How to save $123 per text book!

Home university students have a great advantage when purchasing their text books. They don't need to be using the same book as their classmate and can usually learn the content with a previous edition just as well as with the latest edition.

As soon as a new edition of a book becomes available, the price of the previous edition drops significantly. For example, The Principles of Statics by Hibbler is a great book for engineering students to learn from. The 11th edition is now $139 as a new book from the publisher (prenticehall.com). Amazon.com sells this new book from $97.92 to $165.47. The same book can be obtained from Amazon used for $80 to $149.45.

However, to save additional money, it is helpful to know that the same statics knowledge can be learned from many or any of the previous editions of this same book. The 10th edition is available used on Amazon for $16 to $94.08 used and new from $23.50 to $130.64.

For this particular book the savings would be: $139 - $16 = $123.

Other less popular statics books would also serve the educational purpose at an even lower cost. Engineering faculty who taught statics may even be willing to give away older editions that were given to them as review copies, which cannot not be legally sold.

If I were a new home university engineering student, I'd buy the $16 ( plus $3.49 shipping) used copy via Amazon for the convenience, use it thoroughly, and keep it in my permanent family library.

If you like to shop, simply type "textbooks cheap" into a Google search and you will find many more used textbook options. About.com also has a helpful article to inform your used text book shopping at: http://distancelearn.about.com/od/managingyourwork/a/cheaptextbook.htm

To make textbook selection and purchase the most convenient, efficient for the lowest cost, the Concourse is developing scope and sequences with Amazon.com hyperlinks to the exact textbooks recommended, which provides both new and used book buying options. To see the engineering example visit: http://biblicalconcourse.com/bookstore/engineering.php