College Books SUCK!

[jamesbond007]

[rant]

Ok, it's my first year at college and the 2nd semester is over. Time to sell back my books, right? Well, I bet I've paid ~$650 for books over the two semesters, which is nothing compared to a lot of my friends. I bring my books up to the register and they give me $90 for 4 books, one was a massive Science/nutrition book, 1 was a misc. reading book for a history class (small paperback novel) and two were training books, nothing big. Now I'm stuck with a fat econ book, a few more training books that they wouldn't take back because they have enough, 2 custom math books (Thompson Publishing SUCKS DONKEY NUTS!), 'outdated' english book, and a sociology book.

Now, the only one I would bother to keep is the Sociology book...what can I do with the rest? What do you guys do? How can colleges keep doing this? As far as I'm concerned, I may as well save them for when I graduate, shred them into confetti or something, and use them at a party...

[/rant]

 

Your rant sucks. Welcome to life.

 

[beach2nd]

ebay?

 

[Jumpem]

I've kept all my books. I never sold them back because of how little they give you.

But I really don't need them all. I'm probably going to toss all of the liberal arts and fluff books soon.

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: jumpr
Your rant sucks. Welcome to life.

So what did you do with your books? Or did you not go to college?

Originally posted by: beach2nd1
ebay?

eBay sounds possible, but on Amazon, my econ book goes for $4 new/used, $135 new. LOL! I would think I'd have a better chance reselling on Amazon, since that's where I'd go for a used book, but I guess it's worth a shot...

 

[Ramma2]

Some student group at my uni organized a student book sale at the end/beginning of each semester. You could bring your books there, sell them for what you wanted (much more than the book store) and buy books for next semester for much cheaper than the book store.

Maybe your college does it too, call the student center!

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: Ramma2
Some student group at my uni organized a student book sale at the end/beginning of each semester. You could bring your books there, sell them for what you wanted (much more than the book store) and buy books for next semester for much cheaper than the book store.

Maybe your college does it too, call the student center!

You know, I think we have one of these, too. I'll check it out, thanks!

 

[MrBond]

So what did you do with your books? Or did you not go to college?

Stop buying books at the bookstore. My college bookstore charged $3-5 OVER the MSRP on all books.

Next fall, before the semester starts, look at your schedule and email all your profs and ask what books they'll be using in their class.

Go to Half.com and buy the books. For classes where you'll only use the book one semester and never again (electives, etc), purchase the paperback international version. You can even do this for important text books, but if you're using them a lot, they won't hold up very well.

After the semester is over, list your books again on Half.com and sell them.

I took maybe a 10-15% loss on my books this way, as opposed to a 50% loss if I had bought/sold them at the book store. There was one book I sold for MORE than I paid, and a couple I sold for what I paid for them.

Edit: it's important you buy your books before the semester starts if you can help it. You have a better selection and stuff tends to ship faster. For example, I bought my last chemistry book two weeks before the semester started my last semester of college. Paid $70 for an almost new hardcover edition and had it in a week. After the semester started, my friends went to half.com to buy the book, they had to deal with the book being out of stock or paying more than I did, plus it was two weeks into the semester before they even got theirs. Some of them weren't able to get it through half.com and ended up paying the $150 the bookstore wanted.

 

[Jmman]

Sell them on Half.com. You will get 10 times the amount you will get from your school bookstore. I certainly hope you didn't buy them from them bookstore either. There are lots of book search engines that will search for the best price online to buy your book as well. I usualky pay about 40% of what my school bookstore wants for my books.....

 

[Jumpem]

Originally posted by: Jmman
Sell them on Half.com. You will get 10 times the amount you will get from your school bookstore. I certainly hope you didn't buy them from them bookstore either. There are lots of book search engines that will search for the best price online to buy your book as well. I usualky pay about 40% of what my school bookstore wants for my books.....

Online my books would only be a few dollars cheaper, or even more expensive than the bookstore.

 

[Jzero]

I quickly learned that I didn't need most of the books my professors claimed I would need at the start of the semester.

 

Originally posted by: jamesbond007

Originally posted by: jumpr
Your rant sucks. Welcome to life.

So what did you do with your books? Or did you not go to college?

Sell them on Amazon and Half.com for 75% of what I paid for them.

 

[jamesbond007]

MrBond and Jmman, thank you very much! I will definitely consider buying/selling here from now on!

I wonder if I'd get in trouble for sending out a mass-email from the listserv (sends to everyone on campus) to buy/sell on Half.com instead of using the bookstore.

And Jmman, yes, I bought them from the bookstore! I didn't know any better! I should have asked you guys first.

 

[mAdD INDIAN]

buy them from other countries.

Its the same book, just soft cover and with crappier paper & print. May not work out well for science/bio courses where lots of colour is involved but works great for engineering books.

I paid $25CDN (soft cover) for a book that costs $130CDN (hard cover with glossy paper) in Canada. It's from the same publisher and everything.

www.rseterminals.com is where i got it from

 

[Nitemare]

Welcome to the world of education kickbacks.

The book publishers share proceeds with the schools, so think of it as extra tuition....


Seriously though, buy and sell books on half.com and amazon.com

I normally go to the bookstore find the isbn of the book I will need and search for it here.

link

 

[misle]

I tried to sell one Power Electronics book back yesterday. They offered $8 for a book that I bought for $85. I'll sell it on Half for $40-50.

 

[Rudee]

That's what you get when you buy new books. When I was in University I bought used books whenever possible. That way when I sold them back, I pretty much got back what I paid for them. Unfortunately, some text books had to be purchased new as they were new material or new additions and that was hella expensive.

 

[jamesbond007]

<-- Happy now! Thanks guys! You freakin' rock! Who would have thought AT could help put money back INTO my pocket?!? (vs FS/FT/Hot Deals) I usually leave here with a skinnier wallet!

 

[SouthPaW1227]

Dude sell 'em on Amazon. I just sold my semester books back up there for about 75% of what I paid. Sold 'em within a week.

 

[Jmman]

Originally posted by: Nitemare
Welcome to the world of education kickbacks.

The book publishers share proceeds with the schools, so think of it as extra tuition....


Seriously though, buy and sell books on half.com and amazon.com

I normally go to the bookstore find the isbn of the book I will need and search for it here.

link

Exactly what I do. I go the bookstore, write down the ISBN, go home, and buy the book online....

 

[jamesbond007]

How do you guys find out what books you need so fast? I remember when I started last fall, some of the books weren't even available until after classes had already started. If you bought them online, did they come in a timely manner? (half.com)

I'm looking right now into my fall books and no one (teachers) has anything listed/posted for reading/book material.

EDIT, it seems they keep changing them out almost every year or two, tops. Makes it really hard to do.

 

[SouthPaW1227]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007
How do you guys find out what books you need so fast? I remember when I started last fall, some of the books weren't even available until after classes had already started. If you bought them online, did they come in a timely manner? (half.com)

I'm looking right now into my fall books and no one (teachers) has anything listed/posted for reading/book material.

EDIT, it seems they keep changing them out almost every year or two, tops. Makes it really hard to do.

My courses all have webpages w/ them seperated by teachers, and in the class facts section there's the book needed. I know like 2-3 months ahead of time, but we're a CSC/Engineering school so our online registration system/tracking system is top notch.

 

[GigaCluster]

My school's Student Government Association runs Online Book Exchange.

 

[Platypus]

You're lucky you got 90 back.

Don't mess with the bookstore, just buy them online.

 

[40Hands]

Originally posted by: Jzero
I quickly learned that I didn't need most of the books my professors claimed I would need at the start of the semester.

Yep, I started buying my books a few weeks after the classes actually started because I then learned what books we actually would need.

Oh and some publishers will keep releasing "revisions" of the books causing the last one to be obsolete in the minds of the bookstore/school. Most of these BS revisions are just fixing grammar errors and you can still get away with using the old version of the book.