College Textbooks. Where to buy

[Woozie]

Another thing I often do is get them from the library. Our public libraries can get books from any public library in Ohio, and our school library can get books from almost any college in Ohio, so I'm pretty much guaranteed to find the book I need. I'd imagine that other states have a similar system in place.

[Mojo]

Another thing I often do is get them from the library. Our public libraries can get books from any public library in Ohio, and our school library can get books from almost any college in Ohio, so I'm pretty much guaranteed to find the book I need. I'd imagine that other states have a similar system in place.

Many university libraries will have a copy or two of the textbooks on reserve. However, it may be an inconvenience, depends on whether you think it's worth the time investment or not.

Also, Ebay stores sell tons of international edition textbooks with quick shipping. I ordered a book on Sunday afternoon and got it yesterday. Only paid like $4 for shipping.

[Meresgi]

Well I pirated one book and a lab book so far. I can't find Electric Circuit Fundamentals by Floyd or Experiments in Elec fundamentals/elec circuits by Buchla (lab book for the Floyd one).

Though from what I have read, Floyd just rearranges the fucking book every semester for a "new" edition to charge more and so students cant sell back the book so i'll probably go to my professor and see if my pirated 4th edition copy of his book is fine to use. From what ive read from actual teachers reviews there's no reason to use updated editions as the field doesn't really change that drastically.

[Reuniont]

Usually, I'll torrent or buy the previous edition from the amazon marketplace. Publishers have been ripping off poor college students forever. Fuck paying 100-200 dollars for a book that has 5 different words than the 15 dollar previous edition. They can suck my jew cock.

[Dolmen]

DirectTextbooks.com is good as a textbook version of pricegrabber.com.

I normally purchase mine through Amazon for quite a bit less than the bookstore. If you buy early, you can find some of the independent sellers on Amazon selling books for a fraction. I purchased one book for $50 that was in the bookstore for $150, and it's exactly the same version (not an international or cheaper quality version). The bookstore's buyback is around $50, so it's in essence a "free" book. I spent $350 on books that should have cost around $500. The total was so high because two of my classes require custom books for gen ed courses that you can only get through the university.

[plue]

Well I pirated one book and a lab book so far. I can't find Electric Circuit Fundamentals by Floyd or Experiments in Elec fundamentals/elec circuits by Buchla (lab book for the Floyd one).

Though from what I have read, Floyd just rearranges the fucking book every semester for a "new" edition to charge more and so students cant sell back the book so i'll probably go to my professor and see if my pirated 4th edition copy of his book is fine to use. From what ive read from actual teachers reviews there's no reason to use updated editions as the field doesn't really change that drastically.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sear...entals&x=0&y=0

I don't know what edition you need, but the 6th is here for $3.55?

[Tyche]

First, I check a number of websites for ebooks/PDFs. Usually hit and miss. I get international ed's off ebay if available. Almost always cheaper to buy those than to rent the US version from Chegg. If they don't have it in international ed, then i'll buy the cheapest one I can find, usually amazon, then resell it. It's usually most profitable to resell to other students.

[Zephyriel]

Just skimmed through posts to see if it was posted or not, but I usually get my textbooks from http://half.com. It's pretty much eBay for books, but works a little bit differently. If you're worried about people not sending you the book you've bought, getting a refund is pretty painless. I've had it happen to me once before, and I just had to file a claim against the seller and got my money back within the week. Also good for selling books back, 'cept as far as I know, they don't let you list custom editions of textbooks.

[Jeryhn]

If at all possible, check to see if the book you need has an international version. These books generally have 99-100% of the same content, in the same order, on the same page numbers, etc., but can be a good 75% cheaper than a US print version.

[Sho]

I won't even lie, don't buy college books unless absofuckinglutely necessary.

1) Torrent that shit, even for an older edition.
2) Borrow someones book and photocopy the hell out of it every few weeks.
3) Go to library and get the book loaned to you. Photocopy all of the chapters needed.
4) Get book rented out from www.chegg.com
5) If you absolutely need a book, go here: www.abebooks.com Buy cheapest you can find, then resell on eBay or Amazon later. Or even the local book store if pages and shit are intact.

[Boyiee]

I was just about to order some used books from amazon today or tomorrow, good thing this thread popped up.

I'm looking at either amazon or chegg for my books this semester. One book for example I can get used on amazon for 80-100, or rent from chegg for 74. The thing with amazon is the option to sell it back. I was looking at selling back last semesters books and they will offer me a gifcard of 45$ for a book I paid 68 for, or I can try selling it on there for 60+. Not sure what the better option is. Trade-in books for giftcards, use giftcards for more books. Try selling on amazon, including fees and time it might not be worth it. Or rent for almost the same price as buying.

meh, chegg doesn't have everything I want. Guess I'll just buy>resell on amazon.

[Arcien]

Does your school has online library where you can find all the books scanned inside? I've been to the university in UK and they have online sources where I can just search the book I want.

[Twitchtastica]

I've also used half.com its pretty reliable, just make sure your IBN's match up

[Kerberoz]

Came across some massive bullshit in freshman Psych: prof made everyone buy a paperback textbook that he fucking wrote with perforated homework pages that had to be ripped out and turned in for 30% of the grade. This wasn't a little cheap workbook, either. I switched to a different course for that credit, then the bookstore flipped their shit when I tried to sell the unmolested book back to them. How is that even legal?

[Meresgi]

Went into 2 of my classes today. Auto Cad teacher was like "No book for this shit, ill give you all the pdf and power points" and my Computer system repair class I asked the professor if we needed the book with us, since I have the .pdf at home. He just looked at me and went "You stole it hmm? Yeah that's fine".

[Overburn]

Came across some massive bullshit in freshman Psych: prof made everyone buy a paperback textbook that he fucking wrote with perforated homework pages that had to be ripped out and turned in for 30% of the grade. This wasn't a little cheap workbook, either. I switched to a different course for that credit, then the bookstore flipped their shit when I tried to sell the unmolested book back to them. How is that even legal?

We have this shit at our school with a website called University Readers. It's literally just a book the teacher puts together from other books so you don't need to buy 24 individual small books, but the problem is you end up paying like $95-$150 for the book which usually ends up more than each of those books on your own used/pirated. It sucks too because most of the time, the teacher refuses to just give you the list of the books he puts in there, forcing you to buy a book you can't resell anywhere because it's 24 chapters that only make sense for that class and nobody will pay you anything worth selling for 2 chapters of 8 different stories and a few full stories.

[Ksandra]

I switched to a different course for that credit, then the bookstore flipped their shit when I tried to sell the unmolested book back to them. How is that even legal?

I have a feeling I'm going to go through a similar thing tomorrow. Bought books from my booklist then went to a "pre-meeting" before classes where the teacher told us you could just d/l the book and gave us the link. So fuck that I'm returning it to the bookstore, but I have a feeling they'll give me shit for it.

[Caiyuo]

Came across some massive bullshit in freshman Psych: prof made everyone buy a paperback textbook that he fucking wrote with perforated homework pages that had to be ripped out and turned in for 30% of the grade. This wasn't a little cheap workbook, either. I switched to a different course for that credit, then the bookstore flipped their shit when I tried to sell the unmolested book back to them. How is that even legal?

Not only went through this, but the teacher went the extra step and put a picture of him wind-surfing on the cover.

[Julian]

And this is why you don't buy books before even attending the class.

[Mojo]

Eh, it's a good idea to buy your books before class starts. Sometimes you have homework out of them due later that week, which means you're going to be either paying the bookstore's absurd prices, or scrambling to get it online or from wherever else before your homework is due. Email your professor in advance and ask about it.