College people- Rent books instead of buying them.

[Vandole]

a professor told me about Chegg.com - Cheap Textbook Rentals. Search for Used Textbooks and Rent College Textbooks at Chegg.com. today about getting my books this semester. you rent books at this site instead of own them. and.. well... you get the books for a semester for usually about 1/3 the cost. you buy them, then just send it back like the second you finish the class.

i'm trying this since half my books last semester couldnt be sold back and i lost a bunch of money.

i got $350 of books this semester for $100. so, i figure i should tell people about the savings and help /bg/ save some cash for booze this semester

edit: OMG THEY ALSO PLANT TREES FOR EVERY BOOK YOU RENT

[thomassmith]

I don't buy it. I've had many college classes we never use the books. Don't buy any books unless you absolutely have to. (rent also)



Edit: The fact that they plant trees for books rent would be reason enough for me not to rent them.

[Serif]

I know before I graduated you could do this at the book stores around our college.

Never got to try it out though.

[Vandole]

well, that's true.. but for the classes that you actually need your book for, this is a fucking godsend. i lost a few hundred last semester cause of books being updated

[thomassmith]

For me you would be just better off buying a used book. They are normally half price.

[_chuchu]

The textbook business is renting if you think about it. Buy it at almost full (or used) price, and return it for a small (non-existent) rebate.

[Vandole]

The textbook business is renting if you think about it. Buy it at almost full (or used) price, and return it for a small (non-existent) rebate.

yeah, and this cuts out the non-existent rebate shit. in the long run, it's saving me money. fuck yeah at that.

[Ivaden]

Man, would've been damn nice to know about this earlier than now. So much money wasted on "OMG WE NEED THESE BOOKS YOU BETTER HAVE THIS BOOK GUYS WE'RE GONNA USE IT SO MUCH GUYYYYYS" on exactly the opposite. Then again I guess I can't complain all that much, I could usually find them for considerably cheaper than normal, got my Physics book which I guess was supposed to go for around $175 for only $21 on Amazon, and it's in amazing condition.

Edit: Fuck college.

[_chuchu]

I bought an accounting book at 1/4 the normal price, but got the international version from ebay/half. The seller blocked out the sticker that said not for sale in america, but the pages were identical and everything was converted to dollars in the american version almost to the penny.

[Rockstaru]

That's why you sell to your fellow students, not the bookstore (If you buy the book at all.) If your school's library has multiple copies, you can just rotate them throughout the semester. Hopefully your professor doesn't buy into this online workbook crap (like quia books...my French professor did this last year.)

[Jaybar]

Most of the books I get I need for the future (either in other classes or as resources). Gen-Ed books that I end up either never using or don't want to keep I always sell-back. Text-book companies piss me off when they make "updated" versions. For the most part it's to add a couple new pictures. History books are the only books I can understand needing constant updated versions (exception would be economic books when the Euro was introduced).

[Maguspk]

Yeah it blows when you learn halfway through the semester they are going to be using a new book next semester; the professor half mentions, 'oh it's cool though, next semester we'll be using the Xth edition which has some information on this and that' and you just think to yourself, 'fuck! That means the bookstore won't be buying this book back'.

Going into my Senior year here, I learned early after my Freshman year not to buy books for classes. I go to the first day, talk to people and find out if they know whether we need the book or not. 9 times out of 10 you don't even need the book, or someone already got the book. Then you just borrow their book or go to their house to study, cash saved.

[_chuchu]

What does suck is the edition changing like Magus said, and those courses you need software that you absolutely are required to buy. Many professors just slap their name onto the book and get a cut off sales

[Julian]

I hate it when books come with an online code or w/e for HW stuff. Makes it so you have to buy the book (or buy the code separately, which sometimes may be better, depending on the class), and also makes it a complete bitch to sell the book back since you've already used up the code -_-

[kuronosan]

Sorry; I need to keep my medical books so this is of no use to me. Nice find otherwise though.

[Headspace]

Not to mention those "new editions" include 2 paragraphs and a new caption.

[Sqwunk]

Sorry; I need to keep my medical books so this is of no use to me. Nice find otherwise though.

I needed to keep all of my accounting books too for future reference. But I think it's a good idea for gen ed books.

After my first 2 semesters I didn't start buying books until a week into the class, but a lot of the professors got mad at me for it. They would expect everyone to have the book on the first day of class, and I wouldn't because I didn't want to buy something unnecessary and then I'd go to the book store to buy it and they would be out of stock, because for some reason they never ever ordered enough books.

[Mellema]

Text-book companies piss me off when they make "updated" versions. For the most part it's to add a couple new pictures. History books are the only books I can understand needing constant updated versions (exception would be economic books when the Euro was introduced).

Why would history books need constant updating? The past isn't changing. None of the history classes I took dealt with anything happening in the past couple decades.

Now, biology, computer science, chemistry, physics, advanced mathematics, etc., those fields have new discoveries all the time and I can see the need for new texts books happening often.

[Senoska]

Not saving much on my books. My school pays 30-50% on resale and I don't buy half my books any how. Shit, this is actually costing more than if I bought the book new and sold it back at the end of the year. At least for the books listed here.


Plus I like getting that chunk of money back every semester. I blow off all my grant money by the end of semester and am usually strapped for gas. Go turn in books - easy $100-200.

edit: I really wish they would update the Genki series of Japanese books. Some of the shit in there pissed me off. I don't know when it was released but we don't use tape players any more, god damn it.

[_chuchu]

I needed to keep all of my accounting books too for future reference. But I think it's a good idea for gen ed books.

After my first 2 semesters I didn't start buying books until a week into the class, but a lot of the professors got mad at me for it. They would expect everyone to have the book on the first day of class, and I wouldn't because I didn't want to buy something unnecessary and then I'd go to the book store to buy it and they would be out of stock, because for some reason they never ever ordered enough books.

Because they know the longer you shop, the less likely you are to buy a book at full price that they're gonna get a cut from