BookScouter is a book price comparison platform where you get the most up-to-date information on where to sell, buy, and rent used books at the best prices. It is also a tool that makes selling and buying processes simple and straightforward by quickly referring you to the best vendor.
In this guide, we’ll closely look at how you can use BookScouter to buy books and textbooks for your studies and search for the vendor with the best offer and the highest rating.
Search Options
To search for the vendors with the best Buy offers, use the BookScouter website:
Or you can install and use the ISBN / book barcode scanner app fom BookScouter (iOS or Android):
How to Buy a Book: Step-by-Step Guide
In this manual, we’ll guide you through the steps of finding the book you need with the help of BookScouter, finding the best vendor offers, comparing prices, vendor ratings, and other factors. For instance, if you are a college student searching for Airport Planning & Management, Seventh Edition by Seth Young and Alexander Wells, here is what you can do.
Search by ISBN
First of all, use search by ISBN (feel free to read our article to discover what is an ISBN). You find the book’s 10- or 13-digit ISBN and enter it in the BookScouter’s search field, then click Scout:
Check The Offers
After you’ve entered the 13-digit ISBN (for instance) for Airport Planning & Management, you are transferred to the product page, where you can see all the available offers from various vendors:
The best offer is displayed in the top right corner. For instance, eBay offers Airport Planning & Management at the best price (at the moment of taking the screenshot):
You can also click on the dropdown arrow next to the Buy button and see all the available offers for various conditions from the vendor: New or Used (Like New, Very Good, Good).
Tick The Checkboxes
If you are looking for new books, digital ebooks, or used paperbacks, you can tick the checkboxes in the top left corner of the list.
You can also check the best rental offers for Aircraft Control and Simulation: Dynamics, Controls Design, and Autonomous Systems, just in case:
Search by Title, Author Or Keyword
Search by the title or author also allows you to check the list of books relevant to the topic or the books written by the same author. For instance, you type in “Michael S. Nolan” and get the list of books written by this author:
If you know the title, you will get the exact match: for instance, Fundamentals of Air Traffic Control will be offered to you right away, and you can choose the clear edition you need:
If you don’t have any specific book in mind, typing in a keyword or a phrase will show you all books related to this topic. For instance, here is the list of books BookScouter will offer when you type in “Air traffic regulation.” To find the most appropriate title, sort them by relevance, title, author, or publishing date.
Helpful Features
There’re other features that you can find useful on the page, from a Watchlist to the option of setting a price alert and so much more.
Buy or Rent
If you want to compare what’s better, to buy or to rent, you can check this information from the Buy page by clicking on Rent this Book under the book information or on the Rent banner:
When you click on Rent, you’ll see all rental offers:
Low Price Summary
Low Price Summary displays the best price offer for used, new, and digital book you’re checking out, as well as the best rental offer for a semester. We’ve searched for the best prices for the ISBN you entered, and all you need to do now is to choose what’s suitable for you.
Transparent Shipping Expenses
Once you’ve checkers the best price offers, conveniently check the shipping costs — all in one place. The cheapest offers can have expensive shipping (rare, but it may happen), so you can choose the alternative.
Quick Info Links (Reviews, Find in Library)
If you need more information about the book, you can check Amazon and GoodReads reviews for this book by clicking on Reviews. Besides, clicking on Find in Library will take you to the relevant book page on WorldCat.
Sales Rank and Sellers Quantity
If you’re a professional book reseller and are flipping books for profit, you can benefit from the following features. To get information about Sales Rank, see the lowest price on Amazon and current sellers quantity, you need to log in to your account. If this is the first time you have used BookScouter, feel free to register to access the data.
Watchlist and Price Alerts
One more helpful feature you can use is Watchlist. If the book you’re looking for is too expensive at the moment, or if you’re planning to buy it later (e.g., you’ll need a specific textbook next semester), you can add it to your Watchlist and observe the price fluctuations. A maximum of 20 books can be added to Watchlist.
Also, you can set Price Alerts for the books you don’t want to buy at the moment and want to wait for a better price. It’s very convenient, as once the price matches your set price, we’ll send you a notification by email immediately (and you can buy the book at once).
Other Bindings
If a book is available in several formats, you can see it under the Format category: more formats. E.g., Astronomy: A Beginner’s Guide to the Universe is available in a paperback format:
It’s highly convenient when you need a book — whether hardcover or paperback — you need the best price. Moreover, you can buy an access code for your used book if you already have a book and need an access code. Here is where you can check it on BookScouter:
Buy Your Books in Two Steps
Step 1: Check the best price on BookScouter.com
Once you’ve checked an ISBN for the best offer, and decided to proceed with buying, click Buy on BookScouter:
Step 2: Proceed to the website of the bookseller who offers the best price
Now you are leaving the BookScouter website and will have all the transactions regarding An Introduction to Aircraft Thermal Management on the Textbookx website directly:
Best Buy Books Recommendations
Getting all new books takes work, especially if you need textbooks (which are always pricey, even used ones). Luckily, there is a way out: knowing the best places to buy used books in good condition at low prices.
BookScouter recommendations on how to buy used books, where to find textbooks for free, reviews of the best websites and online bookstores for students and book lovers can be found in the blog and tips sections. We strongly recommend checking the following articles:
- Why Buy Textbooks With BookScouter?
- Top 5 Websites to Buy Cheap Books in 2023
- What to Look for When Buying Your Textbooks
- 33 Websites to Get Free College Textbooks
The Bottom Line
BookScouter collects and compares book pricing data from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors; all the pricing information is updated in real-time.
We understand that buying books can be a challenge; this is especially the case with some costly textbooks. Therefore, with our work, we, first of all, strive to help you find the best offers and make sure you get the books you need with the best price-quality ratio. Our second goal is to streamline the process of finding books; therefore, we constantly update BookScouter’s features, adding something new and improving the existing ones.
We arrange all book offers, taking their shipping into account so that free offers are always displayed on top. We hope that you can refine your textbook buying strategy with the help of Watchlist and Price Alerts. In addition to buying, you can also sell back your books when you no longer need them, and earn money. Check the article on how to sell used books on Bookscouter as well. All in all, you can rely entirely on BookScouter when looking for affordable textbooks to buy, and best offers from buyback vendors to whom you can sell your books when you don’t need them anymore.
