<p>Hi, I would like to know if it is wise to buy books before classes start on Aug. 28th because I went to the Stony Brook book website and saw that each course has a selected textbook to purchase. I do not want to buy them through the bookstore since they're very expensive. I'd rather buy them on eBay or Amazon.</p>
<p>Will these books be the ones recommended by our professors or should I wait until I hear what the professor tell us what books to buy since they can be different.</p>
<p>whywaitforbooks.com will give you the books your prof requested. Sometimes you’ll show up the first day and be told you don’t really need the book, but I tend to buy them online before school starts. </p>
<p>Also, I’ve never had a problem buying older editions of books. They’re often a lot cheaper.</p>
<p>I don’t know about your school, but at my schools I’d usually email the professor weeks before class started. I’ve never bought a book I didn’t need when I’ve done this.</p>
<p>I personally don’t recommend getting the books before. Like barrel said, a lot of times there will be books listed as required but that you will not need at all. If it is a common class like physics, you will need to buy the book for sure, so you might as well get it. But for some classes the book is not used for homework, so it is ok to get older editions. You would have to wait for the professor to clarify it.</p>
<p>Do not know if you have purchased your books yet, but you can try Stony Books, located across form the Railraod Station.</p>
<p>Be careful with Stony Books. Their prices are not always better than the university bookstore, despite their reputation for not being as bad with price gouging. The way their store is set up with all of the stock behind the counter also makes it impossible to pick your own used books (so you cant cherry pick the one that’s barely been touched as opposed to the one with every page scribbled on), and puts more pressure on you to buy everything they’ve brought out. On a few occasions they’ve actually charged $10-$15 more than the official bookstore (the reverse is also often true). Moral of the story: price at both places as well as online sellers before buying. In my experience the main consistent benefit of Stony Books is that they often stock more used copies, and will have those available long after the main bookstore has run out.</p>
<p>The official bookstore in the library say they’ll do price matching now, so that’s nice, especially if your parents got you a bookstore account and you don’t have a choice in where to get them.</p>