BooksRun Review: Pros, Cons, And Alternatives

BooksRun is a popular online textbook website that allows you to buy, sell, or rent textbooks.

It's common for college textbooks to cost hundreds of dollars each at campus bookstores. Yet when the end of the semester comes, the bookstore may tell you they aren't buying back those books.

Or they may offer to buy your used book but only at a fraction of the price you bought it for ($10 for a $150 book? No thanks.). No matter how you slice it, buying textbooks from a regular bookstore can be a hassle, and selling it back, even more so.

So what are the alternatives? BooksRun is a service that allows you to buy, sell or rent physical books and eTextbooks with less hassle and at incredible prices. Keep reading our full review to see if the service could save you time and money.

What Does BooksRun Offer?

BooksRun has a selection of 500,000 books that cover everything from law to philosophy to medicine. Here's the specifics of how their platform works. 

eTextbook Rentals

eTextbooks are an excellent learning tool if you have no interest in lugging heavy books around. Apart from this, eTextbooks cost 50-70% less than physical books and so you’ll save money.

On BooksRun, you can buy eTextbooks with one click and immediately have the access code to the textbook. This access code will allow you to download the book as a PDF or an EPUB.
You can use both of these eTextbook formats on your phone, tablet or computer even when you’re offline.

BooksRun also allows you to rent eTextbooks. In this case, you will have access to your electronic textbook for the duration of your class.

To search for a book (digital on physicial) on the website, all you need is the ISBN of the book (you can ask your professor for this if it wasn't included in your class syllabus), the title of the book, or the author.

Related: The Best College Textbook Rental Sites

Buy Or Rent Physical Textbooks

If you like you learn better from a physical book, you're not left out. Physical textbooks are available for purchase or rental on BooksRun as well.

Just like you did for eTextbooks, you will need to enter the ISBN, book title or author in the search box on BooksRun. Once you do that, the search will pull up different editions of the book you’re looking for and you can make a decision.

Returning your rented books on BooksRun is free. Twenty-five days after your rental order, there will be a return shipping label available on your BooksRun dashboard that you can print. Once you're done with your book, simply place it in an envelope with the return shipping label, mail it, and you’re done.

A word of caution here: It is absolutely important that you return your rented book by the BooksRun deadline. If you don’t, you will be charged $15 for the first 15 days your book is late. If you still have not returned the book at that point, BooksRun will charge you for the full price of the book.

Sell Your Books

It's easy to sell your used books on BooksRun. Again, you'll need to enter the ISBN or the title of the book(s) you want to sell (if you enter the title, make sure to choose the right edition).

BooksRun will have a free shipping label for you to send your book. You just need to print it and put it on your package. After they receive and process your book, they will send payment via check or PayPal.

Shipping And Returns

With BooksRun, you get free shipping on everything -- buybacks, purchases, and rentals. With the free standard shipping, books can take up to 10 business days to arrive. 

You can choose a $3.99 shipping order if you'd like to receive your books within 2-5 business days. But, unlike Amazon or other retailers, you don’t have to be a “premium member” to enjoy free shipping on your books.

BooksRun also offer free returns. If you accidentally bought the wrong book, you can send it back to BooksRun within 14 days and you will get a full refund. This doesn’t always happen with bigger sites. 

Customer Service

BooksRun has a bunch of different customer service options. They can be reached via LiveChat, phone, and email. Email inquiries are typically answered within 1-2 business days. Customers can also message via social media.

It also encourages customers to consult their FAQ list for answers to common questions.

Final Thoughts

With free standard shipping and returns, BooksRun is worthy of being one of the textbook websites that you visit when you're price shopping.

However, if you need fast shipping (less than 10 business days), you could save money by choosing a different seller. Amazon Prime Student members always get free 2-day shipping. And many large online sellers (including Amazon) offer free 2-day shipping for order sizes over a certain minimum (often $35 to $50).

Also, while BooksRun's 14-day refund policy is nice, other textbook sellers like Abebooks and Campus Books have even longer return windows. See how BooksRun compares by reading our big list of best places to buy college textbooks online.

BooksRun Features