Comments on: Cutting School Book Costs

By: eleaza

eleaza — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:26:52 +0000

I agree with spicoli. I do buy used books every end of the semester. They

By: Chris K

Chris K — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:25:52 +0000

I always either talked to the professor beforehand or waited until after the first day of class to buy the books. 50-75% of the time, they would outright say that we only needed one of the three “required” books. Plus, with scheduling, you can probably score a “used” copy because people tend to drop a lot in the first few days.

By: Jay Gatsby

Jay Gatsby — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:37:26 +0000

Consider whether the books your child/teenager/college student needs are on Gutenberg.org (The Gutenberg Project). It may not be the same “edition” or from the same publisher, but I highly doubt that Shakespeare has changed all that much in 450 years.

As for textbooks, some publishers offer a lower price if you order an electronic version. They save printing and distribution costs, while your child can simply print when needed.

By: David G. Mitchell

David G. Mitchell — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:29:00 +0000

Jason — What you suggest presents more than an ethical issue. It is a copyright violation and carries stiff penalties. Books should never be photocopied!

By: Jason H

Jason H — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:34:14 +0000

Some might question the ethics of this, but when you are paying your way through college it helped me.

If a prof required a rather small book I would calculate the cost (at 10-cents a page) of copying the entire book at the library versus the cost of the book. If it was cheaper I would buy a used copy of the book, devote an hour or 2 to copying the book, then return it to the bookstore for a full refund.

I wouldn’t do this with a new book, since the author actually gets a cut of that sale, but since the bookstore was just pocketing the value of the used book I didn’t have a problem with it.

Additionally, when I was teaching at the university I encouraged my students to go to their class first to make sure they really needed the book before they bought it (sadly for them they always needed mine).

By: persephone

persephone — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:11:15 +0000

My children have relied on all of the paperback classics in our home library — many were books that my husband and I purchased when we were in college, but The Great Gatsby is the Great Gatsby, even if the pages are yellowed with age!

By: spicoli

spicoli — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:09:47 +0000

I always buy used. I will go to a class on the last day of the semester and buy books from the outgoing students. They are happy to get cash in hand and there is always someone who will sell a book cheaply!

By: t

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:37:25 +0000

I use addall.com (book search engine) and evreward (cashback). I spent a ton of money on books while working on my degrees. I didn’t really do this but…. If you befriend people who are going to sell their books to the book store you can save a ton of money buying from them because typically the bookstore doesn’t pay much. I recall buying an English Literature book for around $85 dollars the book store only wanted to give me $4 (their resale was ~75).

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:30:52 +0000

I am soooo glad those days of textbooks are gone for me!

However, I do enjoy buying reference books for sculptures — animals, marine life, fantasy research — and have become a strong believer in used books. Have managed to acquire some fabulous reference books for soooo much less by buying used… and a number of them are ex-library books. LOL

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:18:42 +0000

I have been a college stufent for 3 years now and I have found that the best website to purchase books is bigwords.com. It seaches which online source has the best deal for the book you are looking for. I used to be paranoid about purchasing the right book, so to alleviate any anxiety I visit my bookstore to find the books I need and then write down there ISBN’s. I LOVE this site!