We are getting ready to send our oldest child off to boarding school, he will be attending The Mercersburg Academy in the fall. Once we selected the classes he will be taking, we got the list of text books that will be required and a link to the online ordering system.
I know people save a lot of money shopping around online for text books, and my goal was to look at a few sites, order his books, and make sure I got him either new books or used books in very good condition. I probably could have saved even more if I went for books in less than very good condition. There were also electronic book options and book rental options, but I decided to skip those routes.
So here is what I did, step by step that allowed me to save 52% off what I would have paid through the standard link from the school.
Step 1: Identify all the required books and their ISBN numbers. Every book has a unique ISBN number that allows you to find the exact version of the required book. The last think you want to do is order the wrong books.
Step 2: Open up the 3 following links, they will open in windows or tabs so you can check prices in each. (these were the stores I found to have the best deals. Interestingly, none of them had the best price on all the books, and the prices and availability varried widely:Step 3: Enter the ISBN number for each book in the search bar on each site and compare prices. When you find the best deal, add that book to the shopping cart on that site and repeat this step for each textbook.
Step 4: Check out on each site and wait for your books to be delivered!
Step 5: Calculate your savings and post a comment here letting me know how much you saved!
