Students find textbook bargains around town

The holidays may leave students with little money and concerns about how to pay for textbooks for the spring semester, but there are some alternatives to the UTC bookstore and Chattanooga Books. Several online sites offer textbooks at reduced prices as well as produce a comparative list of prices. Students said they have had success with this way of buying books.

"I have bought my books online for the last three semesters," Kate Creason, a Chattanooga senior said. "I have saved a lot of money and even made money when I sold them back to the bookstore."

Creason said she shops on various Web sites including Amazon.com, Ebay.com and cheapesttextbooks.com.

Another place to find inexpensive books is a used bookstore.

Chattanooga has two large used bookstores that are easily accessible from UTC's campus.

McKay's, a used bookstore that carries everything from books to CD's, is located at 6435 Lee Hwy. This store buys, sells and trades books.

Dawnia Powers, manager of McKay's, said, "McKay's does get a lot of textbooks. The textbooks are mostly old editions, but we do get some current editions too."

Powers said the UTC bookstore pays more for textbooks when students sell them, so more students sell back to the bookstore than to McKay's.

"Lots of students bring their reading lists for class," Powers said. "McKay's has lots of grammar, research and fiction books."

The biggest appeal of McKay's for students might be trading their old stuff like books, CDs, video games, computer games, DVDs, videos and books on tape for new stuff, according to Powers.The store also offers cash instead of in-store credit.

Located at 3905 Hixson Pike near the Arby's, Grumpy's also sells used books, CDs and video games.

According to Grumpy's personnel, a lot of students come in with their reading lists and there is a separate section for books that are common to reading lists.

Whether shopping online or around town, inexpensive books are available if students are willing to hunt for them.

Creason said: "Get the ISP numbers and the books' authors and titles before you go looking for used books. Also, make sure you know the edition of the book you need."