Colleges aren't even playing fair anymore!

[Whiskey]

Okay so I thought I was going to have to buy my math book for 110$ this semester. The college bookstore said it was PreAlgebra, by Mr. Author, First Edition, ISBN 7745412487. I called the book store to make sure that was right and they said yes, first edition by Mr. Author.

Well today was the first day of class. People showed up with their shiny new books from the book store.

PreAlegebra
By Mr Author
THIRD edition.

It comes in a bundle with a online math lab. The teacher told us we didnt need the lab as she doesnt use it and to buy it online if we can.

Its on chegg (rental) for 43!

You SCAM ARTISTS. Theyre outright LYING about the edition and ISBN number of our textbooks to make it look like we HAVE to buy it from the campus store. The ISBN isnt even remotely the same!

edit: it could have been the ISBN of the BUNDLE, but why would they say its a first edition? wtf. This is why I never by my books before the semester starts.

Campus: ~415$
Chegg: 130$

Suck it, school.

[Greenday]

I just started buying books off of amazon. It was ridiculous paying hundreds of dollars a semester for books and there were a lot of books I had to keep. So off to amazon.com I went. I was quite proud junior year to buy a book that would have cost me almost $200 plus tax at the bookstore for $30 plus tax on amazon.

[Cassandra]

I used fetchbook.net all the time for text books. I have always felt that school books are overpriced. I got a math book that the campus store was selling used for $150 off of this website for $1 plus tax and shipping, all totaling just over $5. It was seriously sweet!

[Magpie]

Amazon occasionally prices things way too low. We found a copy of our dean's circuits book for $1. It didn't take long for my entire class to order one. Most people got a "sorry, we had mispriced the book, and will not be able to honour the listed price" notice. (Unless you ordered early enough to get it shipped before they ran out and had to reorder).

Whiskey, I know that sometimes the bookstore has trouble because profs don't give them the information early enough, or the correct information. I know that it looks like "the college" is a monolith, but it is quite disorganized if you're on the other side (my mom teaches at college). I know that at the university level occasionally the prof will assign the old edition, not knowing that the publisher changed. (This was annoying, because the previous edition was a better one, they had introduced mistakes in the new one).

[taxguykarl]

Whiskey,
I've got news for you: THEY NEVER DID!!

Back in the '80's there was not even the option to buy them online. My gf at the time had a lit class and was required to buy a copy of Catch-22. Out of a near morbid curiosity, I peeled off the price tag and revealed that the publisher's suggested retail price was half what she paid.
I quickly learned never to buy the book 'til I saw the syllabus. In a physics class, we used only about 40 pages of the text. At a nickel a page I could have saved $38 by copying those pages instead of buying the book.
It's great that students have more options to comparison shop these days. I can't believe that some campus book stores still manage to get away with ripping off students.

[AdminAssistant]

Ugh, campus bookstores suck big, hairy, smelly donkey balls. If I do buy books from a store, I tend to go to one not owned by the University. Of course, half the problem is that they want the prof to order books by early April at the very latest. Hell, the prof probably just figured out what they hell they're teaching, and they already have to have a book order in? Now, for a class like Algebra that's going to be taught constantly...okay. But for my seminar classes it really really sucks. Like Greenday, I just use Amazon...especially now that they have the free student Prime shipping deal. The only caveat is that I never buy used from Amazon...been burned too many times. If I'm buying used, I need to hold the book in my hand and check it out.

[Amina516]

Ugh, campus bookstores suck big, hairy, smelly donkey balls. .

Yeah?

Also, I just use half.com for my books. If I want to keep them, Ill order a New or Like New book. If I dont care too much for the book Ill get a cheaper more beat up copy. Theyve always been cheaper than Amazon for me.

Fortunately, Ive never had the pleasure of having to buy a bundle pack, as I know those are ridiculously expensive. But ive never been to a "big" college either. I stick with the odd, private local ones.

[Shalom]

The only caveat is that I never buy used from Amazon...been burned too many times. If I'm buying used, I need to hold the book in my hand and check it out.

Even that doesn't help sometimes. My brother once bought a used text book from the college bookstore. Got home, opened it up, and found that some maniac had high-lighted every other line. It was like trying to read a watermelon, he said. He had to take it back and exchange it...

[Whiskey]

Yeah?

Also, I just use half.com for my books. If I want to keep them, Ill order a New or Like New book. If I dont care too much for the book Ill get a cheaper more beat up copy. Theyve always been cheaper than Amazon for me.

I'm going to rent them from chegg. 130$ for all 3 of my textbooks. That means electric isnt getting paid until I get financial aid which... :\

[shankyknitter]

I just had to get mine and dear gods I hate having to get stuff through my book store. My problem is my book store doesn't post editions or ISBN numbers in an attempt to force students to buy through them. No its not legal and no they can't technically do it, but somehow they use some loophole because they're a private institution.

I however made three orders, one from Half one from Amazon and one from Barnes and Nobel in order to get 9 out of my 10 books. Haven't been able to get the last one yet.

[lupo pazzesco]

As a bookstore employee, lemme say not all of us...what was the phrase? Suck big hairy donkey balls. The tales I could tell you of some competing stores around us? Seriously, seriously fucked up.

I work at an offcampus store, and we try our damndest to make buying books hurt less, and started a rental program ourselves, etc, etc. Erm, but for those of you leery of renting, I'm going to let you in on a website we use to find books, when our stock is running low, or when we're doing price compares on the big marketplace sites to determine our own pricing. Promise not to tell?

bigwords.com. Shops all the sites and does the comparison for you.

I made free use of it for my own books for school when my store didn't have them in stock, so I could avoid going to the other two skeezy, shady, disgusting stores around my school.

[AdminAssistant]

I wasn't saying that to reflect on the employees, Lupo, so much as the industry. Especially the campus-run bookstores. Obviously, it also varies from university to university. The ones here seem to do okay with undergrad books, but they never order enough for grad seminars. The class I'm taking this semester, they couldn't even find half the books we needed and they told us to just get them off Amazon.

Pricing...well...a good part of that rests on the publishers and not the bookstores. Don't blame the authors either. Unless a textbook becomes the text to use for a core subject (like English Comp or College Algebra), the authors probably aren't making a profit. They may barely make enough back to cover their research expenses. And those core subject textbooks that do make money? Those generally don't count as a publication for the writer's tenure file.

[Whiskey]

student rant: if you're six foot five could you not sit in the VERY FIRST ROW

I missed half the board because I was staring at the back of this dudes greasy head. Gah. I cant wait until 60% of the student population drops their classes so I dont have to get to class a half hour early to snag a front spot. I'm short

and no one is referring to employees about the books, lupo :P gawd.

[draggar]

Campus: ~415$
Chegg: 130$

Just wait until the end of the semester when they offer to buy those books back! That $415 will turn into $50 (if you're lucky!) - more likely it'll be $20-$30.

.. and taxguycarl has a point. In the early 90's I couldn't buy my books online either. As a music major my books were over $600 the first semester (and that included several used books!).

[Whiskey]

Just wait until the end of the semester when they offer to buy those books back! That $415 will turn into $50 (if you're lucky!) - more likely it'll be $20-$30.

.. and taxguycarl has a point. In the early 90's I couldn't buy my books online either. As a music major my books were over $600 the first semester (and that included several used books!).

in 30 years i can complain to kids that i could only buy my books online and have to wait for shipping! I dont get them holographed to my tablet or whatever space age thingy ma jig

get off my (artificial) lawn!!!!!!!!

ive never bothered selling my books back to the school. Might as well keep them in case I need a refresher for the class in the next stage.