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.

Don’t miss any money-saving tips: Subscribe

• Good Enough, or The Duct Tape Chronicles My father had a saying that he used frequently: "Good enough".  This he applied to everything from a concrete repair to a homemade hockey stick.  The medium my father worked in best was a type of duct tape.  It wasn't silver like the traditional kind, but rather olive drab,......
• 20 Blogs That Have Inspired Me h.koppdelaney I signed up for Darren Rowse's 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge, and today's assignment was to create a list post.  Darren's site, Problogger, has provided me with great information that has helped me launch this blog.  I decided to make a list of all of......
• My Thanksgiving Ritual Photo by theogeo People develop different rituals to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Laurel and Hardy fans may tune in to March of the Wooden Soldiers, or watch the Macy's Parade.  A local radio station plays Alice's Restaurant in its entirety every year (I never tire from hearing the massacree again).  Some......

• A Public Failure to Walk the Money Talk How many of us have "talked the talk" but not "walked the walk"? Well, add a money reporter from the New York Times to the list. Mr. ToughMoneyLove doesn't particularly like beating a man when he is down, but when you write about your own stupidity to sell papers and......
• Learning about Investing I get asked by a lot of newbie investors about what to read. Rather than keep on searching and sending out the same list repeatedly, I decided to put it up online. Here's my list of the best investing books. You'll see some of the all time classics like Benjamin......
• Saving for College - An Exercise in Depression My friend from Rich Credit Debt Loan asked me a simple, but thought-provoking question last week. I'm probably going to tease you with the actual question for a little while. We decided the best answer for the question was to create a calculator and I haven't had the time to......