Textbooks are becoming ever more expensive. Paying $90, $100, or even more for a college textbook is the norm, not the exception. This how-to will show you how to quickly search for the textbook you need on Craigslist, and will also provide suggestions as to other sources for reasonably-priced used textbooks.

Finding used textbooks on Craigslist is most likely soon after the end of a semester, when students sell books they used for just-completed courses, hoping to partially finance purchases of next semester’s books. If you wait too long the supply will dwindle to nothing within a few short weeks, so to maximize your chances, start as soon as the textbooks for your upcoming classes are announced.

Craigslist is a community-moderated bulletin-board-type website which started its existence in 1995 as an email newsletter sent out by one Craig Newmark to friends and associates. From that humble start Craigslist has become the seventh highest-traffic English language site in the world. Craigslist has more than 700 regional websites each covering a different city or region. Craigslist’s users number over 50 million in the US alone, with millions more internationally. Craigslist ads are mostly free of charge (brokered apartment ads in New York City are one of the few exceptions). This makes Craigslist a popular place for sellers, who post millions of ads monthly, as well as for buyers, who view about 20 billion pages each month.http://www.craigslist.org/about/factsheet Craigslist topical forums cover more than 100 topics, from 1099 tax forms to writing.http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/

Among many other types, Craigslist hosts used cars ads, new car ads, jobs ads, housing rental ads, real estate for sale ads, etc. On occasion free stuff will also be posted on Craigslist. Making money on Craigslist is also possible by, e.g. selling used computers you no longer use or need, or by buying items from garage sales, thrift stores, and even other Craigslist members, and reselling them at a profit. To be successful at this last you’ll need to be better than the average Craigslist poster at crafting compelling ads with good keywords.

Craigslist does not accept responsibility or liability for ad contents or for interactions between Craigslist users.http://www.craigslist.org/about/terms.of.use Craigslist has posted very important advice on avoiding Craigslist scams which users are well-advised to read and follow.http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams

There are thousands of students who will be competing with you to find the same textbooks you need. This makes the old saying “It’s the early bird that gets the worm” very applicable to buying used textbooks. Contact your school’s undergraduate office, the departments you take courses in, even your professors, as soon as you sign up for a class. Make sure you get the edition information as well as the book title and the author(s) name(s). Don’t delay, as waiting even one day could mean that the one copy of a book you need that a Craigslist user posts on Craigslist goes to someone else who did not delay.

The Craigslist users who post their textbooks for sale are just like you. These are students who had to pay hundreds of dollars for their books just prior to the beginning of last semester, and who now, more likely than not, need to shell out more hundreds of dollars to buy the books for the upcoming semester. This being the case, posters will likely try to get top dollar for their used books. There is no reason, however, why you should let them take advantage of you. Look up the cost of each of the books you need on Amazon.com. Once you know the price of the books in new condition, you’ll be in better position to assess the prices you see on Craigslist.

When you visit the Craigslist.com site, your browser will redirect you to the Craigslist site covering your area, based on your IP address. Once there, click on “Books” in the “For Sale” area of the page.

With the search tool at the top left of the page, start your query. Enter in the search bar the title of the book you need and the author name, and hit “search.” If this fails to return enough hits, try replacing the title of the book with the subject (e.g. “physics” or “math”) as some posters may have posted simply something like “Serway physics” rather than “College Physics, Volume 1, by Raymond A. Serway, Jerry S. Faughn, and Chris Vuille.”

Repeat the search for each book you’re looking for, as you are not likely to find all the books you need offered in a single ad. Make sure to verify the edition of each book you’re considering buying and comparing it to the edition your professor will be teaching from.

The edition of the book is a critical matter. Once every two or three years there will be a new edition of the book. However, professors will not always move from one edition to the next automatically. Thus, you could potentially buy the wrong edition either by buying too old an edition, or too new an edition.

Next, check the condition the books are stated to be in. Descriptions such as “like new”, “mint condition”, “excellent” are all likely to be as good as new for your needs. Descriptors such as “good” or “fair” may indicate minor problems such as dog-eared pages, some writing on the margins, and minor damage. These are most likely just cosmetic, but you should ask about them or inspect the books carefully before handing over your cash. Anything less than “fair” is likely to have significant issues such as missing pages, stains that make reading sections difficult, etc. Avoid these.

High prices are another potential problem. If a book sells new on Amazon for $95, and a Craigslist ad offers it for $90, you’d probably be better off ordering new from Amazon with free shipping, or buying from your school’s bookstore if you need the book more quickly than Amazon’s standard shipping. That last may add some to the cost, but avoids any delays. It’s up to you to decide what your threshold is, but paying more than 80% of a book’s new cost is something some would consider over-priced.

There are several other options for you to explore if you cannot find the books you need on Craigslist.

1. Amazon Marketplace includes both new and used books, sometimes at significant discounts.
2. Half.com may offer the books you need at up to half off.
3. Your school bookstore may offer a limited supply of used books, but these go very fast, so check there as soon as you find out you can’t find used books elsewhere. Note that the bookstore sells new books, so they’re not likely to give too large a discount on used books in excellent condition.