aktick

Man, I'm glad I'm done with college and buying books. Luckily the school I finished my last 2 years at had a rental thing, so most books didn't cost me a dime (well, tuition was a bit more because of it)...anyhow, my brother just spent $400+ on 4 books at the school bookstore, and I figured I ought to see how good of deals he could get online.

It seems Amazon Marketplace and Half.com are 2 decent bets? Anywhere else?

How about editions - for instance, his microecon book is 17th edition, and Half has it for ~$30 less than he paid for it new...but they also have the 16th edition for like 10 freaking dollars and less (and multiple sellers). I'd have to imagine very little changed from the 16th to the 17th edition, but what do you guys think? I'm sure the prof will tell him he has to have the newest edition.

Advice is appreciated.

Nth Power

I bought a couple for my girlfriend off of Amazon Marketplace. Her school was selling them new for close to $100 a pop and she didn't want to spend that much. I found them on Marketplace, used, but still in good condition and they were approx. $25-30 each after shipping.

One that I bought was a recent Microecon. book. Surprisingly, it was the edition listed in the prof's syllabus.

utopianz14

I used http://bigwords.com/ quite often back in college. I doesn't sell books, but instead, it compares prices of used books from several different online outlets. Saved me lots of money.

aktick

Ended up finding everything at Amazon Marketplace and Half.com...saved about $250.

Jane2001

In one of my accounting classes a new edition came out since my sister took it so I decided to pay the $160 for the book. In getting the new book and comparing it to hers the differences were location pictures or new pictures replacing old ones. The content was virtually the same, granted I didn't go through the textbook. All this to say it may be worth it to get an old and new edition and compare if there isn't significant differnces return the new edition.

boredsilly

About the old versions or new versions. What you can do is have the person flat out ask the instructor if they will assign work from out of the textbook, or just reading. If it's reading only, the older version will almost always be fine.

And most libraries keep a copy of the texts for each class on file, so the student can always buy and older version of a text and then go photocopy the updated questions (if they are infact updated) at the library.

Textbooks are such a ripoff. I once had a spanish class where the book new was $120, but I got a copy online for $1.45 because the print run was so long.

aktick

That's what we're doing with one - 16th edition was $5 at Half.com, he got the 17th (current) edition at the school bookstore for $112. So he ordered the $5 16th edition, and will compare to the 17th. If it's way different, he'll be out $8.50 ($5+shipping), and will just order it new from Amazon for $91.

Colleges like to act like they aren't influenced by the business world, so they can condemn all the "evil" actions by said business world, but in reality they are thieves themselves.

Jane2001

Good idea, may have to try this when I back for my MBA


let us know what you find out.

Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.

I used copies from the library or bought at one of the used bookstores on campus.. not the offical school book store though, prices were much lower. Also borrowed books from friends and photocopied important pages.

slappypete

I always use www.bestwebbuys.com/books/

half.com or amazon almost always have the lowest price, but for newer books there will sometimes be sites in England that will sell the international version for half the price. I've bought several international versions and have never having a problem. The only difference is usually in the quality of the paper and printing, different covers and the lack of color pictures.