Textbook Brag

[xox2010]

So... as we all know college/university textbooks are EXPENSIVE! I think I did pretty good with the amount I ended up paying for my textbooks (4).

Had I bought them all new at the college bookstore I would have paid about $450.

I bought 3 of them used from someone at my college for $160 total. Then, since I couldn't find the other book I needed used, I went to amazon.ca where it was selling for $98. (The college bookstore was selling it for $144 + tax...) I used $25 in Amazon GC's I earned from Swagbucks and paid.... $75 for it!

So in total, I paid $235 for all of my textbooks and saved $215

Works for me!

[lighthousejen]

Nice Savings! that's almost %50.

[Minou]

And if the editions are current, maybe you'll be able to sell them when you're finished and make most of that money back!

[corbinx]

I wish I hadn't bought all of my textbooks until going to my classes...there were some I hardly used. I also wish I would have tried to sell more of them as soon as I was done with them. I paid about $1500 for 4 years of books for nursing...and now they are sitting in my basement.

[Shwa Girl]

Great use of Swagbucks OP.

I paid about $1500 for 4 years of books for nursing...and now they are sitting in my basement.

I think that $1500 is not too bad for 4 years, comparing the price of texts recently, IMHO.
Maybe you could try kijiji?

[xox2010]

And if the editions are current, maybe you'll be able to sell them when you're finished and make most of that money back!

That's the best part I managed to get all of the recent editions but my college makes us get "custom" publications of certain textbooks . I often worry that they'll decide to make new books for the new year, therefore making the books I have un-usable.

[Shwa Girl]

That's the best part I managed to get all of the recent editions but my college makes us get "custom" publications of certain textbooks . I often worry that they'll decide to make new books for the new year, therefore making the books I have un-usable.

That's sneaky - custom publications.

I would wait for the course outline, double check the readings with the prof, and then check the school library's reference section for the latest edition. If the course used most of the text book, I would buy it at the school's Used Book Store. If not, I would just spend time in the school library and read the sections I needed each week before class.

[Speckled28]

I was ridiculously lucky when I went to college. I went to Niagara and the vast majority of my texts were a weird variation of text/workbooks written by our teachers. (They had all the proper citations and whatnot in the back, but were more like workbooks where our teachers decided what info would go into each course). One of them was actually less than $3!!!! and I think the most expensive of that kind was only around $8. My most expensive official text book was Abnormal Psych....which was about $100 :S All in all, I got off pretty easy though!

[Shwa Girl]

Many profs get a free edition from the publisher. The kind, sympathetic profs would let us borrow the last year's edition - kinda ran a "mini library". Miss those kinds of teachers.

[Minou]

You can often find the previous editions in student used book stores as well. They often clear out unsold textbooks for a few dollars at the end of the consignment period if the sellers don't pick them up. Often, the previous edition isn't much different.

[xox2010]

Thanks for all the nice and helpful comments everyone!

[torontogal12]

School bookstores suck you dry. For people who go to Toronto schools try tusbe.com. It's a site where people sell their used textbooks. I sold a bunch of books on there and bought others for much, much cheaper than the bookstore.

[Ciel]

Corbinx, see if any of your texts from your last semester are still in use at the school you attended. If so, maybe list them through student union classifieds or student council used booksale at start of semester to recoup some cash.

Mohawk College started a used book sale by student council for students in the 90s. Council took a dollar from sale of book if it sold. Fee has gone up to $3 now, if I remember from reading college news. I had books from semester one that lasted me for two years in a couple of courses so I waited until semester 3 to get rid of some texts. Wished I had bought my texts through the sale that way instead of going new at outset when I started college.
Custom texts or college issued books-the latter books are not returnable at the bookstore so yes, definitely find out from students before you if they used those books or not.

It does not surprise me if students split book costs with others or find some way to use the library's sole copy of a course text (if one's in the 60min reference section) to get some of the required reading/question homework done.

If any SCer ever becomes a fulltime instructor at college or university, please ensure reference copies of the course texts are made available at the library. It can be a lifeline for some students.

[crispiecreme]

AWESOME! WTG.

An awesome thing that a lot of students have started doing in my college is buying the textbooks together (10-15people who are all in the same class by one textbook) and then we use a professional scanner... tear the book apart and scan the whole thing into a document, and then we use the documents on our tablets!!! It's saved us TONS! Essentially we make the hardcopy textbook into an e-textbook. It's awesome!!!

[MangoFruit]

I just paid 400$ for 2 course of textbook. I wish they had mine on Amazon.