android devices. It uses the same system as the website and includes all the same features. If you’re in a pinch and need to find a book, enabling the app’s GPS service allows you to search stores near you for a good price. The app also allows you to scan a book’s barcode instead of typing in the ISBN, title or author.