Photo by timetrax23

My son starts college next week.  Obviously, he needs textbooks.  In an effort to show me just how far he’s come with taking on responsibility, he told me he’d handle his book purchases.  He’d use the money that he earned over the summer.

Holy Geez!

He visited the online bookstore, and was overcome with sticker shock.  Textbooks are very expensive at the college bookstore, even if they’re used.  As a child of the Online Generation, he started poking around the web for a bargain.  He tried Amazon, Powell’s, and Alibris.  He finally found what he needed at Half.com.

A solution

Here’s a chart that shows the savings between the bookstore’s prices and the Half.com prices:

Note: One English book and one Art book were new editions, so there wasn’t a used book available.  For the other three books, the used editions were out of stock at the school bookstore.  The Half.com price also includes shipping, while the bookstore’s prices do not.

A windfall

So, he saved over one hundred thirty dollars off the bookstore’s price for new books.  That’s over 33 percent savings!  Not bad comparison shopping for an eighteen-year-old kid.  That will buy him several tanks of gas for his car.  Or a few pizzas while he’s burning the midnight oil.  I’m glad he didn’t wait until the first day of classes to get busy with his book-buying.

A take-away

My son did so well using Half.com, that I’m tempted to use it for any major purchase that may arise in the future.  So, thanks kid, you’ve taught the old man something for a change.

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