Moms, how many of you actually kept and use most of your college textbooks?  There may be one or two that are useful for reference after-the-fact, but most people don’t ever use most of their textbooks once the classes are complete.  But they’re so expensive!  Hundreds of dollars is an awful lot to pay for something you’re going to use for a few months and then never look at again!

So as your own kids are looking at the start of their college years, instead of buying, why not rent their textbooks?  Campus Book Rentals is one of the oldest (perhaps the oldest) textbook rental service out there.

This one might not be the best example, because this is a great reference book that many people keep, but the Netter Atlas of Human Anatomy is only $53 to rent for an entire semester, while it’s more than $72 if you buy it on Amazon.  Many textbooks aren’t available on Amazon (whose prices are, of course, usually better than list prices) because they’re somewhat obscure.  In that case, you may be able to save even more.  The process is very simple, as you can see in the following short video.

And every time you rent a book, a portion of the proceeds is donated to Operation Smile, which funds cleft palate surgeries for children who need them.

You can highlight and take notes in these textbooks just as you would in any other.  So is there any reason not to choose rental (unless, of course, it’s a book you plan to keep/use)?