One of the more powerful search tools around because it not only searches most of the big, discount bookstores, but also factors into your price any of the site’s current promotional discounts. The site is also well designed and easy to use.
Site’s database connects you with thousands of independent booksellers. If you’re looking for an older textbook — or any out-of-print or rare book — you might want to try this site. Free shipping over fifty-dollars and more savings if you buy multiple books from one of the independent sellers. Site’s motto: “Find Books You Never Thought You’d Find.”
International site, based out of Canada. Huge network of booksellers — one of the largest on the Net. Also allows you to purchase international versions of textbooks, which are often significantly less expensive. Thirty-day return policy and free shipping on eligible books.
A well designed search site with extra features, like the ability to set up a site just for your school’s campus. However, there aren’t many school’s listed right now. Site gets extra points for a ValoreBooks mascot — a beaver. They’ve posted pictures of the Beaver at different schools promoting the site. It doesn’t let you set up a strict text exchange of your own, but if you’re so inclined, you can use this open source code to design your own site and have your school’s student government host you. This way, your bookstore is run “by the students, for the students.”
Basic comparison site. Big bonus points for also comparing buy-back prices at the major sites that purchase used textbooks. Bonus for unique “Donate Your Books” feature which allows you to give your books to students and kids in need.
Site claims to be one of the oldest and most reliable textbook comparison sites on the Web. Gets a little bonus for offering coupons at various online bookseller’s sites — look on the lower left of the page. Also gives a nice breakdown of what you can expect to pay for shipping at most of the major bookstores.
Comparison site. Advertises that it uses “coupons” to allow for further discounts.
Part of the CNET.com network. This is a bigger, more powerful search engine most often used to search for discounts on electronics, but it still just does the same thing as the rest for books.
Nice, basic comparison site.
Really cool looking comparison site similar to MySimon. You can comparison shop for everything here.
Nice, robust site that does a good job of bring books sellers together. Claims that you can search books at 100+ bookstores.
Another one of the big comparison shopping sites. Drawback: they don’t specialize in textbooks.
This is the most customizable site of the bunch, allowing you to choose the specific book sellers you wish to search. You can also choose to search used and out of print books. There’s even a price comparison search for magazine subscriptions. This is definitely one that could move up the rankings.
Basic book comparison site searching all the major online bookstores.
Another site that links together booksellers (over 2,000 from across the country). Also offers wholesale-priced books like Overstock.com
Really nice, powerful and clean looking comparison site which also allows you to search new, used and out of print books. But you can also sometimes find out of print books on Amazon and some of the other sites listed above. Half a million site visitors a month!
Basic comparison site. It’s been around since 1999, which is longer than many of these sites. 310k visitors a month according to Quantcast!
Basic comparison site. Bonus for including good list of discounts and specials currently running at some of the major booksellers. Also have a link to all of the on-campus bookstores across the country — although these are usually the most expensive places to buy your books.
This is one of the most powerful resources for searching many different sources at once, and not just for textbooks. I love Google so I may be giving this product more credit than it deserves because many of the other sites on this page have more features related to textbook buying. It does not search some of the smaller booksellers too like some of the other sites. Let me / us know about your experiences with it — and any other site — by writing a quick review of your experiences.
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