paging College students!

your favorite weapon

hello college/university friends

i'm looking for your text book shopping experiences.

buy a book used? new?

ever sell it back? to the bookstore? a kid?

which was more profitable (well better reimbursing i suppose), and which was less hassle?

inquiring minds want to know. oh, and dollar figure approximations are also helpful.

kindly PM me and take part in my book store survey. puh-leeeeease.

thumbs up

Member

As an undergrad I was forced to buy my books from the college bookstore at ridiculous prices. When you could sell them back they gave you pennies on the dollar, so it was better to sell them or swap them with friends.

Now I buy all the books I can from half.com. It takes a while sometimes so the first few weeks you're "bookless", but you save a sh!tload of cash. If you know what classes you're taking well in advance, the professor might give you a booklist earlier so you can alleviate this problem. Last semester I bought a $120 book used for $2.95 Cool

and a $165 brand new one for $90. This semester I got one $185 book brand new for $100, one $160 book used for $46.50, and one $90 used for $35. Shipping's on top of that, but it's reasonable. I buy new when there are either no used available or if the price for a new is comparable to a used book. I don't mark my books and don't care if they're already marked, but some people do so they only buy new.

I've resold the books when I could for a profit, though the only issue with that is you have two days to confirm the sale, and then once you confirm it you have one day to package up the book and mail it. Unless half.com did not have the book, I would never purchase a textbook from the college bookstore again - what a ripoff.

Master of Prissface

Ditto what the kid said, and even if half.com doesn't have the book, borders.com, barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com usually still has it cheaper than the bookstore at school.

What I often do is call the bookstore on the pretense of seeing if the books are in yet, a couple weeks before class, and find out the titles and how much they are. Then, the hunt begins. If you do this early enough you can still get your books from half before the semester starts, or at least have them ordered. Barnes & Amazon are usually a couple days and free shipping so that's what I've been doing. I think textbooks.com runs through one of those, as far as selling the books back. I don't have the time to do half.com and since I'm in grad school I am keeping all of these. I did sell a couple undergrad ones back to other students, mostly intro stuff that I wouldn't want anyhow. As long as you sell it below what the bookstore charges, you can get rid of it.

Member

I'm just into my first year. Was told by the bookstore that it's better to sell books that are being offered in the fall to other students then, rather than sell them back to the bookstore now.

I need my books ahead of time so being bookless for a little while is out of the question. I call the bookstore, they get everything together and put it in a box and let Mr. Go pick them up using an employee discount. Very nice.

In prior school experiences I kept what I thought I'd read again and sold everything back. Even if it's $5 you get back, it's more than you had before. If you think about what you're paying for, it's really access to the book when you need it, not for lifelong use the way books you read for pleasure are.

your favorite weapon

cool cool.

so these websites are pretty decent then? like there isn't much problem with shipping or paying or selection?

Member

Member

I've never thought about selling my books because I'm a highlighter-and-write-in-the-margins type of gal. I totally destroy them for any other user. Since I don't know what I will need until the day I register (read: when classes begin), I don't buy them from anywhere but the bookstore, but I try to buy used whenever I can. I really should think about this though. If nothing else, my advisor who is also my prof for most of my paralegal courses could probably give me fairly good notice on the books I need for upcoming courses. My new Intro to Law book cost over $100. Yipes.

Good luck! Hope you save and/or make money!!

AZhat

crazy cat lady

This time around at school I've bought and sold used via half.com with great luck, great prices (paid less than I would at the store, got more than I would at the store).

My last degree however I bought most new and used at the on-campus racket they called a bookstore. Mostly because that was all that was available. I would try to buy/sell from to/from other students when possible but teachers would change editions and it got hard.

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