To Buy or to Rent?

When I was a student at Clemson University (GO TIGERS!), i always tried to pinch pennies in terms of my textbooks. I recall buying used books for a few days until my order from Amazon or eBay or another seller arrived since it saved me a few dollars. Since I graduated, which was only five years ago, you can now RENT textbooks - fab idea!

One company, Campus Book Rentals, asked me to look through their service and site and give my opinion. All you do is is their search box to find your textbook. You can choose to keep the book for a semester, a quarter, or a summer session and the price is different based on the length of time. And for those students who attend a few classes and decide to drop the class after getting the book -- you can return them without charge within 30 days and take advantage of their FREE shipping!

I was the student who wrote in the margins and highlighted the heck out of my books. But when its a rental, I thought that would be a problem for others like me, but you can highlight in books from Capus Book Rentals. Pretty neat, although it means you will receive books already marked up too (help you get through the reading faster?? :) ).

This is an actual book I remember purchasing and although it is a less expensive buy, the rental is nearly half the price. Saving about $15 is alot and that is on the low end of savings (typical range is 40-90% savings)! As a side, note, the author of that book, Brian Solis, is a big social media guru now and I have seen him speak at a conference and have read other books he has authored.

To make you feel better about your purchase, feel good knowing that they donate to Operation Smile with every rented book. Some of you may be familiar with that philanthropy via Panhellenic/Greek Life or the PSA ads.

So for you college students, and siblings and parents of college students, forward this post and a link to Campus Book Rentals to save "your" students money. Hey, it will give them more money to spend on gas to drive home and visit YOU!