Cheaping out on textbooks via used.addall.com

The trick with textbooks is to obtain the ISBN for the book (for instance, by looking up the class on the school bookstore's website to find the recommended texts and ISBNs), look it up on amazon just to make sure you know which edition it is, and then to look it up on used.addall.com like shown below, and sort the results from low price to high.  The prices vary wildly, as it collects prices from all used book vendors and possibly Canada and UK as well (these are sometimes cheaper even with shipping).  If the description on addall doesn't say something funny like "this is really edition 1" when you know you need edition 2, then it should be OK.  Conditions vary, but I have never seen a book come that was not usable.  If a CD is supposed to be included then you should check the description to make sure it is.

It is best to assume that the book may take a week to come if in the US, and 2 weeks if outside the US, unless the vendor offers express shipping.

It is OK to buy books without an ISBN (by title, author, *and* edition), if you are *absolutely positive* about all this information.  Older editions also sometimes work for non-technical classes.

If I do not find a better price than the campus bookstore on a very expensive ($85+) or new book (these tend to be math or science books), I will also try looking on ebay, which sometimes has books for better or worse prices, it varies, but it is more complicated.  If you are ever seriously buying things on ebay auctions, I'd suggest learning about esnipe.com.

Cheers,
Connie 

Example searches for textbooks I purchased:

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For the calc books, these are what I get.  I think they are intended to be 2 different versions of the textbook, and a study/solutions guide.
This is the textbook search:

http://used.addall.com/SuperRare/submitRare.cgi?author=&title=&keyword=&isbn=9780495011729&order=PRICE&ordering=ASC&binding=Any+Binding&min=&max=&exclude=&match=Y&dispCurr=USD&timeout=20&store=ABAA&store=Alibris&store=Abebooks&store=AbebooksDE&store=AbebooksFR&store=AbebooksUK&store=Amazon&store=AmazonCA&store=AmazonUK&store=AmazonDE&store=AmazonFR&store=Antiqbook&store=Biblio&store=BiblioUK&store=Bibliophile&store=Bibliopoly&store=Booksandcollectibles&store=Half&store=ILAB&store=LivreRareBook&store=Powells&store=Strandbooks&store=ZVAB

and this is the study/solutions guide:
http://used.addall.com/SuperRare/submitRare.cgi?author=&title=&keyword=&isbn=9780495012283&order=PRICE&ordering=ASC&binding=Any+Binding&min=&max=&exclude=&match=Y&dispCurr=USD&timeout=20&store=ABAA&store=Alibris&store=Abebooks&store=AbebooksDE&store=AbebooksFR&store=AbebooksUK&store=Amazon&store=AmazonCA&store=AmazonUK&store=AmazonDE&store=AmazonFR&store=Antiqbook&store=Biblio&store=BiblioUK&store=Bibliophile&store=Bibliopoly&store=Booksandcollectibles&store=Half&store=ILAB&store=LivreRareBook&store=Powells&store=Strandbooks&store=ZVAB

As you can see, the prices are better than the on-campus bookstore.
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