Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Back To School Time.
For years, I have been searching and learning about the best deals around. I have helped many of my friends and colleagues save hundreds of dollars through the years and look forward to sharing my learnings through this column. If you have any suggestions or ideas for the column, please send me a note.
Textbooks. Possibly the most expensive part of your September spend will be textbooks. Bookstores charge a 40% on most non-text items. Textbooks however only net bookstores a 20% mark-up so they despise the bulky expensive, hard-to-return textbooks as much as students.
To get the best deal on textbooks, you'll need to have your list, preferably the ISBN code. The ISBN is unique for every book published, so you don't have to worry about getting the wrong authors or editions. I normally start by using http://www.bestbookdeal.com/. This site will scour multiple websites around the world (overstock.com, eBay and Amazon) for used and new books. It will display the prices, shipping and book's condition in a really easy to use chart.
For example for this Fall's System Dynamics textbook (ISBN 007238915x), I found through bestbookdeal.com that my best option was to purchase the text new from Amazon in the UK saving almost $50 over the Coop.
Textbooks are tax-free in Massachusetts for students, which is generally not a problem when shopping for used books, on Amazon or at The Coop. However, barnesandnoble.com will charge you the 5% Massachusetts Sales Tax. To remove the taxes from your order, email a copy of your student ID to taxes@book.com along with a note identifying your order number. At Barnes & Noble online, you can also save 5% with a AAA membership by starting your purchase at http://www.aaa.com/barnesandnoble. So now you really have to be nice to your friends with a car.
Buying newly released books: The best deals can be found at Costco. Online, Overstock.com usually will have the best price if they carry the title. If the book is a business title, you can use 5% at Barnes & Noble.com using the AAA discount and apply for your taxes back on your purchase to save 10%.
Some intereting links related to this post:
NY Times on Selling Textbooks: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/business/05consuming.html?ex=1126584000&en=e291511ebfd128ac&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Other sites people have recommended but I have yet to try:
http://www.bookfinder4u.com
http://www.bigwords.com
http://www.china-pub.com/
http://www.welan.com/
Textbooks. Possibly the most expensive part of your September spend will be textbooks. Bookstores charge a 40% on most non-text items. Textbooks however only net bookstores a 20% mark-up so they despise the bulky expensive, hard-to-return textbooks as much as students.
To get the best deal on textbooks, you'll need to have your list, preferably the ISBN code. The ISBN is unique for every book published, so you don't have to worry about getting the wrong authors or editions. I normally start by using http://www.bestbookdeal.com/. This site will scour multiple websites around the world (overstock.com, eBay and Amazon) for used and new books. It will display the prices, shipping and book's condition in a really easy to use chart.
For example for this Fall's System Dynamics textbook (ISBN 007238915x), I found through bestbookdeal.com that my best option was to purchase the text new from Amazon in the UK saving almost $50 over the Coop.
Textbooks are tax-free in Massachusetts for students, which is generally not a problem when shopping for used books, on Amazon or at The Coop. However, barnesandnoble.com will charge you the 5% Massachusetts Sales Tax. To remove the taxes from your order, email a copy of your student ID to taxes@book.com along with a note identifying your order number. At Barnes & Noble online, you can also save 5% with a AAA membership by starting your purchase at http://www.aaa.com/barnesandnoble. So now you really have to be nice to your friends with a car.
Buying newly released books: The best deals can be found at Costco. Online, Overstock.com usually will have the best price if they carry the title. If the book is a business title, you can use 5% at Barnes & Noble.com using the AAA discount and apply for your taxes back on your purchase to save 10%.
Some intereting links related to this post:
NY Times on Selling Textbooks: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/business/05consuming.html?ex=1126584000&en=e291511ebfd128ac&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Other sites people have recommended but I have yet to try:
http://www.bookfinder4u.com
http://www.bigwords.com
http://www.china-pub.com/
http://www.welan.com/
Labels: Retail
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