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Seth Guy is a student at Kent State University who buys all of his textbooks for school online. Seth is definitely not the first or only student to use this method of book buying.

In 2007-2008 the average cost of a hard back print textbook at a campus bookstore was around the 200-dollar range. Now, students can spend as little as 10 dollars on the same textbook, slightly used, and shipped straight to their home from Amazon.
In 1993 students such as Kathy Fritz were unable to buy books online, due to the fact that the Internet was not nearly as popular as it is now.
“I spent about 1,000 dollars a semester on books while receiving my bachelors degree.” Says Fritz.
Not only can you buy cheap books online, but also you can rent them even cheaper! To rent a book for an entire semester is about 15 dollars or less, depending on the book needed.
Seth Guy says he “spends about 150 dollars a semester” from buying his books online. That’s around 850 dollars students in the 21st century are saving on textbooks for classes.

You don’t even have to buy your books in hard copy and have it shipped to your house anymore. With new technological advances such as the iPad, the Samsung Galaxy tablet, and the Nook students can buy or rent textbooks and get them sent straight to their devices.
With all of these cheaper options available you would think professors would advertise buying at their campus bookstore to students to help their campus out, however that is not the case.
Most professors, who were once students themselves, are helpful with finding websites to buy their required texts cheaply. German professor JoAnn Jones believes that professors understand their student’s struggles with money.
“I believe professors are passionate enough to know that the students have to purchase wherever they can, whatever is cheapest.”