Other places where you can get bargains:
CourseSmart.com is recommended for eTextbooks with the USP of allowing students to highlight and take notes electronically. But you can only print 10 pages at a time. Obviously, students still prefer print to digital.

Online purchases: find out which one is cheaper, buying or renting online? Then log on to Chegg.com. The books are in good condition and arrive in an orange box. And pay ($3:99) for shipping. Return is free. Click also for BookRenter.com, CampusBookRentals.com (free shipping), Ecampus.com (rents, sells, buys back), Textbookrentals.com and Collegebookrenter.com.

What about renting? Try Rent-A-Text. It’s one of the companies that have tied up with college bookstores to facilitate student book renting. You could rent a book for a semester at just half the cost. You could also pick up online purchases here.

Buying Online…If you’re buying, Campusbooks.com and Bigwords.com help you scour sites for the best prices on both new and used books. Campusbooks is simple to use, and the results are easy to compare. For instance, a recent query (search using the ISBN number) for a sociology textbook generated results that listed the lowest prices in each category: used, new, rentals, e-books, and international editions (those versions can be cheaper).

Heard of discount codes? PromotionalCodes.com, CouponWinner.com, and PromoCodes.com offer an entire category of discount codes for textbooks and eBooks, for both book providers and renters.

While on the Net, check out Facebook and Craigslist. Student PIRGs has a book-swapping website. Look for the books you need here or look up the Univ for the books they have available.

Finally, what do you do with the books you no longer want to share space with? Take it to the campus bookstore. Who knows, you could get back 50% of the cost! Booksellers too buy them back. Just make sure they are in good condition.
Or be magnanimous. Donate (ok, sell) them to BetterWorldBooks.com. It raises funds for literacy.