Where to find the cheapest textbooks
College Textbook HACKS - How I Got FREE & Super CHEAP Textbooks Saving HUNDREDS | ESP Daniella
now before you buy your college
textbooks I highly highly suggest that
you wait before you buy them whether
your incoming freshman or you're already
in college you need to watch this video
so you know how to save the most money
possible so let's get to it what's up
YouTube and welcome to my channel ESP
I'm Bernie Ella and for today's video as
you already know I'm gonna be telling
you about how I was able to save
hundreds and hundreds of dollars on my
college textbooks now I know that it is
recommended to buy your textbooks before
school even starts so that you're ready
for class but for my personal experience
with my professors from my university
it's a totally different situation it's
a totally different scenario okay so the
first point I want to make is that some
professors if not a lot of them will end
up not even using the textbook that they
asked for for the class or if they
actually do end up using the textbook
they may only use it for like four or
five assignments but that's still not
nearly enough times of it being used for
you to go ahead and purchase it
especially if it's a really expensive
textbook so the first thing that you
need to do before you even buy your
textbooks it's the first ask your
professor whether that's in person or
through email saying hey do we really
need this textbook is really necessary
and a lot of times the professor will
still say yes it is required to be
successful in this class blah blah blah
but what I found out is that some
professors who may say that you need
this textbook in order to be successful
in the class they're mainly saying that
because because like perhaps part of the
cells from those textbooks from their
certain classes are going back to them
so it's kind of like all about money for
them right so if that is a case I
recommend that you get a second opinion
from people who took the class maybe
last semester last year and ask them hey
did you really need the textbook in
order to be successful and also just an
FYI for most of my classes I ended up
even having to use the textbook
whatsoever because we live in a 21st
century which has a plethora of online
resources from YouTube and Google and
Quizlet and so on so the same exact
information that you would be getting if
you were to go ahead and buy the
textbook is free for your access through
the internet okay so now to actually
buying or rinsing out your textbooks
sometimes towards the very beginning of
your course of the semester your
professor may give you and the whole
class free access to the textbook now at
my school this scenario has happened on
four separate occasions for different
classes so it isn't necessarily rare for
your teacher to suddenly give the class
free access to the books so the last
thing that you want to happen is to like
buy the textbook way before then but
then when you finally get into the class
the professor is like oh I got you all
free access to the textbook so that's
just money wasted that you could have
spent on something else see I actually
made the same exact mistake when I was
taking two summer courses a couple of
weeks back one of the online courses I
was taking was journalism and it
required that I get this fifty dollar
textbook and so I decided to get the
electronic version because I just like
having electronic textbooks right
however the thing about ebooks is that
they're non-refundable non-returnable
unlike physical books so when the class
actually finally started like three or
four days into the class the professor
was like hey I got you all free access
to the book that was 50 dollars wasted
that I could have spent on five bucks
combo mils of Raising Cane's I'm still
mad about that but yeah don't be like me
don't make the same mistake that I did
go ahead and wait it out a little bit
and see if your professor is going to
give the class free access or if you
actually need the textbook in the first
place anyways that leads me to my next
point when you are actually buying a
textbook make sure
make sure that it has a return policy
because every now and then you may catch
yourself buying the wrong textbook or
the wrong Edition that your class
requires or something like that and if
it's non-refundable then you're not
getting your money back you're just
stuck with it and also it's good to
check if your book is refundable
returnable because like what I mentioned
earlier your professor may suddenly give
the class free access to the textbook or
you find out that in your school's
public library they already have the
book for you to use and if this is like
a class of where you're barely using the
textbook in the first place it's best to
just check it out occasionally rather
than going ahead and spending your own
money on it with that said again check
your school's library collection most of
the time I can find the textbook that
I'm needing for a certain class however
at my school's library for textbooks in
particular we are only allowed a two
hour time frame to rent it out because
you know there's hundreds of other kids
taking the same exact course and they
may need the textbook as well so what I
do when I have the textbook checked out
is that I take a picture of each
individual page that I need to read or
reference to later and then I go to my
phone's photo gallery and then share
each of those images with my Google
Drive so that I can pull them up later
on my laptop and also with the library
and their textbooks they tend to have
earlier editions of the textbook rather
than the latest edition but what I found
out is that nine times out of ten the
earlier editions of textbooks basically
have the same exact information as the
newer textbook the only real difference
between the older version of the
textbook and the newer version is that
like the names of certain chapters have
been rearranged so for instance let's
say that in the older edition of the
textbook chapter two is named American
history but then in the newer edition of
the textbook chapter three is named
American history but as far as the
content of the chapter itself it's still
the same exact thing so as long as you
know the name or the names of the
chapters that you should be reading
rather than their chapter number then
you should be good now if you are still
concerned about whether or not the older
edition of the textbook matches up with
a newer edition you can always ask your
professor
to compare with their textbook or ask
one of your classmates to see if it
matches up now let's say that you are
finally done with a class for the
semester and that you're wanting to
return the book that you bought and get
like almost a full refund on it right
well the gag is is that a lot of times
in many cases you will not I repeat you
will not get the refund that you are
looking for for instance last year in my
roomate she had to buy a textbook for
one of her classes that cost over a
hundred dollars she bought it through
Amazon I think and once the class was
over she tried to return it back to
Amazon but they literally would only
give her $20 right let me remind you she
spent over $100 on that textbook and
they only gave her back 20 when
returning it see there are two main
reasons why the value of textbooks go
down so significantly when you're trying
to return them reason number one it's
used a used book is going to be less
expensive than a new book and reason
number two is that textbook companies
are constantly fencing off newer
editions of the same exact textbook so
that would mean that the book that you
bought that was at the time the newest
edition is now an older edition so it
loses a lot of its value so that's why
in my opinion is best to just go ahead
and rinse a textbook rather than buying
it preferably it would do you much
better to rinse a eBook textbook rather
than a physical copy text book because
ebooks are digital meaning they are less
expensive because they're not having to
print off paper and number two the
reason why I prefer eBook rentals is
because it's easier for you to like take
your notes because you can just copy and
paste what you need to onto your Notes
document or you can use the keyboard
shortcut control fine to easily navigate
throughout your textbook rather than
having a physical textbook of where you
have to go to the glossary go to the
index to find what you're looking for
and also don't forget about buying a
used textbook like I said earlier use
textbooks are cheaper than newer
textbooks because they're like
hand-me-downs you can get a used book
for cheaper through online stores or
your school's bookstore and also some
people at your school may be advertising
through social media that hey and they
have a certain textbook that they are
selling for a fair price and that you
could possibly buy it from them so the
next tip that I have for you guys is to
cross compare prices this is so so very
imperative so very important for example
for my journalism class we were required
to purchase a workbook because many of
our assignments would be generated from
it so on my school's online portal it
directed me to the schools on campus
Barnes & Noble of where I could buy the
workbook however buying it through my
school through Barnes & Noble would have
cost me $65 buying a new and $45 for
rinsing it
however with me being very frugal I
still wasn't satisfied with those prices
so I did some more research and guess
what I found I found the same exact book
through Google Books for only $20
I repeat $20 not 65 not 45 but 20 so
with that being said the best two
websites you can use so cross compare
prices of textbooks are big word column
and text surf comm with these two
websites they cross compare more known
stores such as like Barnes & Noble and
shag as well as lesser-known places that
tend to have even cheaper textbooks see
I noticed with other YouTube videos that
suggest places to buy your textbooks
they mainly refer you to check com
however for me personally I have only
ever bought one textbook for check
because I'm always finding alternative
websites that have the same book for
even cheaper now one thing to note about
these two websites is that they do not
cross compare Google books so you will
have to do a separate Google search
to see if Google Books has the book
you're needing for even cheaper another
helpful tip is that sometimes on rare
occasions you will be able to find the
book that you are needing for free
online as a PDF however with these free
online PDF textbooks that you may find
most of the time the textbook will be an
older edition and older version but like
I said earlier older additional
textbooks tend to have the same exact
content as the newest version so you'll
still be just fine so another thing that
I really want to say is that whether
you're sociable or anti-social like me
make friends your friends will help you
get through college especially if they
are in the same class as you so that
means when it's the very first day that
you're in a class go ahead and
intentionally seek out people you can
see yourself communicating with and ask
them for their phone number their social
media and even better if you guys could
possibly form a group chat because the
more people you have in your group chat
the more likely you are to receive the
resources that you need such as like
screenshots from certain pages in the
textbook or perhaps or they could share
their notes or other helpful things that
you will need for the class finally if
you are a student then go ahead and sign
up for Amazon Prime right now I still
think that they are doing the six month
free trial for students so all you have
to do in order to get access to that is
to make an account using your student
email address that your university or
college gives you it's really just that
easy and the great thing about Amazon
Prime is that they have two day free
shipping guarantees so if you're needing
a textbook as soon as possible it's best
to just go ahead and buy it through
Amazon Prime very very last thing that I
want to say is that a lot of music and
movie streaming services such as like
Spotify title Apple music Hulu Netflix
and so on are offering free trials or
reduced rates for students and I say
this because coming from me a 4.0 GPA
student by the way I tend to be a lot
more productive when it comes
taking notes or studying for exams when
I'm listening to music or if I'm trying
to distress myself it's always good to
just marathon and binge watch through a
certain series on Netflix okay so that's
all for this video please please please
do like subscribe to my channel share
this video and comment down below if you
have any other tips or if you look like
any other advice and if you want to
follow me on social media that would be
great and also watch my other videos
which will be over
what's camp
here-here-here I can't figure this out
anyways bye
[Music]
