Last week, we launched CampusBooks’ new e-book search service, and with it,findings comparing the availability of the top 1000 textbooks at each of those e-book merchants (see what Mashable had to say about it, too). This week, we took it one step further, and compared what everyone actually cares about: pricing.

We compared prices for the top 1000 textbooks from CampusBooks’ rental, used, and new options, finding the average price. We also then found the prices from our seven e-book retailers. The results? Whether you pick e-books, old-school books, or both, if you don’t compare, it’s going to cost you.

Specifically, 92% of the time, used and rental textbooks were the best deal-but before you run out to rent your textbooks, keep in mind that these prices were already aggregated from our entire list of over 40 merchants on CampusBooks. Picking just one rental or used site won’t yield the same results.

And even if you went with just used or rental, you’d be missing out on the opportunity to save serious money the other 8% of the time. In one instance, a book was a whopping $50 cheaper as an e-book version.

Still, comparing just between e-book retailers proved that even in that realm, while CourseSmart dominated in availability, the best prices were spread across the board. The three retailers with the highest likelihood of having the cheapest option were: CourseSmart (32.6%), Kno using the exclusive coupon only on CampusBooks (29.4%), and Barnes & Noble  (26.5%).
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