Welcome to one of the best shopportunities of the year, the time when post-holiday and end-of-year sales promise the biggest bargains available and many retailers hurry to make sales before the January 31 end of the fiscal year. Whether it’s technology and gadgets, clothing and accessories, home furnishings, or media such as music and movies, now is undoubtedly the time to buy!

And textbooks are no different. In fact, there have never been more academic books available (in both quantity and format) at better prices. The market is wide open and it’s rife with amazing savings for those savvy student shoppers who buy early. But by the same token, there’s also more demand and more competition for those deals, so in order to capitalize on them, you must act quickly.

Right now, the days just after Christmas and immediately before and after New Year’s Day, are some of the busiest days in the textbook business for all of the reasons stated above, and of course, with the spring term starting later this month. Money-saving used books are the most desirable commodity and the first to go flying off the shelves. If you’re waiting until you go back to school in hopes of striking bargains at the campus bookstore, you’ll be too late.

The good news is that CampusBooks.com offers students access to the most merchants who stock the greatest number of cheap used textbooks as well as new books on sale, eco-friendly inexpensive textbook rentals, and instantly downloadable eBooks. It’s all here for you right now and all you have to do is search for the books you need and you’ll see the best deals and be able to take advantage of them all without even setting foot in a jam-packed bookstore during rush.

The bad news is that every day that you wait to order your books for the upcoming term means a smaller selection from which to choose and the best deals having already gone to students who shopped earlier. So what can you do to boost your chances of getting the best deals? Well, first and foremost, if you know the books that you need for the upcoming term, order them now. If you don’t know which books you need, send a polite email to your professors asking for the ISBNs, titles, and authors for the texts you’ll be using. Professors are aware that textbooks are pricey and they want you to do well in their courses, which means doing the reading. A polite and appreciative email should be well received, and of course, as soon as you get the necessary information, find the absolute best deals using the CampusBooks.com price-comparison tool. You’ll feel great going into a new year and a new semester knowing that you saved big on your college textbooks.

Recently we announced the first release of iBookStore, our free price-comparison app for iPhone and iPod Touch. From day one, we knew that development would be an ongoing labor of love, one that would see all sorts of cool enhancements that best served students and book-lovers alike.

We’ve gotten a great response to iBookStore in its young stages, and we thank everyone who has downloaded it, used it to save money on books, rated it, and provided feedback (please keep all of those things coming). As we mentioned when we introduced the app, we are committed to staying on the cutting edge and delivering the new features that make iBookStore a must-have app for finding the best deals on books . . .

. . . Which brings us to the next wave of big news about iBookStore: Now (and just in time for the end of the term), in addition to finding the best deals for buying books, the app finds the best deals for selling books back! It’s super easy, simply punch in the ISBN of your book and you’ll see both buying and selling options, all from your phone wherever you are. It’s real-time information that brings you the most for your money whether you are buying or selling.

So, if you’re a college student, make sure that you have the latest release of iBookStore loaded on your iPhone so that you can avoid waiting in long buyback lines at the campus bookstore only to find that they’re paying next to nothing for your books. And if you’re a reader looking to declutter and put old books into circulation and bring in some holiday cash, iBookStore is perfect for you as well.

–Lena

Two big announcements coming at you in this installment of the CampusBooks.com Blog, and the good news is related so get ready to double up, especially if you love technology like we do.

First off, we’ve added an iPhone app to our suite of beyond-the-website offerings. So now, in addition to the iGoogle Gadget and the Twitter Price Tweetbacks, you can also get real-time price comparisons (and so much more book info) via iBookStore, our free app for iPhone and iPod Touch. It’s awesome and puts the power to save big on books in your hands wherever you are.

We released the app recently and we’ve already rolled out an updated-and-revised version. That’s the nature of technology, right? Capabilities increase, expectations escalate, and everything Internet-driven needs to grow and change not just with the times but often ahead of them and in anticipation of them.

And that brings us to our second bit of news wherein we announce a design contest for the iBookStore app in anticipation of upcoming releases! Yep, if you’re a graphic designer, here’s your chance to win some cash, hone your skills in the hot iPhone-app arena, and add to your portfolio!

So, that’s our two announcements for now. If you’re not a designer, but you’re a book person who loves your savings (and your iPhone), download the iBookStore app to see how much you can save (and to play around with award-winners, bestsellers, lists, and other fun features). There’s a lot of cool content there, and as I wrote, we’re already working on updates and enhancements. If you are a designer, definitely check out the contest and submit your work. We want to see you get creative, so don’t be afraid to be bold and daring!

After reviewing more than 400 written essays and videos submitted for the CampusBooks.com Being Green 2009 Textbook Scholarship, we and our friends at Beans for Books are pleased to announce the winners! First off, thanks to everyone who entered, we got some terrific submissions and we wish that we could award more prizes. We have more scholarships in the works as well as some awesome contests, including one having to do with our newly released iPhone app, iBookStore! You definitely want to stay in the loop, so if you haven’t already, friend CampusBooks.com on Facebook and follow us on Twitter so you’ll never miss the prizes and savings and info relevant to college students. Now to the winners, drum roll, please . . .

CampusBooks.com Being Green 2009 Textbook Scholarship

Grand Prize for Outstanding Essay and a Textbook Scholarship in the Amount of $500: John K., pursuing his Master’s in Architecture at the University of Maryland

Three Runners-Up for Honorable Mention Essays and Textbook Scholarships in the Amount of $100 Each to:

–Shayla S., pursuing her Master’s in Law and Accounting at the University of New Mexico

–Julie H., pursuing her Master’s in Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

–Danielle M., pursuing her Master’s in Social Work at the University of Michigan

One Randomly Selected Winner of a Kindle DX: Josh H., pursuing his degree in Entrepreneurship & Small Business Management at Mt. Hood Community College

Congratulations to our winners and thanks to all who entered! We’ll soon be posting John’s winning essay on what Being Green means to him.

Back-to-school time is always fun around here. We pretty much work at a frenzied pace, doing absolutely anything and everything that we can to connect the most students and parents with the most money-saving books in all sorts of formats and editions. It’s long days and all hands on deck for this seasonal rollercoaster called college rush.

One of the fun parts of my job (and an increasingly large one as the subject of textbook costs gets more attention every fall) is interacting with the media, business contacts, and customers. Often it’s through these interactions and relationships that I learn how different types of CampusBooks.com users experience our website and the online textbook-buying process in general. These grassroots interactions, particularly during rush, are essential to understanding firsthand the user experience and using the information that allows us to constantly improve our service.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of conversing with Donna Gundle-Krieg, A National Education Examiner for Examier.com located in Detroit, MI. In covering her education beat, Donna, who was familiar with our site and had recommended it in one of her prior articles, had come across our announcement about Price Tweetbacks. In the course of our conversation, Donna told me about her experiences with buying textbooks over the years. We spoke in particular about a frustration she had encountered this summer when buying textbooks for her daughter. And now that rush has settled down a bit, I wanted to share it with you as Donna is not alone in her frustration and she and I both want to pass on, to the benefit of others, what we learned and the outcome.

In short, Donna searched for a book online via the best method: she searched by ISBN. When the book arrived, she noticed that the book had the right title and author, but it was marked “Teacher’s Edition” and the ISBN was different than the one she ordered. This was not the book Donna and her daughter needed, but when they tried to return it to the seller from whom they purchased it, they were told by that seller that the book, while clearly not the correct ISBN, was identified as the teacher’s edition in the Seller Comments found when the user mouses over the Details box on our site.

CampusBooks.com went to bat for Donna and made sure that the seller refunded her and that she and her daughter got the right book. But what happened? I mean, operating a search engine and price-comparison tool, don’t we tell students that using the ISBN is the best way to locate the books they need? Well, yes, and that’s absolutely true; it’s the golden info source of all data and identification in the book business! Unfortunately, some merchants assume that variations of a title (teachers’ editions, annotated editions, international books, etc.) are all the same and list them all under a primary ISBN. The seller will then add a brief note in the Seller Comments portion of the Details stating what is different.

Let me state clearly that at CampusBooks.com, we do not encourage or condone this practice. It makes things confusing for students and difficult for us, and it’s just plain misleading for everyone. Not cool. So we went into a huddle and thought up a solution for ISBN-driven searches where some sellers are working around the ISBN (Did I mention that this isn’t cool? Right.) So, we updated our filters to move all these types of potentially problematic books (the teachers’ editions, annotated editions, international books, etc.) into our International Editions category as we work on a better way to display the information. We also continually run quality-assurance checks on the merchants who appear in our search results in order to make sure that they comply with our policies and represent their products honestly.

And we rely on you, students and parents, to let us know when you encounter something that seems like it should be different or could be better. In the meantime — actually, always and with everything that concerns your money and how you spend it — we recommend that before making a purchase, you read the Details and Comments on each item. Isn’t getting what you want, what you need, and what you pay for worth taking that extra few seconds to make sure that everything gels? We think so.

Should you run into a snag and not get the book you ordered, take a moment to check your confirmation emails from the merchant to make sure that you placed your order correctly and that what shipped was a different item. If so, contact the merchant who fulfilled your order directly. In almost every case, the seller should take back the book with a full refund (and no restocking fee) if the error was theirs (i.e., they sell and ship you a book that is different from what you ordered and what they represented). If the individual seller is not cooperating to rectify the situation and you purchased the item via a larger website marketplace such as Amazon or Alibris, contact the website directly and explain what happened so that they can help you get what you need and make sure that the seller meets his/her responsibilities. And of course, if you’re like Donna and you run into a data issue or have a suggestion about how to curtail confusion on the CampusBooks.com website, please contact us.

Hey, watch what über-geek extraordinaire Chris Pirillo has to say about buying textbooks and check out the full story on his site.

If you haven’t ordered your books yet, wait no longer as the cheap used books are the first to go! The longer you wait, the less you save. And hey, don’t forget to save your receipts from your textbook and supply purchases so you can get some money back come tax time!

Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

At CampusBooks.com, we don’t sell or buy textbooks; our business is that of providing the information and resources that students can use to make the best choices possible when it comes to saving money in their pursuits of higher education. We believe that students have options and that presented with all available information, they will make choices that are personally and globally responsible and savvy.

In this installment of the blog, we’re taking time out to make sure that you’re up to speed on the important and beneficial changes to the Hope and Lifetime Learning Credits portion of the 2009 and 2010 tax code. This information could mean up to $2,500 in tax credits for college students and their families. We urge you to do a few easy things to make sure that you are not only saving the most money now but getting the most money back come tax time.

1. Visit TextbookAid.org to find out the full details of the American Opportunity Tax Credit. If your parents or anyone else is involved in paying for your education, share this information with them (and anyone else who could claim you as a dependent come tax time).
2. Understand that textbook purchases now qualify as expenses under the program, but to get credit for them, you must save your receipts and keep a record of your qualified spending. The IRS has expanded the definition of qualified spending to include “expenditures for ‘course materials.’ For this purpose, the term ‘course materials’ means books, supplies, and equipment needed for a course of study whether or not the materials are purchased from the educational institution as a condition of enrollment or attendance.”
3. If you haven’t already started buying your books, do so now (and file your receipts in an organized fashion). The sooner you do, the greater your chances of getting cheaper used books and first dibs on rentals. Yes, a credit come tax time is great, but savings now is imperative.

The tax-code changes are great news and we hope that you and your families will take advantage of this wonderful way in which the government is alleviating some of the high costs of furthering one’s education.

–Lena

If you haven’t noticed (or you’re trying really hard not to), August is right around the corner, and with August comes the end of summer break and time to get into serious mode. With back-to-school on the horizon and the economy still in a rough patch, no one can afford to pass up the chance for some financial aid or a stimulus package. That said, CampusBooks.com and our friends at Beans for Books have teamed up for the Being Green Scholarship wherein we’re giving away a semester’s worth of textbooks as well as other textbook scholarships and a Kindle Digital Reader!

Now, you may have heard us mention all of this before. But, well, maybe that was when we kicked off the scholarship on Earth Day way back in April, and you thought, “Hey, I have plenty of time to enter, no hurry.” And then maybe you heard us mention it again but thought, “Cool, I really gotta get around to that, but I’m on summer break and I’ve got until the end of July to enter.” Right, makes sense, but now it is the end of July and there are just a few more days left to enter. So wait no longer lest you pass up this opportunity.

Applying for the Being Green Textbook Scholarship is low stress with a potential for high payoff. The bottom line is simple: Students have a chance to save some big green on textbooks by expressing (via essay or video) what being green means to them. The grand-prize winner will receive a semester’s worth of textbooks (up to $500) and three runners-up will each receive $100 worth of textbooks. One random entrant will win a Kindle Digital Reader. But as I said, time is running out and entries must be received by midnight PST on July 31, 2009 (yeah, that’s Friday, this Friday).

Winners will be selected by our friends at Beans for Books by 09/30/09 and notified by 10/15/09. All books for the winners will be acquired by Beans for Books and an emphasis will be placed on acquiring money-saving environmentally responsible used textbooks and eBooks whenever available. Entering is totally east and completely worth it. I mean, who couldn’t use some green to help pay for their books for an upcoming term? Exactly. So that said, enter now before it’s too late.

In the midst of summer (but mindful of the new fall term quickly approaching), the last thing we want is for anyone to be tethered to a computer and spending more time on indoor errands than outside enjoying the sun and friends and family. To help you get the info you need and keep you on the go and free to enjoy the weather and the good times, we’ve cranked out some technology to help you get real-time textbook price quotes on the fly.

In addition to our regular site-based search right here at CampusBooks.com, we’ve rolled out an iGoogle Gadget and Real-Time Price Tweetbacks. Check ’em out, load ’em up, and get acquainted so that you can get real-time price quotes without being shackled to a desk. And remember that the earlier you get your ISBN information and order your books, the more cash you’ll save and the more eco-friendly used books you’ll get. That said, make your price checks and orders quick, easy, and mobile by adding these two convenient apps:

For your laptop or smartphone with browser, add the CampusBooks.com iGoogle Gadget. Cool, now you’re always just a click away from the latest info on the best textbook deals.

For Tweeps who prefer information via text/SMS (standard carrier rates apply), you can set up Price Tweetbacks in a few easy steps:

1. Follow CampusBooks on Twitter and send a text message to Twitter at 40404 w/the following: “Follow CampusBooks” (a one-time setup).
2. Once confirmed and activated, send CampusBooks a direct message via the Web or text Twitter (40404) with the following: “D CampusBooks ISBN” (both ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 are supported).
3. CampusBooks.com will respond with the lowest price and a link to purchase the book then and there.

–Lena

In the latest installment of our Bookmark These blog series, we give a shout out to the wonderful resource that is GreenStudentU. Here’s the scoop:

GreenStudentU

URL: http://www.GreenStudentU.com

The Deal in a Nutshell: GreenStudentU understands that the environment is the social cause of greatest importance to today’s college students. That’s why they’ve created a great-looking site that informs and educates students of all interest and knowledge levels. From dorm recycler to off-campus composter to young policy wonk championing change, GreenStudentU has something for you.

About: “Green Student University offers valuable green information and stays up to date with the latest green topics to teach college students about sustainable living practices and worldwide green events. College students are an important audience because the habits and world views that they establish today will provide them with the tools they need for their futures. By informing students of up-to-date ecological concerns and providing the advice they need to tackle these concerns, GreenStudentU will help advance the green movement for both current and future generations.”

What You’ll Find on the Site: A comprehensive green guide on a wide variety of environmental topics that include:

• Eco-Lifestyle
• Stories & Successes
• Our World Today
• Green Campus
• Encyclopedia

Why We Dig It: Being green is of tremendous importance to everyone at CampusBooks.com and we’re always on the lookout for cool sites that offer resources all wrapped up in a sweet user experience. GreenStudentU does just that. We learn something every time we visit the site because of the great updated content and we admire the look and feel in terms of the site’s form. And hey, it’s all in the name of a cause that we care about and are involved with. Speaking of, if you haven’t already done so, check out our Being Green Scholarship where you could win a semester’s worth of textbooks.

Bonus Bit o’ Cool: Need to take a break and switch gears from physics to something that uses your brain in a different way? Pop over to GreenStudentU and work your vocabulary muscles and help feed the hungry by making a rice donation for every correct answer. A nice diversion that keeps students sharp and helps feed those in need.

–Lena