Feared that it would go to imminent extinction college textbooks now could well be saved with a new technique: renting.

Online retailers have been one of stiff competitors of brick and mortar college bookstores. Due to the popularity of tablets and ebooks, students are starting to abandon the use of traditional school textbooks and and would rather use the digital format to free them with weight for using a paper-based book.

BookGator.com advocates the use of digital books but also offers new ways for students to buy, sell, or rent college textbooks online.

Many large publishing corporations and bookstores are now devising plans to make buying and selling of textbooks easier and affordable for students. They now see that renting is one of the key ways to help students cope with the rising cost of coursebooks in schools.

The National Association of College Stores (NACS) says that textbooks, especially the large ones, usually costs more than a $100. With college textbook rental becoming a norm, students students now are able to have the textbook 33% to 55% less of the book’s actual price which translates to huge saving for college students.

The overall savings is estimated to being $300 million for 2012. in 1998, students spend $702 on average in buying their textbook necessities, this year it’s not as much at $655.

NACS will soon start offering in-store rentals so that students can rent college textbooks in all of its 3,000 members nationwide. The number has increased since 2009 with only 300 stalls only allowing in-store rentals.

Students often get discouraged in buying textbooks due to the initial cost associated with them. Imagine buying a $100 worth of textbook only to get around 10%-20% at the end of the semester during buyback season. Jeff Cohen, a textbook analyst, said that renting is seen as cost-efficient among college students because they feel that they’re getting more value than buying new one and sell them at a far lesser price at the end of the semester.

Image by otherthings