It Pays to Shop Around

By Rachel Z. Arndt

It Pays to Shop Around

Among other start-of-the-school-year jitters, angst over textbook prices is a big one, and getting bigger. And rightfully so: Prices are increasing at twice the rate of inflation, and more and more retailers are claiming to offer students the best deals out there. Navigating the market is no easy task.

BusinessWeek has done the heavy lifting to find prices at some of the Web's most popular retailers for commonly-assigned undergraduate textbooks at the nation's top business schools. And there are plenty of surprises—who would have thought, for instance, that a new book could be cheaper than than its used counterpart, and that prices for the same new book could range from $25 to north of $150?

As the following slide show demonstrates, making smart book purchases these days takes more than just snapping up the first used copy you can get your hands on.

Note: BusinessWeek asked several B-schools—including the University of Notre Dame and the University of Missouri—for lists of textbooks assigned in required undergraduate business classes. Retail prices shown are those offered for new books at the bookstores on those campuses. For books not available in campus bookstores, list prices are shown. Web prices shown were the lowest available on Aug. 14. Prices were obtained from Booksprice.com and the Web sites of individual retailers. Several books were published by McGraw-Hill, the parent company of BusinessWeek.