Buying books off eBay?

Published

We received our list for our first trimester and I've been finding books are much cheaper on eBay (like new) than Amazon. Has anyone had any luck with EBay? I've made sure to check the seller ratings and they are all good.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I used to buy all my books from Ebay or rent them from Amazon. It was way less expensive and if I rented the books, it was less for me to store.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I just bought a bunch from Amazon and ebay. I received most of them in good condition (not too marked up) except for one, which I thought was overly priced for the quality it was in. But that's what happens. With that one exception, I didn't have any problems with the textbooks I received. Make sure to read the description of the item (some of them will say if it has a lot of markings in the book or coffee stains, etc.). It's definitely cheaper than buying all the books from the bookstore as brand new.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I bought some "like new" from eBay that were cheaper than "used-good" on amazon. Some only had 14-day money back guarantee. I'll just have to look them over as soon as I get them to make sure everything checks out. The ones that had access codes I bought new from amazon except one on eBay it stated it came with the code. Those are the ones that make me nervous. The bookstore says in-bind access code but nothing stated on amazon or eBay.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Speaking of which, I just ordered another book through eBay. Hopefully, it will be in good condition! Like I said, most of mine were in good/excellent condition. I definitely saved $1000+ on books, which will be going towards school.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.

I used this site. It is a search engine for rentals as well as buying textbooks. It gathers all the different website prices and displays them according to cost.

Cheap Textbooks - Price Compare College Textbooks - Used, New, Rental & eTextbooks

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.

I use Half, which is eBay's sister site.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LAD.

I like Amazon or B&N...

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Aesthetics, Med/Surg, Outpatient.

Directtextbook.com

Sent from my iPad using allnurses

Up Vote Up Vote ×

OMG...Yes!

Ebay is a great resource, as well as Half.com (an sister company of Ebay), Alibris, Abebooks, Amazon, and Betterworldbooks. I've used them all, plus a few others I cannot remember now.

Just be VERY CAREFUL about buying the right book. I would always:

Have the exact title of the book w/authors name(s) and edition number

Have both ISBN numbers on the book

Know what the cover looks like, just to cover all the bases.

Buying the right used books will save you GOBS of money and buying one wrong book (I never did) can be a big hit. Know what you need, do your research and brag in class about how much you saved-it will confirm how smart you really are :-)

Best,

Kim

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in PCCU.

throughout my nursing school journey, I used gettextbooks.com. It is much more accurate to put in the ISBN with different editions of books. The website will you find the cheapest book on half.com, ebay.com etc... as a purchase or a rental.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion