<p>When should I buy my texbooks? Should I buy them now or after school starts? I am considering buying from the cal student store if tha helps.</p>
<p>I know numerous people have said this, but do not buy from the student store or neds unless u wanna be ripped off. get ur books online in amazon or half.com or comegetused.com</p>
<p>I think you should wait because sometimes even though on the student store site, it says required text books, sometimes the professor doesn’t even use them. wait for first week of class and see what the professor says.</p>
<p>Usually wait about a week or two before classes officially start. The professor sometimes changes his or her mind as classes near.</p>
<p>Order online ALWAYS, unless you’re fine with paying $20 extra for each book.</p>
<p>Hmm, but doesn’t the Cal student store and Ned’s buy back books that you bought from them? So In the end wouldn’t it come out about the same as buying online for books that you only need once for a class?</p>
<p>You can sell your books online or to students taking the class next semester. Either way, the price that they “buy back” books at is pennies compared to the price you paid for the bok.</p>
<p>I thought they buy back at up to 50% of the price?</p>
<p>Think of buying on Comegetused.com as buying without the middle man. You can buy a used copy of the Norton’s Anthology of 20th Century Literature for $20 at Ned’s, then sell it back for $10 at the end of the semester, and it’s as if you rented it for $10. Or, you can buy a used copy from someone on CGU for $15, then sell it back again for anywhere between $10-20 on CGU after you’re done using it. Even if you lose money selling it back again, at least that money is going to some other poor schmuck who could use it to buy lunch, rather than to a large bookstore.</p>
<p>The problem is that CGU won’t have every single book you’ll need, but that’s what Amazon and Ebay are for. Sometimes people flake on you, but of my thirty or so transactions I haven’t regretted buying or selling any of those books. Plus you get to meet random people. :)</p>
<p>Oh, and to answer the original question, definitely wait until after the first day of class to buy books. If buying online, this can cause a bit of nervousness for those who need to do all reading assignments on time, but you can use expedited or even overnight shipping if necessary and it’ll still usually be cheaper than getting it at the ASUC.</p>
<p>Matt</p>
<p>Hey guys, I’m trying to get a cheap version of “Stewart’s Single Variable Calculus: Early Transcendental.” Any ideas where I can find this book for cheap? Thanks.</p>
<p>check half.com, amazon.com, or comegetused.com</p>
<p>when i took calc here though, we used a custom berkeley edition of that book so you may be forced to buy from the bookstore or comegetused.</p>
<p>although it is just a cut down version of a regular textbook of the same name, edition and authors, selecting only the chapters used here. If you can buy the full text for less than the bookstore price, you are still ahead.</p>
<p>I’m taking IB 141 over the summer and I ordered the book online for $10 cheaper than the store…in the end i wished I had waited a week to get a feel for the class. I have only opened it once and from the look of it nobody else in my class of 150 is reading their textbook either because when she asks a question regarding if it was in the book the whole class goes silent. After a week I knew that the book would be useless and the quizzes, midterm and final would be 100% lecture based. Wish I had waited >.<</p>
<p>Ebay is sometimes nice for textbooks as well. I remember buying a used physics book for a summer class for a decent price</p>
<p>BIGWORDS.com</p>
<p>They compare prices of online textbook retailers (but usually the best price comes from either half.com or textbooks.com)</p>