Used Textbooks
Discussion · 57 Comments
Less than 70 bucks for 11 books! Thank gosh those so called classics cost about a buck a piece online!
I once had an engineering class that had a $15 textbook. FIFTEEN!! I was shocked - they're usually in the $100+ range.
The book I need is $160, but I'm renting it for $45. The other classes probably use course readers that range from $20-$30 each.
I've rented too. It was $60 - kinda expensive, but the used price was crazy. Renting is a nice option cause you never know when a new edition will come out and destroy resale values.
Exactly. Freshman year screwed me over with all the custom made textbooks.
I bought a custom made econ book - never used it ONCE during the semester - it was still in its plastic wrap. Bookstore wouldn't buy it back because it was custom edition. Trashed it.
Bought most of my textbooks from Amazon for a fraction of the cost. Bought them through your link!
Are you a photographer?
free ;) ebooks :)
Haha! My bookstore is selling ebooks as an alternative to physical textbooks - but they're only $20 to $30 cheaper. Not sure who would actually consider buying em.
I have a stack full of Textbooks I haven't been able to return at all. Thinking of making a fort out of them for my nephews or something after I am done with school most of them looked like the later rather then the former.
Textbooks make great door stoppers.
I haven't ever thought of using them in that way before. Now I will get actual use from them.
I've studied Electrical Engineering with a focus on Digital/Wireless Communications. I've completed a German Diplom degree (equiv. to M.Sc.), I've studied 2 semesters abroad (Canada), and I am very close to finishing my Ph.D. Nonetheless I speak the pure truth when I confess: I never bought a single textbook. The three times I needed one in the last 10 years I was always able to get a copy from the library - for free basically. I now realize what a lucky bastard I must be.
I've never had luck checking out textbooks from the library. I bet its a conspiracy - the bookstore wont let the library carry required course material.
I'm 50% with you. Didn't buy many books as an undergrad, borrowed from friends, used the library's desk copy, or requested an interlibrary loan and made notes/copies before I returned it. :)
500 minimum. :( my first year paying for books and it stinks.
Holy crap.
Don't you just love paying hundreds of dollars for what will be the equivalent of a stack of bricks in six months?
The worst is when the required textbook is "University Edition" - you can only buy it from the bookstore and cant sell it back anywhere.
I got all 6 of my engineering texts for this next semester for under $400, (given that 5 are rentals from Chegg), I'm still very happy considering that it would have cost well over $700 from the school book store just to rent them! Now I can afford to eat real food for another few months :)
Eat well my friend. Eat well.
Two classes $200. Now where can I find cheap cup of soups
Velveeta aint bad.
hahhahahah cool and true story.
El rancho.
I got by without buying a single book last semester. I was able to find all the short stories and articles for my writing and speech classes online, and borrowed other people's books/used the library's if I absolutely needed them.
Depending on the class, it can be hard to get by without a textbook - like math classes. I have had luck with checking out short stories from the library though. Saved me a hundred bucks.
It is when the school microwave is broken
Some dorms have entire kitchens. Even ovens.
I go to community college
I am happy now. My book for one class was $55 and I can use it for two classes. Plus they replaced the microwave
One word. Photocopy.
My Drawing 1 professor that would photocopy our reading assignments and upload them to blackboard for us.
Last year I had a used art history book that was $215. They gave me $60 for it when I sold it back. >_<
$215 for an Art History book?? I've had engineering books that cost less.
oh jeez i hate when a university makes you buy the new textbook because of like one sentence change, then when you show up to class with the old one the prof throws a fit.
That one sentence is very important.
My college does our books by rental, so all my books are free! :)
We also do books by rental - but I pay for the book and then give it back.
Ouch, that's pricey! At Cambridge we don't have textbooks, we just rely on (incredibly dense) lecture notes and hope for the best.
Cambridge University?? This comic has made it into one of the top universities in the world!? Muwhahaha! http://muwhahaha.com/
Well I'm at home at the moment... :P
The worlds greatest minds are reading my comic.
I just put a coffee jar in the fridge by accident, but if you say so...
$400 in total if I buy them, and likely two of five will not need them.
Force you to buy textbooks but never ask you to read or give a textbook assignment.
Ours are usually just rentals so they're free unless we lose them. Some classes have books you have to buy, though. My Bio lab booklet was $30
Chem lab required a lab manual and a carbon copy lab notebook. $60.
Bought a book for 90 bucks, Buyback was 12. Kept the book! And of course those books you buy for 100 dollars and then they dont buy them back because "there not using them again"
$12 will buy you a great lunch.
The highest price I had to pay was $60. I would've payed a lot more for my Microbiology book, but he told us it wasn't required. So oh well to that one, lol. And thank goodness my prof for Biochem told us we could use older edition books, so those were pretty cheap, like $30-40. But man, I wish the amazon link was up earlier, I already got all my books :(
Haha, its all good. Link works for everything from Amazon, not just books. Use it when you're buying all kinds of junk.
all our books are super expensive except the Islamiyat and Urdu language ones ...and u can find pirate copies for the super expensive ones or PDF versions. buhahahahaha yaay for a third world country ^_^
Books are super expensive over seas. Not just textbooks, all kids of books. Cooking, kids, novels. I wonder why that is.
I believe the website was www.abebooks.com I'm a senior in high school, and the history teacher I had for 3 years told us that if we knew the exact name, author, and edition of a book, we could get it for super cheap on that website (except for custom books, of course).
One of my profs emailed us a PDF of the textbook for her class because she had one, having been a contributing author. It was the happiest moment of my college life, knowing I didn't have to pay for that mofo of a textbook for Old English...