Money College: Avoid high bookstore prices, buy textbooks online

College bookstores overprice everything from a bottle of water to that embroidered hoodie. While it may seem the most convenient place to grab the reads you need, it will leave a serious dent in your wallet. Online retailers offer more than reasonable textbook options delivered to your doorstep. Here's a Money College survey of some places worthy of your textbook dollar.

Amazon.com
At this point, Amazon hawks pretty much everything from organic foods to digital downloads. In addition, it's created a painless online marketplace to buy and sell books. Type in the name and author in the search box to browse new and used books. Prices are based on the number of editions floating around the site, but books have been known to show up for as a little as a penny. Standard shipping runs for $3.99, but the time it takes for a book to arrive depends on the distance between you and the individual seller. If you apply to become a member of Amazon Prime, you can get a full month of free unlimited two-day shipping on all orders. But make sure you cancel it before your trial ends; it's $79 for the year. Minus the Amazon fees, the selling process is pretty satisfying, too -- funds are transferred straight to your bank account.