Buying Books

<p>Do you have to buy books from the Penn Book store? Or can you get them from Amazon or Barnes and Nobles for cheaper prices. I searched on my own but I couldn't find the same exact versions of the textbooks. Just wondering if anyone found copies outside of the penn bookstore.</p>

<p>you can buy them anywhere. i hate the bookstore for charging so much for texts. only buy from them if it is custom upenn material</p>

<p>hey you don’t have to order online from the bookstore right? you can just walk right in and pick up the texts if they’re in stock right?? does the bookstore run out of textbooks a lot during NSO when prob most ppl are buying texts?</p>

<p>I bought everything from Amazon and saved about $100. Just go to the bookstore and check the ISBN number. You can input that straight into amazon’s search.</p>

<p>half.com is also a cheaper alternative. Just be careful to read the comments and buy from the more experienced sellers.</p>

<p>help plz: can’t find the ISBN for any of the books on the bookstore website.</p>

<p>Also just a tip - if you’re buying a lot of stuff from Amazon this month, you can activate their Amazon Prime free trial, which will give you free 2-day shipping. Just make sure to cancel it before your trial is over.</p>

<p>half.com > Amazon as far as prices are concerned. Just called up the bookstore and they gave me the numbers (although were rather annoyed at me for asking).</p>

<p>Nothing is final but my 1st semester books will cost $300-$400. Buying all used and only required. Bookstore wanted to charge $850 for similar items.</p>

<p>Will i need books for all my subjects? for example a class like geology where the book is not specified. also do i need books for writing seminars. </p>

<p>also does the edition matter? i can find the earlier editions online at amazon/half.com but cannot find the newest edition. But the book is so much cheaper online.</p>

<p>no, not all classes have books</p>

<p>some just have bulkpacks of documents to read</p>

<p>however geology and writing seminars should have books…</p>

<p>edition can matter if content changes significantly between versions, better to ask to be sure</p>

<p>It’s usually wise to get your books online just because it’s so much cheaper to do so.</p>

<p>You CAN get them at the bookstore if you’re willing to pay a larger price premium for the convenience of having the correct books in your hand immediately from a store right on campus. But, if you can find the books online, you’ll usually save a lot of money.</p>

<p>If you’re in Wharton, there will occasionally be bulkpacks that you have to get from Wharton Reprographics down in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, but that can’t really be avoided.</p>

<p>Not all classes have books, and even if they do, you don’t always need those books, even though it’s usually a good idea.</p>

<p>Sometimes older editions work just as well, but you should talk to your professors to make sure that the book will be appropriate. Sometimes lecture notes will reference page numbers/sections in the book, and if your edition is older, those page numbers may be slightly different, or those sections may be gone altogether in your edition. Again, though, talk to your professor about that sort of thing.</p>