There are a few ways to get around paying full price for books, especially those textbooks that you are only going to use for a couple of months before trying to sell them back to the school for significantly less than you paid. A few helpful suggestions when it comes to locating and purchasing cheap textbooks will help you save a lot of money this school year.

First and foremost, you must avoid college bookstores like the plague. No matter what your school of thought may be, institutes of higher learning are out to make a profit just like everyone else and the school bookstore is good part of their regular income. Required texts are ridiculously overpriced even when they sport a “USED” sticker on the front of them. That just means that the school bought back the textbook from a previous student for pennies on the dollar before reinflating its price to sell back to you.

No matter what your financial aid status is, the best advice I can give is to shop around online before purchasing a single text. For those of you who are lucky enough to have books included in your scholarship package, disregard what I'm going to say next. Beg, borrow or steal but don't pay any more than you have to for college textbooks.

Cheap texts can be obtained through a variety of methods. Some online retailers offer deep discounted books to their customers. Get a list of all the required texts and their ISBN numbers from your college or university. Then hit the web for some real bargains. Inexpensive texts can be purchased relatively easy. There are numerous sites designed for this purpose alone. A quick web search will help you identify which companies are legitimate and carry the lowest priced books.

An even more revolutionary idea is to sell or trade books with fellow students. Post flyers around campus and watch the money come in. Charge a fair price and you're guaranteed to sell whatever books you have lying around from the previous semester. Use electronic bulletin boards, social networking sites, and peer based websites to locate, purchase, and trade all of your required texts for the semester. This will save you cash and the hassle of standing in long lines at your college's bookstore.

Websites, like these, take the guesswork out of trading, buying and selling textbooks online. With a low resale value, why pay more than you have to? Smart students know where to go to find quality used textbooks online and they are often the first to tell their friends about their bargains. With several years of college expenses mounting up, it pays to be savvy shopper.