Textbooks

nebula

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Hi Everyone

So does anyone know of a good place to sell back used college textbooks and get a decent price for them? The bookstore is joking in their prices.
 

sugarsandz

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I keep mine but my sister usually sells hers online locally to get the most out of them.  I think most if not all school bookstores rip us off when it comes to buying and selling our text books. 
 
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nebula

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I keep mine but my sister usually sells hers online locally to get the most out of them.  I think most if not all school bookstores rip us off when it comes to buying and selling our text books. 
They definately put us in a catch 22. In my case, I would love to buy books cheaper... but I have Pell Grant so have to shop at the bookstore. I spent $630 on textbooks for this semester.
 

Winchester

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College textbooks is one of the biggest scams around. I kept all my textbooks from my Geography classes, thinking I might need them, but they're in a box in the basement. They're ridiculously expensive, even to buy them used is expensive. I always bought new books for my Geography classes (I majored in Geography with a concentration in Environmental Planning), but used books for the rest of my classes. And whenever I could get out of buying books, I didn't bother. They're a joke.  (I was a non-traditional student and graduated from college when I was 44 years old. While my work paid for my classes, I was responsible for my textbooks and supplies.) 

One of my Geography profs required 7 books for one class! Seven! And we might have used just one chapter out of some of them. Well, geez, why didn't he just copy that chapter we were using? Or at least have us copy that chapter? Once we realized that, we waited to get his books until the first class, til we could get the syllabus. At least that way we had some kind of inkling as to how his mind ran. We'd pool money, buy one copy of the book and copy, copy, copy.

My son was a Physics major at Albright in Reading, PA. His books were out of this world. Rick's parents bought his books for him every semester. Rick and I paid his tuition (and it was a tough four years for us, even with the money we had saved up for college). My parents made sure he had spending money every week. He graduated with no debt, but it was a rough four years for everybody.

Several years ago, there was a story on one of the news mags (60 Minutes, I think, but I don't remember), talking about how expensive college textbooks were and how much of a scam the prices were. It's gotten so much worse since then, too.
 

denice

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I think textbooks have always been a scam.  I remember the first semester of college which would've been fall of 74 I took my printout of required books to the bookstore.  At that time they had a numbering system and you found the books by numbers on the shelves and their were no titles on the list.  I got to one book and it was a plain old hard back Webster dictionary at an outlandish price.
 
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nebula

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This semester I have only barely opened my Geography book ( that class is going to be the death of me!) YUCK

Anyway, this is the first semester I have actually opened one of my "REQUIRED" textbooks. Next Semester, I'm not buying a single textbook unless I find out I truly need it after the syllabus is out.......

Is it different in Grad school? Do you actually use textbooks for that?
 

sneakymom

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My dtr is a Sophmore in college.  She says textbooks are a major ripoff.  Last semester she shared a book with someone (and I yelled at her).  I think it was Ethics- so not a really hard class. 

She buys her books used from Amazon (and I'm sorry that's not an option.  Maybe the government should pay attention to people screaming about textbook costs and they'd see that there are many other, cheaper ways to get them).  Her very first semester she bought everything at the bookstore.  And that was the ONLY semester she did that.  Now she looks at her classes before hand and does research to find the best price. 

There's a couple of different sites she's used to sell them back.  They haven't given her big bucks, but she says they're better than what the bookstore offers.  And all of these sites have you print off a mailing label so you don't have to pay postage. 

Cheryl
 

furmonster mom

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I have 3 textbooks from college that still grace my bookshelves:  The Riverside Shakespeare, Theatrical Design, and  The Norton Anthology of American Literature.  I can't even remember if I kept any others. If I did, they are in a box, buried in storage.

If I'd known then what I know now, I would have been more creative about my textbook spending.

As it was, after my first year I frequented the student used book sales.  Pretty sure I sold a few of my books back that way as well.
 

MoochNNoodles

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I don't miss buying textbooks.  My favorite was the ones we didn't use in class; but got tested on anyway.  That was mostly from the professor using tests he'd written when most of us students were toddlers.  They had dates on them so yes I know that for a fact!
 
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Draco

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I kept mine- they are mostly art related and I enjoy reading them from time to time. They are even on display on my bookshelf.
 

MoochNNoodles

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I kept mine- they are mostly art related and I enjoy reading them from time to time. They are even on display on my bookshelf.
I do like looking back at the Art History ones.  The architecture ones are helpful even when I need to do something around my own house.  In that picture they are holding down the new desk mat that came all rolled up.
  A few of those books I bought for reference only; they weren't required for school at all.  All of these are on the 3 tall bookshelves that take up my foyer.  Text books generally are on the bottom; but they are there.  Some books really are cool to look at. 
 
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