Okay, my books for this semester cost 700 dollars...

This is getting ridiculous. I pay 50-200 dollars for a book and then I sell it back for 5-10% the original cost.

I spent about 1200 dollars on books last year and got back 80.


How in the world could anyone think that these prices are affordable?



On Edit: Forgot to mention that the 700 dollars is for USED books. It's closer to 800 for brand new books.

Same principle.

not just for 4 months.

Most of the books I need are not easily available for some reason. I only found 3 or 4 online.

damn caps lock.
This is the ever=present scam of higher education.
Your best best is to try to buy books from other students from last semester's course.
That aside it's just a scam IMHO.
And of course there are very few E-books of college material out there. possibly because they're a bitch to scan, considering that the professors are C O N S T A N T L Y changing books or 'updating' or some bullshit like that.

Generally I would try to talk to hte professor before class and ask him/her what books i ACTUALLY have to have, and would the previous revision (usually DIRT cheap) suffice.

This worked about half the time, and I could save myself a couple hundred a year (yes even in 94 it was that fucking expensive) from NOT buying books.

I personally love old text books. There are often interesting things written in them. in fact that's how I decide which (if there's a selection) used book i buy hee hee :) (talk about the half-blood prince)

half what they were spring semester.

He's a German major. Are you buying science texts?

On edit: One of his German classes had no required texts at the student store. I suspect
they'll be downloading info from the internet. I guess I better put the savings into a separate
account to help fund his study abroad semester next year!

It's 18 credit hours worth of books.

But even when I was a single major last year, my books still ran over 500 dollars.

Thanks for the help :pals:

that you plan on taking next semester and see if you can work out some deals directly with them. Giving them 50% of the price would be a win-win for both of you. I would guess that you have an idea of what you will be taking next semester so check out where those classes might be meeting or whatever you need to do to contact some of the students, but do so now. Can't fix what has happened, but you can take steps to improve the situation for yourself and perhaps someone else.

I've never thought about working out a deal before hand. Usually I'm searching for sellers after the semester is over.

Thanks.

but with a little planning you might come out a bit better. It might not work out 100%, but even if you only save on one book or class, you are ahead of the game by that much.

And my charge to you for what might be a really good idea, is to pass it on to some of your friends and them to their friends so that maybe you can help one another.


Good Luck, study hard, get a high paying job (because I need you to help pay for my Social Security) !

for people to contact each other directly for this purpose and cut out the middleman--well, might
be another multi-million dollar idea.

for one university, but he did alright for himself and helped pay for his own college education.

Then you're screwed.

the price goes up, but nothing else changes.

My daughter used to go to the library and use the copies there for some of her classes.

I remember my sister telling me that they wouldn't let her see them. they don't want you to be able to go online and get them or anything. It's such a racket!! They will list things as required on the list when they aren't, but you aren't going to know that because you get your books before school starts. They LOVE to pull that. My sister said the teacher told them it wasn't required AFTER she had bought the book.... me thinks the bookstore has a reason to tell you it's required!! And then they'll issue a "new" version, which is the same version with the chapters moved around. There ought to be a law!! Then when they buy them back for like $5... they turn around and sell it again to make a big profit.... I don't understand how they get away with it. IT's ridiculous!

I've been able to score some pretty good deals going to half.com, powells.com and occasionally Barnes and Noble's online used books. I'm a grad student, so it's not unusual to read 5 or more books per class I take. Mind you, it's rare we use actual textbooks in my grad program, but even those can be a lot cheaper online.

700 bucks for books is insane.

ETA: Oops, should have read the thread first. You already checked half. Do keep Powells in mind, though. They're both huge and reliable.

But it would still cost about 650 bucks to buy them online. Most of the books I need aren't available at the sites I have searched.

Unfortunately, there is no buying it used it comes with software (which won't be any good after April 15th) One is a brand new book which I won't be able to get used either (available for preorder through Amazon though). And another must be new because when I type in the ibsn number (which I did get from the school bookstore) it never shows up. I'll probably be hitting close to 500 bucks for books.

And they're not even hard cover these days. You used to get a hard covered book. Now, it's a bloody paperback but the cost hasn't come down.

:grr:

I have a kid going off to school in about two weeks. Better to get the sticker shock now, rather than in the middle of a crowded bookstore. I was thinking she'd get off in the neighborhood of $500, but now I'm not so sure.

Back in the day (early '80s) I think my textbook bill per semester was perhaps $150. And I always made a point to buy new, because I could not stand marked-up texts.

Textbooks are one hell of a lucrative racket because those in charge know they have a captive audience where market forces don't apply. Spend $200 and get maybe $20 for it at the end of the term -- that's just bullshit.

I'm buying books for 18 credit hours worth of class (2 different majors). So I'm a little above average price wise.


I'd say it will probably cost 500 dollars for books for your kid. But it could be a little more or a little less.

She's talked about doing that but old mom here is leery of the new-fangled technology.

Can you get better deals through, say, Amazon than you can at the bookstore?

That's assuming you can find the books online. You need to get the ISBN from each book and look it up. My friends save a ton of money doing that.

It's perfectly safe.

I have never bought books online ( I will be doing it for a few books this semester). However, most of my friends do it.

I took a French class last year at a local community college just for the hell of it, and the books cost almost as much as the credit hours.

while new ones would cost the person $800.00. Unfortunately, it's not the student who benefits.

Iimagine a used textbook in good condition will go thru the hands of many students who pay top price for it. I doubt the publisher and author(s) get that money so it must be the college or university that pockets that extra cash.

one the bookstores had for $68 used.

He uses digitized "primary sources" and makes all of his course material available online on the course website. He students love him for it. It wasn't so long ago that he was a graduate student and so he still remembers those shocking bookstore receipts.

I know this might not work for every class, but it would be nice to see more educators go "bookless"-- better for the environment too.

Go to a large public library, take the book out for the entire semester, and pay the late fee at the end.

I bought a used math book when I was in college. It was a 2nd edition, the class was supposed to be using the 3rd - which was not specified anywhere in the requirements.... f-ed me up ROYALLY for about 2 weeks.

That's another thing that pissed me - they likely change on purpose to force you to buy new. BIG problem when the exercises at the end of the chapter change and you're working (and turning in) the wrong problems.

First class, $30.
Second class, $52.

I like to keep the cost down for the kiddies.