It's my first year of college and I feel excited to get out of the house for once. To be FREE! I walk around campus with my parents, get my free merch*, and pick the keys to my dorm room. My mom started crying a little and I try to get her out before she makes too much of scene around my roommates. So not cool. She sits in the car while my dad and I go into the campus bookstore and buy textbooks. As we look around, someone approaches us about a bundle offer where they sort our order for us. A few minutes later, we have a total cost of over $400.
And so marks the beginning of the college struggle...
If you go through the bookstore, you are going to have the same issues. That how it is. But what they didn't tell you is that there is a book exactly written like the books in that bundle offer, except almost a hundred dollars cheaper. It is called the "International Edition". It is the closest thing you can get to the actual book while still having your own while saving the most money.
Where's the catch?
Publishers do not sell it to American retailers.
The only way a bookseller can acquire these editions is if they sell to other countries or they are based from another country. The concept is similar to how many authors today sell their books first on hardback and then months later offer a cheaper paperback version, which is what the International Edition of a textbook is. They change the cover a little to make the hardback** version more appealing.
Start by getting the ISBN numbers off the back of your textbook or wherever you can find you required class textbooks. Type this online and pull up the title, author, and edition number. Next, add "international edition" on the backend of this search and you can find a number of suppliers***.
There are even cheaper ways to buy textbooks but through this way, you have the benefit of buying a new**** book in the latest edition required by the faculty at your school. Through is route, you are still saving anywhere from 50% - 85% of the bookstore listing price.
So how does the average person get their hands on them for the reduced price?
Start by getting the ISBN numbers off the back of your textbook or wherever you can find you required class textbooks. Type this online and pull up the title, author, and edition number. Next, add "international edition" on the backend of this search and you can find a number of suppliers***.
Happy hunting and if you run into trouble, post a comment with the ISBN, either 10 or 13 digit, and I can try to find an online supplier for you!
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*It isn't so free when you look at the college bills.
**This is called cloth in by textbook publishers in their catalogs.
***bookfinder.com, abebooks.com, alibris.com are among the good ones.
****I had a short lived phase of only buying new books and this satisfied it for a while.
