Tuition is expensive, so save some money on textbooks.

Forbes reports.

Finding The Cheapest College Textbooks (A Case Study)

Last year I wrote about a number of online tools and tips to help folks find good deals on college textbooks. It was an issue dear to my heart as my wife and I had two children in college. We still do, although our son is also now a Marine, I’m proud to say. Anyway, I thought I’d revisit the question of textbooks as students get ready to head back to school.

This time let’s explore the issue by searching for the best deal on a single book. I’ve chosen Calculus, Single Variable – 6th edition by Deborah Hughes-Hallett (ISBN13: 978-0470888643). It’s a popular text for the college crowd and who doesn’t love single variable calculus. My starting point was Amazon.

To buy the book new as an Amazon Prime member will set you back $117.11. You can buy it used for as little as $99.48 and rent it for as little as $23.99. Keep in mind when you consider the rent versus buy question that many purchased textbooks can be resold at the end of the semester.

I started with Amazon for a couple of reasons. First, as the Internet’s #1 online shopping destination, most people are very comfortable shopping online at Amazon. Second, it claims to save you as much as 90% on textbooks. That’s a big claim, and I wanted to put it to the test.