The Etownian >> Campus Life
Another new textbook site? One customer’s appraisal
Thursday September 17 2009
Textbooks. The word alone can make many students cringe. For most
people, the first thing they learn from a textbook is how much they
hate them. This idea sticks with many students throughout elementary
school, secondary school and then, of course, hits its full momentum in
college. College brings forward a different element to this lifelong
hatred, and that element is cost. The National Association of College Stores claims that during the 2007-2008 academic year, the average textbook costs $57.
Most students at Elizabethtown carry about four courses per semester, which brings this cost up to $228 per semester, just for the books. If you plan to stay for a year, your books will cost about $450. And if you can somehow give up the nearly $40,000 Etown politely asks for each year, by the time you graduate you would have spent around $1,824 just for books that you will rarely use again. Sound fair? Most students don’t think so, and one company, BIGGER words, agrees, and that is why they created their flagship Web site, BigWords.com.
BigWords.com takes the hassle out of finding the cheapest prices on the textbooks you need by sorting through a directory of reliable stores, and then filtering out all books that have a condition deemed unacceptable. The prices also include any promotions each site is currently running, as well as their shipping rates. The site may not appear all that revolutionary on paper, but a textbook that I purchased from Barnes & Noble for $105, which was considerably cheaper than the College Store’s pricing, BigWords found for $44.69, after shipping, brand new. And this wasn’t an atypical find either.
In fact, BigWords claims that the average student saves about $70 per book, and $225 for every multi-book order. They can find any book for 35-45% cheaper than other online stores.
Although at this time of year these kind of finds can be somewhat depressing, especially after dealing with the prices at the College Store, they also have me anticipating buying textbooks for next semester, or at least dreading it a little less. And for all students that simply cannot wait to get back to a computer to buy their books, or want to price check a textbook while they are in the College Store, BigWords recently launched the BIGWORDS iPhone Application (app), which features the same technology found throughout the site, all in the sanctity of your iPhone.
The biggest hurdle BigWords looks to overcome is their obscurity behind sites like Amazon and Chegg. Even with the startling price differences between BigWords and other retailers, some students are still cautious.
When asked if he would switch from Amazon, sophomore Charles Rubis said,“I trust Amazon, because I use it a lot. But I would definitely look into another site if it looks cheaper, and possibly try that if it looks legitimate.”
The immediate success of their revolutionary textbook buying system led BigWords to implement other categories into their site as well, including DVDs, music, games, as well as an “everything else” category, featuring millions of searchable products through BigWords’ “UberBOT” database.
The same features that apply for textbooks also apply to their other categories, bringing big savings, geared toward college students. Will Ferrell’s Old School, for instance, retails for $14.99, however BigWords found it brand new for $2.32, $3.74 after shipping.
BigWords.com seems to be the way of the future in helping college students save money. Their advanced price search system passed all our tests, coming up with cheaper prices than Amazon, Chegg, and even Google Shopping.
And with new innovations like their iPhone application and new items being scanned for and added constantly, the site looks to go nowhere but up from here.
Oh, and in case you were wondering how the rest of my price matching went for this semester’s textbooks, Barnes & Noble (what I paid): $374, BigWords.com: $132. Oh well. At least I qualified for free shipping, right?
The Etownian >> Campus Life
Another awesome site that I found for college students is http://www.BookDealFinder.com. It is a simple and easy-to-use service to help students save hundreds on textbooks expenses!