College Kids–Save Some Money! Rent!

I’m going to date myself here . . . in the spring of 2013, it will be exactly 25 years since I graduated from high school.  One of the things that really made a huge impression on me that year was the cost of my college textbooks.  I attended a local community college and I think I paid more money for my textbooks than I did for the actual classes themselves! 

Back then, I was a packrat and thought I’d want to save all my books forever.  About 5 years later, while doing an attic clean-out, they all went to Goodwill.  Many of them were already outdated.  I regretted having spent all that money, and wished the option to rent textbooks had been available to me. 

Recently, I’ve been introduced to Campus Book Rentals.  This site allows college students to rent their books at a fraction of the price of purchasing new.   Now, I don’t remember the exact textbooks that I had to buy for my classes those 20+ years ago; but, out of curiosity I wanted to see how much Campus Book Rentals might save me.  So, I looked up a Child Psychology textbook (one of the classes that I took).  This particular textbook sells for $187.  However, it can be rented for only $33.34 (a savings of $153.66)! 

Now, to me, that’s a no-brainer.  Especially for a textbook that, if you’re anything like me, you’ll never pick up again (it’ll just sit in a box in your attic collecting dust!) 

Campus Book Rentals offers:

-savings of 40-90% off of bookstore prices
-free shipping both ways
-the ability to highlight in the textbooks
-flexible renting periods

And, if that isn’t enough, they also donate to Operation Smile with each textbook rented. (If you aren’t familiar with Operation Smile, they are an awesome organization that performs life changing cleft lip surgeries on children whose families could not otherwise afford it.)

If you’d like to learn a bit more about how Campus Book Rentals work, check out this informative video:

Yep, I’m left wondering where this service was 25 years ago.

If you’re in college, or maybe you’re the parent of a college student, would you consider Campus Book Rentals?  If you have experience with them, please leave me a comment.