<p>^title</p>
<p>Find good deals, buy new or used, keep your textbooks in fantastic condition throughout the year, wait until the season is right to sell, and hope your editions aren't outdated. I only made a profit because some store fudged up my order last year and I got a free book, but that book only sold for $60. Without it, I would almost break even at around 95% of my money back. Take that, cheggheads.</p>
<p>That’s good to hear …thanks for the advice! :D</p>
<p>@rymd: On my school’s bookstore website they also give you the option to but used or rent a textbook. Are those used prices legit or should I look elsewhere for better prices?
I know this has been asked a million times but what are some websites you can find good deals on used books? besides Amazon? When is it a good idea to rent instead of a used book?</p>
<p>Never buy any book from a school bookstore unless you need the book immediately. For used books, I never bothered to look outside Abebooks, Amazon, and ebay. I like Abebooks because they have nice sellers who price books below everywhere else and they sell international editions. Most of my books were bought low on Abebooks, and sold high on Amazon. I think some people also say half.com is good as well. I don’t think it’s ever a good idea to rent books, even when the book is rare or you only need it for a few weeks, but others will tell you otherwise. If a book is in good condition, you haven’t lost money until you’ve sold it for lower, just like an investment. With renting, you lose money as soon as you rent because it’s a service.</p>
<p>I sold books on half.com last semester and got $600 out of them, you can def make money doing it, or recoup money…</p>
<p>99% of the time you won’t make money. On Amazon, I lose 10% of the book price off the bat due to selling fees. Plus, it’s very rare for the price of a book to increase (the exception being “rare” textbooks that are out of production but still current edition). Usually the longer a book is in production, the more copies are available => the more available to be sold => more people competing to have the lowest price.</p>
<p>I have made a profit when sellers “just want to get rid of” their books and sell them for half what the current lowest price is. But that isn’t often.</p>
<p>I was able to do that some years in high schools and not other years.</p>
<p>My senior year, they decided to only take back like one of my textbooks… such a total ripoff. And the books that I bought for $60 are now only selling for like $8. :(</p>
<p>It really sucks when teachers assign paperback books, because those almost NEVER keep their value. They’re cheaper in the shortrun, but more expensive in the longrun and aren’t as reliable. :-/</p>
<p>It really sucks when high schools make you buy your books.
UAKid, AUGirl, lol.
@UAKid I know, it’s very very unlikely but this year I got lucky with prices. Even with Amazon taking 15% and ebay taking 5%, I still went positive.</p>
<p>I didn’t get so lucky this semester, I sold one for $10 more than I paid for it, but, everything else is no longer in use and has dropped in value significantly. A text I paid $90 for at the beginning of summer 8 weeks ago in used condition now is only selling for $5 on Ebay because now there’s a new one.
As luck would have it, for 4 of my classes this fall its all new books. Like, just released books so there are no used copies yet. Aargh.</p>
<p>^^ Don’t get me started on “new books” . I’ve got some where I know the only thing they change between editions is the front cover and a few numbers in the chapter problems. Physics books up to the 20th edition…seriously intro physics concepts hasn’t changed in over a century.</p>
<p>Makes me feel good about downloading pirated copies of textbooks and making sure the publisher doesn’t get a penny.</p>
<p>I’ve only got one instructor this upcoming semester who says you can use the older edition, but she adds that she hasn’t compared them and that your responsible for any new information in the newer edition. There are a couple that I’ll be renting instead this year as I don’t trust them to still be in use by the end of the semester and I don’t want to be stuck with another book that goes from $90 to just about nothing.</p>
<p>I always made a profit of a few hundred dollars using amazon. I even bought my books new.</p>
<p>I bought a used Business Calculus book online last semester for $11. The college bookstore bought it back for $65 after the semester.</p>
<p>@lakerace: I’ve done that before. Sell a book you didn’t even buy from the bookstore. It almost feels fraudulent…but it’s not. The bookstore has a demand for a book, they didn’t say they had to be the original seller. </p>
<p>Personally, I do extensive researching to find the best deal (compilation websites like bigwords) and crosscheck the regular sites. Usually gives me a cheap book. A differential equations book I need for winter term costs almost $150 in the bookstore, I found it for $35 including shipping online. Even including the solutions manual, I’ll be under $90.</p>
<p>^ A lot of the time those “cheap books” are international editions (unless it’s a really common old edition). I don’t buy those ever because I know the chapter problems are sometimes different or the diagrams are black and white when they’re meant for color.</p>
<p>I also don’t buy anywhere but ebay and amazon (amazon usually has lowest price anyways). Even there I’ve had sellers send wrong edition numbers or even the wrong book…way easier to get problems resolved on Amazon over Abebooks or [insert random site here].</p>
<p>Just sayin’…can be a bit of russian roulette trying to get a good price on a textbook.</p>