College Textbooks

<p>The amount I had to pay last semester for books was insane. Between tuition and housing, I came so close to breaking the bank due to the amount of money I had to spend on books. If you’re as frustrated as I am, go to <a href=“http://www.cheapesttextbooks.com/”>Buy College Textbooks</a> where you can get the most up-to-date editions at a fair price.</p>

<p>Don’t forget to check Craigslist especially if you are near the college. Sometimes students will sell their books there rather than through Ebay or Amazon, and you can get a deal.</p>

<p>s is going to school OOS. Will Amazon ship to his dorm room. Has anybody out there shipped to a dorm room. Please share your experience. I’d love to save money on books.</p>

<p>I have shipped to my S’s dorm room.</p>

<p>I just used his mailing address and the packages went to the school’s package room. He then got a text that a package was being held for him.</p>

<p>The school had directions on how it handles packages posted on their website. Very straight forward.</p>

<p>Amazon will ship, as long as you have a street address to use.</p>

<p>All this complaining about textbooks is like buying a car and then complaining that you have to put gas in it.</p>

<p>FYI, there is a new legal requirement, effective July 1, 2010:</p>

<p>effective July 1, 2010 (to the maximum extent feasible) the International Standards Book Number (“ISBN”) and retail price for required and recommended textbooks and supplemental materials for each course listed on the schedule (posted on the web or print course schedule). If no ISBN is available, the institution may provide the textbook’s author, title, publisher, and copyright date. If the disclosure is not practical for a certain text, a designation of <em>to be determined</em> can be noted. Written course schedules should indicate where on the university web page this info will be posted. HEOA encourages schools to disseminate information regarding book rentals, used textbooks, buy back programs, and alternative delivery programs or other cost saving strategies. Schools shall make available to the college bookstore, upon request, the most accurate information regarding the course schedule for the next academic period and for each course offered, the information described above, the number of students enrolled in such course, and the maximum enrollment for each class. </p>

<p>I work in IT at a university and we added links to our course look-up for all ISBN and course materials.</p>

<p>Also, just a warning - I was trying to find a book for a church study, and discovered that the more I searched for the book online, the more the price went up. Evidently some of the sites (like Amazon) adjust their prices based on the number of searches/demand for the book. The booklet I was searching for, which was originally $7, went up to over $600 by my constant searching. </p>

<p>My daughter has an app on her iphone that allows her to take a picture of the bar code and then it looks for the best price.</p>

<p>college-query
Can you explain further your experience with looking for that book for a church study? Do you think that your searching alone was responsible for the change in price? To change from $7 to $600 is quite extraordinary! Was this book for sale by Amazon or by a different vendor who was selling through Amazon?</p>

<p>What in interesting/terrifying development!</p>

<p>Question: so the international edition of a book should be OK? What about if the description says it was an examination copy?</p>

<p>College query, This new law that you reference in your post…is that a federal law or regulation or is it a state mandate? </p>

<p>Thanks for the information.</p>

<p>^^ The law, in English:</p>

<p>[Gray</a> Plant Mooty » Resources » Newsletters](<a href=“http://www.gpmlaw.com/resources/newsletters/education-law-update-november-edition.aspx]Gray”>http://www.gpmlaw.com/resources/newsletters/education-law-update-november-edition.aspx)</p>

<p>In jargon:</p>

<p>[Higher</a> Education Opportunity Act - 2008](<a href=“http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html]Higher”>Higher Education Opportunity Act - 2008)</p>

<p>I sell books on Amazon as one of their 3rd-party vendors and can assure everyone that merely searching for a title does not raise the price. The problem in college_query’s instance could well have been sudden demand for an out-of-print title with few copies available. All it would take is for a single classroom to adopt a hard-to-find title and everyone in the class would find themselves fighting for a limited number of immediately available copies. Naturally, the cheapest ones go first!</p>

<p>I should note that when you see a copy on Amazon, on Half, on B&N, Alibris and ABE, these listings may all be of a single copy being offered in multiple places. There is database software that removes the cross-listings from everywhere, once a sale has been made. Over time, a high selling price will help to locate additional copies, but not necessarily within the few weeks needed for a class.</p>

<p>Here’s one general money-saving tip for buying used editions: buy early or late, the highest textbook prices occur when immediate demand exceeds immediate supply, usually the two weeks before class starts and the first two weeks of class. Buy early or attempt to share for a few weeks and you can save $20-$40 per title, either because you get first pick of the cheapest copies available or because you are buying when demand has dropped.</p>

<p>The booklet I was searching for was an out-of-print lenten study from a prior year. Our denominational resource center had a copy of it; our committee wanted to do that study instead of the current one, and asked me to get additional copies for it. I found a few which I purchased for the list price, but it seemed the more I searched the higher the price went - which is when it went from $7 to $600. I really can’t imagine there being a large demand for the book, but I did do internet searches for every vendor I could - some would have it listed, and I would get all the way down to the check-out cart, when they said it was unavailable. Needless to say I didn’t purchase them at the $600 price!</p>

<p>Based upon what was posted in post #46, do your students have lists of textbooks posted on their schedules, or posted next to the name of the course/section?</p>

<p>@RobD - an examination copy is a book that a professor got for free from the publisher to “examine” in order to decide whether to use it for a course. Often the cover will be different - usually a smaller image of the “student” cover accompanied by large print that says NOT FOR RESALE - but the contents are the same. Whoever is reselling this book is doing so in violation of the examination agreement with the publisher and is contributing to higher prices for the rest of us.</p>

<p>To answer northeastmom, we now have it linked so when anyone searches the university schedule and looks at what’s offered, they can see what books are required for each class.</p>

<p>Previously, we had it set up so after a student registered for a course, they could see their required textbooks based upon their registration.</p>

<p>college_query, that is great! I wonder if most schools are doing this. I have not seen a book list for my son, but his schedule is online.</p>

<p>My son was able to send an email to 4 out of 5 professors. Only 2 have responded so far. I am happy that 2 have responded, especially the one who is going to use a text with a list price that is over $200!</p>

<p>Northeastmom, have your son call the secretary of the department which offers the class. The secretary should have a master list of required textbooks – that’s the person who usually contacts the campus bookstore about which titles to order.</p>

<p>LoremIpsum, thanks for that tip! This would not have occured to me!</p>

<p>I would hesitate to bother the professors with this… My son’s school recently added the ISBN’s to the bookstore online listing which is by section not class. I was advised to wait until the first day (to see if the prof really wants them to buy), but I’m going to order them as soon as he registers at orientation next week. With a savings of 50-70% even if I’m wrong a couple of times I will still come out ahead and will just turn around and sell any extras back. The books are marked required/optional, so at least I’ll get all the “required” ones. </p>

<p>I’m pretty good at competitive shopping, so I told my son I would order them for him.</p>

<p>i’ve actually already ordered all my books for my anthropology courses for this fall. I saved over $50 from what i would pay at my school for used :/</p>

<p>I know the prof requires these ones for a fact, because i’ve spoken with students who have taken the courses before :P</p>

<p>also, i went through amazon, their not too bad. B&N can be good if they do a sale/promotion thingy.</p>