Discounted College Text Books - Help

[LadyyRedd]

Also try paperbackswap.com. I gave away a few textbooks on there that I had absolutely no use for and couldn't get anything back by selling them back.

Kimya

 

[4Jays]

I really like campusbooks.com. They search a lot of the sites that have been named for you. (like half.com, abebooks, valorebooks) Saves you a lot of search time.

 

[Nie0214]

Another good place is to ask students who took the class before. I know the two colleges I went to had message boards online where you could say you have books to sell. If I couldn't find it at a good price used at the school bookstore (WPI was usually pretty good about it, but my second school wasn't), then I'd usually buy them on half.com.

Also my first two years of school I bought every book, but for my last two I would go to the first class before I would buy anything. Sometimes the class doesn't really need a book, it's just a recommended one. You can usually find out if an old edition is OK during the first class too (or even find someone willing to split the cost).

 

[PenguinWaiters]

With two in college buying their books has become outrageous! My daughter said her Math book will cost $140.00!!!! I looked up the wholesale price of this book and it was only $80.00. The colleges are making a mint.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could give me some sites to pass along to my children so that they can purchase their books at lower prices.

All help will be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi! I teach at a college and I second what pps have said - go to the first class and find out what books are really needed. Also, ask if the books are on reserve at the library. I ALWAYS got an extra copy of every book I used and put them on reserve at the library so that students who needed to be on a tight budget could use those for free.

Also, some books may be used only for a chapter or two and some will be used EVERY week, so look at the syllabus for that info as well after the first class and make purchases accordingly.

Finally, many college bookstores have online portals for ordering books. If you use that, it will generally show you the ISBN for each book - you can use that portal to look those up and then just not complete your online sale.

As an aside, I just wanted to point out that the example given above is not an outrageous mark-up, as far as books are concerned. I used to work in a regular (non-college) bookstore. We received books at about 40% off the cover price as our wholesale price. So, if we were selling a book for $140 then we had paid $84 for it. That markup barely kept us in business (actually, it didn't - it was an independent bookstore and it closed about a year after I left ) and again we were a regular bookstore. So, college bookstores don't really mark up their books more than regular bookstores, it just seems that way because the book is so darn expensive in the first place.

 

[flying_babyb]

Most schools will give you the ISBN numbers, mine are actully printed on my scedual. I know trading books with others works for me. Try (oddly enough) FACEBOOK! the marketplace there saved me almost 900 bucks this semester

 

[madge]

With two in college buying their books has become outrageous! My daughter said her Math book will cost $140.00!!!! I looked up the wholesale price of this book and it was only $80.00. The colleges are making a mint.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could give me some sites to pass along to my children so that they can purchase their books at lower prices.

All help will be appreciated. Thanks.

www.cheapesttextbooks.com

all of DS books through that site led me to www.half.com

 

[Ashley Kees]

www.textbooks.com

A lot of schools (mine and DH's included) won't give out ISBNs simply because they don't want you buying it anywhere else. Just check out an online source and get the ISBNs there. Or contact the prof, he may give it to you. They usually don't care where you got the book, they just want you to have one.

 

[shopn24seven]

textbooks.com and amazon.com is what I use.

 

[wilea]

Be careful when trying to find out the ISBN because the college I go to puts their own stickers overtop of the numbers and change them so that when you go to copy the number down it isn't the correct one. I found this out last semester when I tried to find a book. It can be frustrating, so I just go in and copy down the author and edition that we are using. I have had luck with bigwords.com and half.com .

 

[Teacher03]

Another alternative is renting textbooks. Chegg.com seems to have the cheapest prices.

This is what my daughter is doing. Has saved over $150 so far. You can also buy the book at this site for a little more, then they will let you know what they will buy it back for at the end of the semester.

 

[3mickeymom]

Most college libraries have copies of the textbooks that are used in their classes. You can not check them out, but you can read them and take notes from them. You can also make copies of certain sections, if necessary. This might not work for every class, but if you take good notes, it could save you a ton of money.

At some schools, if the author of a textbook is a professor at the school, the bookstore will not buy back used copies of the book. That way everytime the professor teaches a class, the students must buy the newest edition of the book. It is such a SCAM and the professors get richer as students go even deeper into debt.

 

[Tink-aholic]

I used to teach at a small technical college. All of our textbooks were chosen FOR us. We professors had no say in the textbook or edition. Mine were frequently changed and I asked my department head once why I had so many textbook changes if I was teaching the same course, over and over. I was told that they do that so that the bookstore can keep selling books and preventing students from selling books to each other....

Used to drive me crazy because I would have to change my syllabus for almost every new class.

 

[maggiew]

Most college libraries have copies of the textbooks that are used in their classes. You can not check them out, but you can read them and take notes from them. You can also make copies of certain sections, if necessary. This might not work for every class, but if you take good notes, it could save you a ton of money.

At some schools, if the author of a textbook is a professor at the school, the bookstore will not buy back used copies of the book. That way everytime the professor teaches a class, the students must buy the newest edition of the book. It is such a SCAM and the professors get richer as students go even deeper into debt.

Well, this is not true for all schools and professors! I am a professor and I am very conscious of the cost of the textbooks. Cost is a #1 factor in my decision (in my field, there are several good books to choose from, so I choose based on cost). Some courses I do not even use a textbook because it is too expensive for what they need. I just put together handouts or post things online. Its especially hard at my school because we are on quarters, so the books are only used for 10 weeks (unless its a sequence course for the year).

The problem really is the publishers. Some of them come out with new editions each year and it makes it hard to get used copies.

You can sometimes get away with older versions, but watch out doing that if you have homework from the book. Sometimes the problems change. If you can ask a classmate to copy the homework section to be sure you are doing the right problems, that sometimes works. Also make sure they did not change the order of the chapters. If the teacher says read Ch. 3, you want to be sure your chapter 3 is the same material as the new book. Surprisingly they rearrange chapters quite often.

I also recommend posting on a school message board asking for a particular textbook from students who took the class previously. It may not work in fall quarter though.

Also remember that sometimes these big books (like probably the math book if you have 3 quarters or 2 semesters of the same class e.g. Calculus I, II, II) usually uses the same book. So you only have to pay that $140 once.

Maggie

 

[did2008]

At my university, most students buy older edition textbooks on half.com and amazon...and none the wiser. I actually had a professor refer to the page numbers from the old book and the new book.

I now have enough credentials to become an adjunct professor, and one day soon, I should be able to teach my first college course online (mostly). I would probably use the format one of my professors did (meet the first day of the month, or if in the summer the first and last day of the term) and advise students to purchase older editions of textbooks. Hopefully, I can become a full-time instructor so I can evaluate textbooks myself. (hint hint to teachers--if you are on textbook advisory, you can get evaluation copies of textbooks. When I was student teaching, I ordered a free evaluation copy of a teacher edition for my cooperating teacher of "Vocabulary Workshop" because she had the old edition. Then they had "Grammar Workshop" by the same publishers, but I don't know how that went.)

ALSO, some universities sell out-of-date textbooks for a quarter. My former university bookstore did. For literature classes, these are the same stories that are used, but the cover looks different. If you buy an American Lit book for a quarter, take American Lit when you can.

 

[daughtersrus]

My pet peeve is when the book is a "special edition" just for that particular college.

My second DD is just starting at our local CC in a few weeks. She is required to take a speech class to get her AA. The book is not only a special edition for this particular school but they replace it every year with a new edition.

The cost is $85 and it's nearly impossible to sell it afterwards. I think that I got $5.00 back when I sold my first DD's book back 2 years ago.

 

[hkilbu1]

I current use ebay or amazon for my books. Used condition is all that is needed.

 

[bookmama]

try ecampus.com or textbooks.com or abebooks.com

 

[kleubanks]

My computer is too slow today to browse all the posts so maybe someone has already mentioned this...

I just used textbooks.com. The books came in 3 days and when a disk was missing from one, they mailed it out 2 day ground.

I found the ISBN #s by going to the publishers' websites. I didn't want to order the wrong editions.

I saved about 25-30 dollars a book.

BTW, they have free shipping too.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

I have gotten most of my kids books from half.com but there are some sites I use to find out who has the cheapest price:

http://www.chambal.com/26695799/

http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books/index.html

I usually type the name and author in to get the ISBN number, or have my DD go to the school book store and see if she can get it off the book. The school book store doesn't like when you do that. In fact, once they yelled at her. I called them once to get an ISBN and they refused to give it to me. They told me if I wanted it, I had to buy it from them. I did. I wrote the number down, then returned it!.. they got me so mad... I normally do not do things like that, but when they said that to me, I figured I will do just that. The college is only 15 minutes or so away. So I went to the store & said who I was and how they suggested I come to purchase the book. They weren't happy when I returned it before walking out of the store....

This year is going to be a tuff one. 4 out of 5 of my DD's classes have new edition books meaning that I cannot purchase them used or deeply discounted. I did get the one I could get on half.com In the school store used it was $147, new it was $175... I paid $67 with shipping.. and it is actually new

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Well, this is not true for all schools and professors! I am a professor and I am very conscious of the cost of the textbooks. Cost is a #1 factor in my decision (in my field, there are several good books to choose from, so I choose based on cost). Some courses I do not even use a textbook because it is too expensive for what they need. I just put together handouts or post things online. Its especially hard at my school because we are on quarters, so the books are only used for 10 weeks (unless its a sequence course for the year).

The problem really is the publishers. Some of them come out with new editions each year and it makes it hard to get used copies.

You can sometimes get away with older versions, but watch out doing that if you have homework from the book. Sometimes the problems change. If you can ask a classmate to copy the homework section to be sure you are doing the right problems, that sometimes works. Also make sure they did not change the order of the chapters. If the teacher says read Ch. 3, you want to be sure your chapter 3 is the same material as the new book. Surprisingly they rearrange chapters quite often.

I also recommend posting on a school message board asking for a particular textbook from students who took the class previously. It may not work in fall quarter though.

Also remember that sometimes these big books (like probably the math book if you have 3 quarters or 2 semesters of the same class e.g. Calculus I, II, II) usually uses the same book. So you only have to pay that $140 once.

Maggie

My DD took Oceanograpgy I in Summer A and purchased the book, then the professor who was suppose to teach II in Summer B did not & she had to get a different book The professor knew all the students were told they would be using the same book. His words were.. different professor, different book So for June & July, there were two different books. Not to mention her college charges for a student ID for each semester, including each summer session... So the college got $40 out of me for ID's for her this year. No ID..cannot use the labs.. cannot use the labs... then you cannot complete your class work since 99% of the professors require lab work done.. math, science, criminal justice, etc... there is a lab for everything now.. Is it like that where you are?