If you like this guide, please click the yes button below.  Why pay high prices at the campus bookstore, when you can buy them on Ebay for a fraction of the price? Here is how we do it. Find out the book list from either your professor or by calling the local bookstore. It is most important to get the EXACT ISBN number from the bookstore. Sometimes they will not give it to you, because they want you to buy the book there. Many professors will give you both the title, edition number, author name (s) and the ISBN. The ISBN number is either a 10 or 13 digit number, it doesn't matter which you use. Do a search on Ebay  using just the ISBN number, so you can find the exact book that you want. Now here is the tricky part....

Some sellers will be selling you books that appear very, very cheap, called "international editions". These are usually made for countries like India, where books are published using very cheap paper, to reduce the cost. On the surface, these books may be similar or even the same as the US edition. You have to read their listing to make absolutely sure. You may even want to send a message to the seller and say "Is this edition EXACTLY" the same as the US edition?". They should answer you. In the fields of hard sciences, like math, or physics etc., there is not likely to be any difference between the two editions. In the field of social sciences, business, psych., soc. etc, these books oftentimes are customized for the markets. This means examples of cases may be altered to fit the market of the intended buyer. So you might have a book in business talking about an American company in the US edition, and an Asian company in the Indian edition.

Make sure you are dealing with a US seller. Sometimes you miss the fact that you are actually bidding on a book that must be sent from Singapore. This may delay receipt of the book, and if you really need the book, deal  in the US. You can select this by using the advanced search option next to the search box, and only find items for sale that are actually IN the US.

Make sure that the book that you are buying includes the CDROM that sometimes accompanies the book. Ask the seller. Also, ask if the seller is including any other materials like study guides, workbooks, that often accompany a text book.

Last word of advice...Start your search early. The prices on these books can be $15 if no one is bidding on that day, and $50 on another day. It just works that way. To know the maximum price that you might pay, do your search in "Advanced Search". which is to the right of the e bay search box, and click the box that says "completed "auctions. These are the prices of all things that have actually sold, and you can see on average what the price for the book is. You will save, literally hundreds of dollars every semester if you can find these books on Ebay. If you like my guide, please do me a favor and click the yes button below. It will help me to improve or revise my guides. Good luck to you.