As textbook costs continue to flatten students’ wallets, the search is on for alternatives to paying full price.
     
“First I go to the [campus] bookstore to check prices, and if it’s too much I might go to the bookstore across the street,” said Fatema Balooch, 21.
     
If that doesn’t work, Balooch checks out online sites, usually Amazon.com and eBay.
     
Students use a variety of websites to find the best deals on books.
     
Business administration and accounting major, Rishabh Sikanb, 20, goes to DealOZ.com.
     
Instead of selling books, DealOz.com is a search portal where a student types in book details, and a list of sites pops up with the cheapest prices.
     
What’s the downside?
     
“It’s a long and tiring process, because it can be one book from one site and one from another,” Sikanb said.
     
Other sites turned to in search of deals include Textbull.com, where students post what books they need and want to sell and are then matched up with other students to meet and trade. Textbull.com currently serves a small number of schools, including DVC.
     
Ecampus.com also allows students to buy and sell textbooks, along with supplies, college apparel and movies.
     
Then there’s the “Netflix” of the book world, Chegg.com. Like the movie rental site, students simply order their books and then send them back through the mail when finished.
     
Still other sites offering discounted books for sale include Half.com, Craigslist.com, CheapestTextbooks.com and Discountbooksale.com.
     
Yet, not all students go the online route.
    
Anna McQuinn, 24, a business management major, said she bought a majority of her books from the campus bookstore this semester.
     
“It’s convenient,” she said, “and I know someone will be there to give me help if I need it.”
     
Although she did buy a few books from ecampus.com, McQuinn said they weren’t much cheaper than the bookstore.
     
Negin Etemad, 18, a psychology major, said she goes to the DVC bookstore, “because I’m too lazy to go anywhere else.”
     
She also shops there because of the book vouchers she qualifies for through EOPS (Extended Opportunities for Students).
     
Still, Etemad believes the books are overpriced.
     
“I know a lot of people who buy from amazon.com, and it’s much cheaper,” she said. “Plus, when you sell back to the bookstore, they give you nothing.”
     
Communications major Dan Badiali, 20, also uses the bookstore, because he knows   it will have the books he needs.
     
“One time I did buy online off this cheap site,” Badiali said, “and it took too long [for the books] to arrive.”

Contact Julie George at [email protected]