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On-line textbook search &
shopping strategies:
You can access SSU Bookstore
online and books can be ordered on-line from
them.
You can now also choose from lots
of "dot-coms" dealing in textbooks. Even better, there are
now meta-sites which help in comparison shopping to get the
best price. [A meta-site searches client databases and
provides links to the selected sites following a
search.] The following is not intended to be an
exhaustive review of e-trade in books, but should be helpful
in getting started or in discovering new sites.
- When searching meta-sites, I
found that the maximum number of hits occurred when
searching by title. Seaches by author worked well.
Searches by ISBN yielded the fewest hits or no hits at
the meta-sites. However, ISBN searching was the best
strategy when at a specific bookseller site.
- When comparing prices, it is
useful to know what the shipping/handling charges will be
and whether or not CA sales tax will be charged. Some
sellers ship for free, others ship by flat rate, and
still others ship based on a per-item rate.
- Try out a student-run site,
including a guide to buying on-line: textbookprices.com
- The best meta-site I
found was bestwebbuys.com/books.
It was the simplest and fastest to use. It yielded, on
average, the greatest number of hits per
search.
- bizrate.com
was good, but not as fast as bestbookbuy.
- textbookhound.com
is an interesting site, if you take a bit of time to
explore it and have some patience in getting the results.
Although slower in retrieving results, they guarantee the
most accurate pricing. In addition, you can enter your
entire booklist before doing a search, so in the long run
you may actually save time. You also have the option of
sending your list to whomever is responsible for paying
for your books.
- getcheapbooks.com
is more than a book search site, comparable to Best
WebBuys. It's worth checking out.
- directtextbook.com
is another site worth a look.
- Hunting for used books? Many
on-line sellers offer either fixed used book prices if
available, or will help search for used titles. Some
specialize in used book trading. Try the
student-to-student used-book trading available through
the SSU Bookstore.
Try also half.com
or bigwords.com.
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