Do you experience sticker shock when you enter the bookstore to purchase books?  It is something that I have see time and again when I go to order books from the bookstore of my school.  Sometimes I have no choice but to purchase that book, but in these hard economic times I am always looking for an alternative to secure my textbooks.

I heard a long time ago about sources that have a “netflix-like” rental system for books, but every time I looked at them they only had books that were 2-3 editions behind what I needed until I discovered Chegg.com! The process is simple you choose your textbook at a savings up to 85% in some cases, they are shipped to you via UPS, you return them when your done in the free UPS envelope, and Chegg.com will plant a LIVE tree for every book you rent.  Pretty simple don’t you think?

In my case the next class I am going to be taking starts September 8th.  I found the book, the latest edition,  on Chegg and was shocked when I compared it to the school bookstore and my normal favorite spot Amazon.com.

What do you think of these numbers for savings?

• Bookstore:  $156.94 – New plus shipping
• Amazon: $131.99 – Used plus shipping
• Chegg: $46.37 – New free shipping

Which deal do you think that I took?  I was able to take advantage of the free shipping by using a coupon code that I had which means this experience will give me free shipping coming and going.  Lets have a bit of a reality check before I go on about Chegg.com.  I do not believe that they will have every book that I need nor do I think that I will quit going to the others all together, but having a resource that I have the choice of keeping a book for 60 days, a quarter, or a semester then returning it is attractive to me.  It is better than spending hundreds of dollars on a book that I now own, but has very little resale value.

Additional features on the website include tracking your order, returning books, and selling books.  The selling section is broken into two parts.  You can receive cash for your books or Chegg.com credit.  The only condition is that it not be a teacher or international copy of the book.  In cases like that they consider it a donation but still plant a tree for you.

I strongly recommend adding Chegg.com to your list of resources to find text books.  According to the tracking system I should receive my book at the latest 9/10/2009.  I of course will report about the entire process and be on the lookout for additional savings.