RentBack

I miss alot of things about college.

The lack of responsibilities, getting to sleep in, and my waistline being a few. But something I don't miss? Paying for textbooks. 

I work on a college campus, and I feel so awful for these students who barely have two dimes to rub together, and yet can spend up to $350 per book for a class that is 14 weeks. Especially if the professor doesn't even use it.

In May, Jon will graduate with his MBA, which also means that we'll get a 16 year hiatus from paying for textbooks. But for now, we're going with our old standby, Campus Book Rentals. They are literally always the least expensive option for us. It will usually run us $50 per book for the semester as opposed to paying $250 to own a book that will collect dust on our bookshelves.

CBR is now offering a new service called RentBack. So, let's say you do end up purchasing a book (and ironically, that you probably only use exactly twice). Well, you can just give it to Campus Book Rentals and they'll rent it for you, FOR FREE, and then pay you everytime someone rents it from them. Seriously, could it get any easier? Why oh why didn't this exist when I was in college?!? That's money I could have spent on more important things, such as Chipotle and chandelier earrings (which were all the rage circa 2004). 

Here, take 54 seconds and watch this awesome video. They help explain a) Why the textbook industry is so crappy inefficient and expensive and b) What they are doing to fix it. 

So even if you're not in school, go on over to that bookshelf, wipe off the dust, and type the ISBN into RentBack. You never know when some poor college student will be paying you to rent your book that you thought you'd never use again.