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Commerce · December 5, 2012

BC

Book Cheaply - Don't buy textbooks you don't need (side project)

In short, Rate My Professor for books. http://www.bookcheaply.com/ As a college student I bought many textbooks that I never used. I could have saved significant amounts of money if I had some sort of website where I could find out if the book was necessary for my courses. Out of that frustration, Book Cheaply was born. I currently only have two schools, Grand Valley State University(GVSU) and Grand Rapids Community College(GRCC). I'm already starting to rank pretty high on Google for queries like: <instructor name> gvsu, or <instructor name> <some course> gvsu, which…

Book Cheaply - Don't buy textbooks you don't need (side project) launched on December 5, 2012 with 14 votes, #101 of 501 launches that month and more than 75% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 13 years on.

Visit bookcheaply.com ↗Alternativestop 20% of December 2012

In plain words

Book Cheaply is a website where college students can find reviews of textbooks for specific courses and instructors. It helps students determine whether assigned textbooks are actually necessary for their classes, potentially saving money on unnecessary purchases. The platform currently covers courses at Grand Valley State University and Grand Rapids Community College, functioning as a review system similar to RateMyProfessor but focused on textbook utility rather than instructor ratings.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

In the maker’s words, at launch

In short, Rate My Professor for books. http://www.bookcheaply.com/ As a college student I bought many textbooks that I never used. I could have saved significant amounts of money if I had some sort of website where I could find out if the book was necessary for my courses. Out of that frustration, Book Cheaply was…

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Source: Show HN post ↗ · launch text quoted in part

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