Yesterday I was talking to a grandmother of a college sophomore. I have a college freshman. I mentioned my daughter was finishing up the semester and that she had returned a book rental (never used the book and doesn’t need it for finals) and sold back a book she has no need for which had been purchased new from Amazon for $4. She got $2. After I found the book new on Amazon for $4 with free prime shipping I didn’t look for a used book but will try to with more expensive books. If the description of a used book is pretty bad then we will spend more money but if it is is just normal wear and tear that is fine.
For textbooks the plan is to try and get used or rentals depending on the prices when we can but we know some may need codes etc so new books will be needed at times. For us it is a way of saving money when we can. I would rather return a book that my daughter knows she will never want to look at again.
The grandmother was shocked that 1 we would every consider getting used books and 2 my daughter isn’t saving her books. One is a general class in her major but wasn’t used and she now has a pdf. The other was a general ed music class to fulfill an art requirement and not a book she would want to read again.
I was surprised by how adament the grandmother felt about used books. She said stuff like there is no way her granddaughter would ever read a textbook someone else has already read. She mentioned highlighting so I said if you get it used in the campus bookstore you can look for a used book without highlighting/underlining etc. Nope not her granddaughter. The girl lives with her parents but the grandmother will pay for all books to avoid used books. She can’t sell them back because they are reference books.
For all I know it is unusual that my daughter is content with used books when appropriate. Does anyone have a strong preference for new books or keeping the book? For books in the direct major my daughter will probably want to keep at least some of them and that is fine. The cheap book she would have given to another student taking it in the spring semester but didn’t know anyone.
A book in my major or one for a course that has a follow-up, I’ll probably keep, otherwise I might just rent. A book that I know/think I might reference again, I’ll buy new or “gently used.” A $4 book isn’t something I would even have a conversation with someone about, but unless it’s a book that is used for class discussion that requires flipping to (e.g. as Lear says to Cordelia beginning IV,7,2965…), I’d probably get the ebook.
Most of what mine used, they would never use again. They certainly used rentals.
“no way her granddaughter would ever read a textbook someone else has already read.” So her granddaughter only buys new books for pleasure, too? Never reads a library book? Absurd.
OP, I think you’re going about this the right way. Don’t let the grandmother bug you. Ths is about college performance, not some need to hold a perfectly new book in your hands, as if older had cooties or made you look “poor.” Or hang on to everything, as if a full bookcase akes you look smarter.
When my older was in college, it was not as common to rent books, but she did buy used as much as she could have. It was annoying when a professor wants a specific edition of a book. By the time D2 was in college she rented or bought used books as much as she could. Now that she is in law school, I notice she rents quite a few books, because I get emails from Amazon to remind her to return her books or pay 100+/book.
For books that may be referenced later, we kept. Sometimes the price difference was small enough that we bought new, but we also bought plenty of used when the books were in good shape (no highlighting). Some college bookstores will price match, so that’s a great option because you can inspect the used books ahead of time.
Back when that grandmother went to college, it’s very possible that all college books were purchased new, and they were certainly not purchased online. The campus bookstore had the monopoly on text sales. And probably everything bought was kept because those bookstores gave you a dime on the dollar for anything you sold back to them.
When I graduated from college…in the Stone Age… I had all of my books. I schlepped them around with me for years. Eventually, they went to…the town landfill.
I think students now keep only essential books. Plus, they often have online access to the same information.
Times have changed…and perhaps that is what that grandmother was dealing with.
Also, with used books, if you got to the bookstore early, you could find used ones that were basically new (unread). If you got there late, the remaining used books were the beat up ones with highlighting and markings all over them. Perhaps the grandmother got to the bookstore late and found only the latter used books.
My D has rented nearly every single book. Its wonderful. I think back about the $200 text books I had to buy then stored for decades only to throw them out. And Grandma is just another of the “my kid is too good for XXX”, ignore her cuz if that’s the way the student is being raised she’ll have her hands full trying to get her launched.
Some books are used 2 semesters or are with keeping for reference for subsequent courses, so buying vs renting may be cheaper. International versions are often cheaper, too.
In terms of new vs used, did the student never check out a library book? Highlight or written in books can be annoying, but there are different categories of used.
Does she think they remove the ink with their eyeballs? Or maybe they are gross because they might have been read naked in bed? Used book stores are some of my favorite places. I order used books all the time from ebay or amazon.
Last year, I started listing my and H’s old college texts on ebay. So far I have sold probably 30 and cleared some shelf space. Clearly, said grandma/granddaughter are in the minority in thinking other people’s used books have cooties or something.
I have to pay for S23’s texts. This year, I tried to save some money and bought a used version of his text. The same supplier who works with the school to sell the new textbooks also sells used at a discount. The first book that arrived had a swastika and profanity on it. That went back. The second book’s cover fell off in less than 2 months. I’m with grandma on this one. No more used books.
Yes – the worst used books in the bookstore were beat up far worse than anything in the library and/or heavily written in. But the bookstore had the same price for those as for barely read like-new used books.
Buying used books that you can check the condition of before buying can make sense. Buying used books sight unseen means relying on the supplier’s claim of condition. If the supplier is unreliable in this respect, you have to assume that the book will be beat up far worse than anything in the library and/or heavily written in.
It is a wonderful world of options our kids have today.
Mine do a combination of ebooks, rentals and purchasing. We do new, we do used, we have done ‘international version.’
Because we have had some great experiences and found great deals, we then pass that sense of “great find!” on to the next person when we sell our books. (We will sell for each other.)
My oldest kid sold a normally outrageously expensive college math textbook to a young man who drove about 30 minutes to get it. My kid’s asking price was really a giveaway, and the purchaser tried to insist that he take more money for it.
“Nope,” my kid told him. “My mother would be really upset with me if I did that.”
My son got a great deal on Amazon today. He needed a computer programming textbook (which he plans on keeping) and it was $75 new or $56 used at the college bookstore.
He found the same ISBN number for $46 with a 10% coupon and used promo code GIFTBOOK18. The promo code takes $5.00 off when you spend $20.00 or more (on books shipped and sold by Amazon.com) so his total including tax for a new textbook was $39. His bookstore does price match, but they didn’t have it in stock.
D buys her own books, though I helped her look first semester of first year. Now she does a combo of PDF and used, and often works out purchase/sale with others at her college. Easy when you know others in your major who are a little older (to buy) or younger (to sell).
I notice as she moves through that there are fewer traditional textbooks and more original source materials and papers. Her worst semester was the first, featuring a $400 Spanish textbook (!).
Also in her field things change quickly so textbooks don’t make much sense, they would be out of date too quickly. Certainly keeping old ones would be silly.
Most of my daughter’s books were e-books. There were a few classes she needed actual books, so found what she could used, and bought the rest new. We were pleasantly surprised that she was way under what we had planned for book expenses.
Does Grandma know how much this stuff runs every semester? It’s…a lot. Going used/renting is more the norm these days - getting things on the cheap is a badge of honor for many college students.
Between books, iClickers, access codes, and homework (yes, some professors require homework that you have to PAY for), my kid would get nickeled and dimed to death if she got new everything (books and other educational materials like this are on her). I think she’s had to buy one workbook from the student store in 5 semesters so far - everything else has come used or rented via Amazon, PDF’s, Free and For Sale (UC Berkeley Facebook for this kind of stuff), the school library. The skills she’s acquired to manage her money and seek out resources to get the best deals have more than outweighed the convenience of walking into the student store with a list and $500+ each semester.