<p>My music major son is entering his first year. </p>
<p>He needs some pretty expensive music books... </p>
<p>What are the advantages disadvantages of owning versus renting his books (specifically the music books)..</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Rent is still pretty steep. If he forgets to return them, he could mess up his registration depending on the policies. The best route for books is buying used, and selling after you’re done with it. </p>
<p>Sent from my HTC Glacier using CC</p>
<p>DD needs an expensive book for class - about $170. She could rent it for $80. It is a newly published book so hopefully will be used in future years. She gambled to buy it new for $170, then feels she will be able to get at least $120 (and possibly more) to sell it used on Amazon or half.com when she is done with it. She would only need to get $90 to make it equal to renting it. If she rents it, that $80 is gone with no chance to recoup any of it.</p>
<p>Try to buy it used - though that can be difficult if it is a new edition.</p>
<p>Buy used from amazon and then sell back to them. D1 ended up paying only $10 for a book she used in summer school. Some things you need to consider, however, when buying or renting:</p>
<p>Publishers don’t make money on used and rented books. The trend has been to include online access codes with new and used books sold in the bookstore. My own department is requiring all of us who teach particular sections to use the online package for homework. You can lose all savings on a used/rented book if you then have to go to the publisher to buy access codes or other supplements. Some books, like lab manuals, are also risky to buy online or rent because if labs are missing or filled out, you’re in trouble. D1’s summer chem teacher will not accept anything but the lab reports taken directly out of the book itself, no photo copies, etc. Used and rented books are great, but any more, you have to be careful when purchasing.</p>
<p>Ask the professor if you can use an older edition. Also check with other students if the book is even used. </p>
<p>Buy the books used and compare prices on dealoz.</p>
<p>Many schools use the same textbooks for multiple music theory/ear training classes. If this is the case it is less expensive to buy the book than to rent it. The same goes for music history classes (which he is probably not taking as a freshman). It is probably cheaper to buy used.</p>
<p>We looked into renting and the issue we had was that the rental period didn’t match his semester-(it was about 2 weeks short) so the extra 2 weeks got added to the cost making it more expensive than buying a nice used book. We ended up getting our kids’ books almost exclusively through Amazon, used. We also waited until they actually had a class before we bought the book because we discovered many of the “required” books either never got used or got used so seldomly that they could just use them in the library as needed. The professors in class also told the kids which older editions would also work for class. Also, for the gen ed books, the kids on their dorm floor went in together and bought one copy for several kids to use. One semester our oldest paid $30 for books!</p>
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<p>We have run into this issue with my S university. Books are supposedly “customized” for his school, have own ISBN assigned to account for that customization, come with online access codes, etc. His English books cost about $275. The English dept insisted he needed to buy the package offered from the bookstore. Then you can’t sell the books on Amazon, because only his school uses that ISBN. And it ends up out of the 6 required books, they did not even use the most expensive one. I have a supply chain book sitting in front of me that cost a lot of money and it can only be sold to someone else taking course. I am really peeved about this situation. When S went to HS I could always find like new books online much cheaper than his book store sold them for. Now we are locked into school bookstore for many books. We got lucky with one polisci class, the professor sent out an email telling the kids, “any edition will do”.</p>
<p>I have always found it cheaper to buy used/like new than to rent. Even for new editions, it is worth shopping around not everyone sells for list price.</p>
<p>One warning about buying books online. Many sellers ship books media mail which can be very slow. Make sure you know how book will be shipped. Plan on it taking 2 weeks to get any books if shipped media mail. Most won’t take that long, but they can.</p>
<p>Considering the tiny savings compared with the inconvenience and aggravation, I’ve rarely found renting to be worthwhile compared with buying textbooks. </p>
<p>That doesn’t even get into the factor that in both sides of my extended family, it was considered a sign one’s “not taking their education seriously” if one tried “being cheap” about textbooks by not purchasing them…whether used/new. </p>
<p>Instead, they’d rather their undergrads cut the money elsewhere…such as the entertainment/luxuries/non-critical miscellaneous areas of the budget.</p>
<p>I’m a music education major. If he is also music ed, he will need to buy his books. You will use them in the future classes and even on the job. For theory/ear training/history you will want to buy the books because you probably use them for multiple semesters and be able to sell them back to underclassman when done using them.
For general education classes, I would look into a book exchange through the school. I know my school has a facebook page and you can get books much cheaper than in online or through the bookstore.
The on-campus bookstore is overpriced at most schools. Only use that if you can find it no where else.</p>
<p>Useful info, S is also a music major and those books (or book/cd combos) are looking to be the most expensive.</p>
<p>Amazon used seems to be the way to go for most, on a few his college bookstore (BN) seems to have the best deal.</p>
<p>But now I might wait until he actually starts class…I guess reading is not typically assigned the first few days, is that right?</p>
<p>Have not found renting to be cost effective for my kids - some of their most expensive books have been of the “customized” variety.</p>
<p>My oldest was adamant about saving money and purchased online with little time between book list posting and start of class - she ended up sharing a book with a generous dorm mate for almost 3 weeks when shipping was slow. With that one exception, purchasing used online has been the best solution.</p>
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<p>Sounds like the school has found a way to lock in some nice money! </p>
<p>I rented my books in college. It was $20-23 per course for us. I had a psych class which had a $145 book that I opened all of twice. Boy am I glad I didn’t actually have to buy that one!</p>
<p>mamom–Our kids had some of this too but the professors told them which past versions worked too. Often these books only contained the material they would cover in that class and the other books just had more information. This is why we started waiting until they had a class before buying books because they will often let you know that.</p>