<p>When should I buy them? I was thinking during Christmas vacation...what do you guys think?</p>
<p>Depends. Are you buying them through your school/local bookstore, or online? If through the school bookstore, then they might offer a pre-registration time for you to order books. My school does this and if you pick up your books within a certain time after classes start, you get 10% off. If you're buying online, I'd buy no later than mid-December if you start in early January. With online stuff, you generally need to leave some leeway in there in case it gets lost in the mail or there's a system error at the place you bought it or something.</p>
<p>You should buy them as soon as you have accurate knowledge about what books are required and know exactly what your schedule will be.</p>
<p>And you know what REALLY makes me mad? I'm taking a Films class (online) and i asked my teacher if he wanted the 4th or 5th ed for class. he said the 5th. "more up to date info" BUT all the assignments read read these pgs. if you have 4th or read these if you have 5th i bought it used for 30.00 i COULD have got the 4th on line for $1.00. i feel so dumb..</p>
<p>I am putting some books on eBay over Christmas break, or as soon as I don't need them for class anymore. Last year I sold all but one of them this way--people look over Christmas break.</p>
<p>My books usually start about 25% cheaper than what the bookstore is offering them used for. I figure it's more than the store would give for buyback.</p>
<p>At my school, you buy spring books when you get back from Christmas break in late January. You sell your books right after your last final.</p>
<p>The moment you know for sure what books you're going to need, start looking for them on abebooks.com. If you find a really cheap copy, buy it immediately. If you don't, keep checking until Christmas comes, then buy the cheapest one. I find this is the best (and cheapest) way to go about book-buying.</p>
<p>I know this is going to sound unorthodox, but buy all your books new (if you have the money but don't want to spend it all). Buy them new. </p>
<p>I'll explain.</p>
<p>If you buy all your books used and it comes to $300 for example, when you sell them back, you're probably only going to get about $100 back. They were already used, and the BuyBack value is less for used books. If you buy your books new for $400, but sell them back, you're guaranteed to get at least half of that money back. It's better to get half of your initial investment back than a third of it.</p>
<p>lol, if you're paying $300 for $400's worth of used books, then you're not trying hard enough. I bought $645 worth of books for $147.</p>
<p>You should NEVER buy your books until you've actually been to the class, seen the syllabus and heard the prof's recommendations. a lot of places the prof has to submit their book list to the bookstores really far in advance so that the bookstores can begin to find enough of the right books and have them available, and then the prof changes their mind about something. This is especially true if you are trying to save money on textbooks, because then you only buy what you need. A lot of places won't even let you return an unwrapped book for full price unless you show them you dropped the class.</p>
<p>Believe me, it's worth not having a book for a couple of days or weeks vs buying books you don't need. A lot of times I would let other kids purchase one of the "required" texts, see if it was worthwhile and then decide whether I was going to buy it or not.</p>
<p>ok, but if you found out ur prof. soon eough couldn't you email him and ask which book to buy?</p>
<p>what's the point? You still have to go to class on the first day, where your just going to hear the information about books that you were told in the email. You're going to class anyways, so what's the rush? </p>
<p>And like I said, some texts are required and others "required", let others buy them and see if they're really worth it.</p>
<p>Are you really that anal that you need to have your books for the first day of class?</p>
<p>why don't you just get them.....now?</p>
<p>I figure I'll start looking for my books as soon as I'm registered for my classes and I've found out which books I need. I buy online, from ebay or amazon.</p>
<p>I think it's better to buy your books beforehand... I know people who've waited till after they went to the first class, and it seems like it'll be weeks into the semester and they still haven't gotten their books and can't do the readings and such. If you plan to buy from a bookstore that's on campus and you don't mind standing in line, then by all means, go ahead and wait till after the first day if you want to - in that case, it won't make that big of a difference. In fact, if you are planning to buy from a bookstore, it might be easier to buy after you know for sure what you need, since if you get something you don't use you might lose money or have to deal with return policies and such. However, since I buy online, I have to leave at least two weeks or so for shipping and possible complications, so I buy early. I figure, worst case, I don't need the book, I just put it back up for sale on ebay. If you buy them cheap enough, you might even make a profit that way.</p>
<p>At my school, you buy books the first day of the semester and for the first two weeks of the semester you can sell books you didn't need and buy books you didn't know you needed until you went to class on the first day.</p>