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The Price is Right
College required texts can cost much less online
By: Brittany Patterson
Issue date: 1/24/06 Section: Features
Attending college at a public university like Sam
Houston State University during the 2005-2006 school year will cost an average
student $5,416 per semester, according to College Board's 2005 report on college
pricing. The tuition at Sam Houston is significantly lower than the national
average at around $2,430 for 15 hours, but students here and others at colleges
and universities across the country are fighting the same battle against the
high prices of textbooks.
As students are beginning to feel the pinch in their wallets with tuition increases, and as gas prices continue to rise, many have discovered that buying their textbooks online puts more money back into their wallets.
Buying textbooks online is starting to become more appealing to students who traditionally buy their textbooks from bookstores around Huntsville. Valerie Bella, junior at SHSU, hasn't had the chance to try online book shopping.
"I've been hearing from all of my friends how much cheaper it is to buy your books online, and that's what really drives me to want to try it next semester," Bell said.
She said that many of her friends have used a Web site called Cheapbooks.com because it compares the prices of many major online bookstores to help you find the cheapest price. The site compares prices from Amazon.com, EBay's Half.com, Barnes & Nobel.com, Overstock.com, as well as other stores like Ecampus.com and BiggerBooks.com.
Some of comparative book buying Web sites like Cheapbooks.com, Bigwords.com and Directtextbook.com take prices from a variety of stores and compare their prices. They often compare college bookstore prices from ecampus.com, Barnes & Nobel or other major bookstore providers to online book auction sites like Amazon or EBay. These sites are the middle men to helping students locate great deals.
Some students buy their books online because they can't find their books here in Huntsville. Junior Christy Hernandez said that she had to buy her statistics book online at Amazon.com this past semester because none of the local bookstores carried it.
As students are beginning to feel the pinch in their wallets with tuition increases, and as gas prices continue to rise, many have discovered that buying their textbooks online puts more money back into their wallets.
Buying textbooks online is starting to become more appealing to students who traditionally buy their textbooks from bookstores around Huntsville. Valerie Bella, junior at SHSU, hasn't had the chance to try online book shopping.
"I've been hearing from all of my friends how much cheaper it is to buy your books online, and that's what really drives me to want to try it next semester," Bell said.
She said that many of her friends have used a Web site called Cheapbooks.com because it compares the prices of many major online bookstores to help you find the cheapest price. The site compares prices from Amazon.com, EBay's Half.com, Barnes & Nobel.com, Overstock.com, as well as other stores like Ecampus.com and BiggerBooks.com.
Some of comparative book buying Web sites like Cheapbooks.com, Bigwords.com and Directtextbook.com take prices from a variety of stores and compare their prices. They often compare college bookstore prices from ecampus.com, Barnes & Nobel or other major bookstore providers to online book auction sites like Amazon or EBay. These sites are the middle men to helping students locate great deals.
Some students buy their books online because they can't find their books here in Huntsville. Junior Christy Hernandez said that she had to buy her statistics book online at Amazon.com this past semester because none of the local bookstores carried it.
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