How To Spend Less On College Textbooks

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I’m having some issues. My oldest child, my firstborn, my baby (ssh, I’m not supposed to call him that) is stating college in under two weeks. He attended orientation and registered for classes earlier this week. I know this is a good thing. But I know it’s the next step in my having to let go. Feeling clingy. Anyway.
Textbooks are just as ridiculously expensive now as they were two years ago when I went back to college. And they’re still just as important to have. More so, if you happen to have decided that after two years you’re going to continue on to go to college to the tune of almost $80k per year. We’ll need to save every penny we can, and that might as well start right now with college textbooks.
TJ is taking four classes, for which six books are required.
Here’s the bookstore prices.

I immediately took the list from the college bookstore website and entered the info on campusbookrentals.com.
Here’s the CampusBookRentals prices.

They didn’t carry one of the textbooks (it’s apparently made specially for my son’s college), and one other book we decided to purchase from the bookstore since he’ll use it again. That still left us with a pretty expensive list.
The English book cost $84 new at the college bookstore. To rent it from campusbookrentals.com it was $40.98.
The Sociology book cost $96 new at the college bookstore. To rent it from campusbookrentals.com it was $52.53.
The Survey Of Math book cost $198 new at the college bookstore. To rent it from campusbookrentals.com is $177.57.
There’s $100 in savings right there on three books!
Basically, renting textbooks makes sense. Some students may keep some textbooks, but I’d hazard a guess that many students never use most of their textbooks again after finishinig the course. So why spend the money and buy them?! Renting college textbooks makes sense if you have no plans to ever use that textbook again. Students can save 40-90% off of bookstore prices by renting their texts from CampusBookRentals. CampusBookRentals carries a HUGE selection of textbooks. All of the textbooks are US edition, meaning they’re the same textbooks you’d get from your college bookstore. Plus, CampusBookRentals offers free shipping both ways!
Perhaps you’re wondering how long you can have the rented text. As long as you need. Rental periods are flexible and you can even set your own return date.
In case you’re wondering, you can treat the rented textbook the same way you’d treat one you bought. (unless you’d disrespect it, in which case go spend the money.) Students are able to highlight in rented textbooks.
CampusBookRentals donates to Operation Smile with each textbook rented. Operation Smile is an organization that performs life changing cleft lip surgeries on children whose families could not otherwise afford it.
Here’s a brief video on how CampusBookRentals works.

Now about the one book we had to buy from the college bookstore. Guess what we are planning on doing with that? We’re planning on making money from it. RentBack is a fairly new program that allows students to rent the textbooks they own to other students. This service makes you the student money, on average it’s 2-4x more money compared to what you’d make through college bookstore buyback programs.
Here’s a brief video explaining how RentBack works.

If you or someone in your family is starting college this fall, or is already in college, CampusBookRentals is where you want to look when you’re shopping for college textbooks.
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Do you think college textbooks are justifiably expensive?