If you are a tech-savvy college student, then this is some news that will make you smile: textbooks are now being offered on Amazon’s Kindle and they are cheaper than the paper versions of the books.

Amazon recently announced plans to offer several textbooks on their popular e-reader tablet, the Kindle. As of July 24, 2011, Amazon has 29,342 textbooks available for instant purchase and download on the Kindle. Some of the more popular books that are currently available including Washington’s Crossing (Pivotal Moments in American History), Attachment in Psychotherapy, and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave Written by Himself.

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Although nobody likes the financial strain of buying textbooks, I think it is fair to say that most of us like selling our books at the end of the semester, especially when you have a book that sells back for a good price.

However, it can be hard to know which bookstore or website will give you the best price for your textbooks. There are many options available for your selling pleasures, but here are the best places to score the highest buy-back price.

1.    Half.com. This website specializes in selling many forms of media, including books, music, movies, and games. They also specialize in helping you sell your textbooks. Half.com does not buy your textbooks directly, but they do enable you to sell your textbooks to more than 100 million viewers. This is awesome because you are very likely to find someone, somewhere who will want to buy your used textbooks.

2.    Amazon.com. Like Half.com, Amazon allows you to place your textbook in their marketplace and sell to millions of people around the world. Another benefit of Amazon.com is that this website will even buy your books from you.

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You’ve paid the tuition bill, so what’s next? Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, guys, but if you haven’t figured it out already, it doesn’t end there. There are hidden expenditures that come with college and, no, I’m not talking about keg rentals or midnight Starbucks runs.

Here’s a list of unexpected, but unavoidable, college expenses and ways to save on them:

Textbooks: Plan on spending $1,000 or more on textbooks if you purchase them in the college bookstore. Check out Craigslist.com, Amazon.com and Ebay.com for new or used books. Check out Chegg.com for rental books. You can also purchase electronic versions of textbooks which can be half the cost of a printed version.

Electronics: You’ve got to have a computer and an alarm clock, right? It’s estimated that students spend almost $750 on these kinds of gadgets. But do you really need all of them? Things like iPods, game consoles and digital cameras are nice to have but you can live without them. Before you decide which electronics to buy, pick ones that you know you will use the most. Check out pawn shops and Craigslist.com to find deals on used electronics. Read the rest of this entry »