How to save money on college textbooks

I am not sure about everyone else, but I got tired of spending a good portion of the money I earned in a summer job on college textbooks. Freshmen year I spent well over $700 on my books per semester! This was a little shocking and I found myself living off of Ramen Noodles and Instant Mac & Cheese. This article will give you tips, tricks, & secrets on how to save money on college textbooks. This is exactly what your college bookstores do not want you to know.
I soon learned the monopoly the on-campus bookstore has on the textbook market. I felt after paying all money on tuition I was being 'nickeled and dimed' by my college. This led to some initial frustration after I was broke a couple weeks into the semester. Thankfully, I soon learned from some upper classmen that you can get your books at a discounted price if you buy them on online. I was a little overwhelmed as to where the best place to buy my books online was because there are a lot of on-line bookstores.
What I soon discovered that using a book price comparison search engine eliminated this confusion. What a book price comparison search engine does is crawl the major on-line bookstores like Amazon.com, Half.com Barnes & Noble, AbeBooks.com, Alibris.com, etc. and tells you where the lowest price book is. This is a great thing because you do not need to go each bookstore individually and there are large price differences amongst the on-line bookstores. Using a comparison engine can save you sometimes up to 90% or more on your books. When I started using one my bill went from around $700 a semester to $250 a semester. That is a major discount I got on my books. Needless to say I will not be buying from the on-campus bookstore ever again.
The price comparison search engine I recommend to everyone is SmartBookFinder.com, http://www.smartbookfinder.com. They are a Web 2.0 book price comparison search engine that is great for finding discount books. They offer unique features that no other website has. One in particular that I like is I can choose to search on discount books I can get shipped to me 'fast' (1-7 Days). SmartBookFinder.com also has the first ever book rental comparison service. This emerging market is eco-friendly and light on the wallet as well. Lastly, they offer a book buyback comparison service, which finds out which on-line website will pay you the most money instantly for your books (no need to list online and wait for the book to sell).
If you do not need to your books after the semester is done make sure to sell them back on-line. Yes, on-line and not at the on-campus bookstore! You can get fair market value for your book on-line which is usually a lot more then what the college bookstore will pay you. The college bookstore will pay you pennies on the dollar. My last few words of wisdom are to buy from a reputable bookseller, upgrade to expedited shipping for a few extra dollars, and buy used if you can.
I can only hope the future college students and parents read this article. I know I wish I would have known this before I went to college freshmen year! With tuition on the rise students and parents are looking to keep expenses down where ever they can. Textbooks are one such expense you can minimize thanks to some helpful Internet websites. If enough students and parents apply the principles laid out in this article, college bookstores will be forced to lower their book prices in order to compete. Hope everyone enjoys this article and help spread the word!