<p>Check out <a href="http://www.collegebooks4you.com%5B/url%5D">www.collegebooks4you.com</a> if you have used college books to sell or are looking for used college books to buy. A friend told me about it and said it was new and they need some people to sign up to get it going. Everything is free since it is new. I posted my used book. So anyway check it out there is a special section just for UMD and Hood. I also saw a function where you can suggest new categories.</p>
<p>half.com 4 life. I've already sold $80 worth of books, without taking into account shipping costs which I have been really nice about mailing books out 2 day Priority USPS. But definitely half.com is awesome. I think I would get phillips screwdrivered over if I sold them back to the college bookstore. No way I'm getting f-d over twice. I'm buying on half.com for this semester's books and scanning a book that I got from the library.</p>
<p>you should also be safe using the venders linked through Amazon. I've ordered a number of college textbooks that way. Amazon has a mechanism for straightening it out if there's a problem with a vendor, in additional to a system for rating venders. So the venders have every incentive to make customers happy. The one time I had a problem (wrong edition of the book), I was refunded immediately. I even got to keep the book.</p>
<p>Yes, there is some risk with buying used online but the savings of buying used is incredible and well worth any risk. I second texas137's recommendation of Amazon. I have to buy a $54 book, but bought it used for $1.52 on Amazon! (If you're a cheapie like me, orders can take a while to ship, but I've never had a problem with them not getting to me.) I will be trying half.com for next semester.</p>
<p>Looking for bargains and buying books are 2 things that make me happy so this used college textbooks business is "fun" for me!</p>
<p>I've ordered books all my books off of half.com and amazon and i've only had problems with one book. All the money I have saved was worth having a problem with one book.
There is nothing better than finding your 120 dollar calc book for 40 dollars online! Isn't there a saying "the greater the risk the greater the reward" :-). anyways half.com is just like ebay, it's owned by ebay, and obviously people use ebay like no other and there are ways to get your money back if your order never arrives.</p>
<p>I don't know how well digital text books would work. obviously that requires everyone to have a computer, and at community colleges and such a lot of people i know can't afford a laptop. If they had to do homework at school what would they do? That's just like when they claimed all books were going to be moving to computer form but it hasn't really happened so far. People like having physical books and not doing everything on the computer. I know i wouldn't want to have to read my textbooks off of a computer screen!</p>
<p>True... Publishing Companies are also working on an ink that dissapears in a little over one year. This allowes people to use books, and not laptops.</p>
<p>"True... Publishing Companies are also working on an ink that dissapears in a little over one year. This allowes people to use books, and not laptops."</p>
<p>That would just entice me to use digital copies which never disappear.</p>
<p>Uhh...hackers will get around that 1 year expiration thing. Gotta love hackers. There will be pirated versions that never expire, and they will be widely available on Kazaa and Limewire. I love this new book revolution! Only suckers will pay for books, just like how only suckers pay for music and games and software.</p>
<p>This ought to teach those cheapo publishing companies who want to sell us ink that expires!</p>
<p>Hahaha... you think Publishing Companies will succum to hackers, and low-lifes that want to steal their goods. The Publishing companies always have been, and always will be one step ahead of the hackers. Just wait and see... withen five years, you will be forced to buy new textbooks every year, and you will have no choice otherwise. And anyone who even attempts to hack a program or file will be sent to jail for a real long time.</p>
<p>LOL the hackers are ALWAYS one step ahead. If mircosoft, the recording industry, the movie industry, and the gigantic software companies couldn't stop them, what makes you think the puny publishing companies can? College students are the ones doing most of the digital stealing. Once textbooks hit the digital market, bye bye publishing companies. At least, bye bye outrageous profits. 100 dollars for a book?! Psshhh. Unbelieveable margins. </p>
<p>"And anyone who even attempts to hack a program or file will be sent to jail for a real long time."</p>
<p>No they won't. My friends at MIT are die-hard hackers and there's no way anybody will catch them. First of all, they are too smart to be caught. Second of all, there's no concerted effort being made to catch them. Third, even if they do get caught, they'll just get a slap on the wrist. Textbooks should be free! (and they will be :) )</p>
<p>P.S. Thank Stanford for graduating the people who founded Google, which is leading the digital book effort. Also thank MIT for providing some much needed hacking.</p>
<p>Text Books will never be free... and you will have to pay for them forever. The only difference, is that you will have to buy a new book every year. And the Margins are not that unbelievable if you take into account costs, and R&D, and the people who used to buy used books.</p>
<p>There is a very active effort against people trying to cheat the Publishing company. About a year ago, there were a few people shipping books from Inda, which were cheaper, to the US. The Publishing companies got them all, and there are cases pending. Most likely, they will have to pay huge fines, and go to jail for a little while. That should teach them...</p>
<p>Anyways, stealing data is a very low thing to do, and I am glad the RIAA is activly sueing individuals slealing music.</p>
<p>Yet the RIAA is still largely unsuccessful. You can't beat the hackers, because they are constantly evolving and changing their methods. Text books will indeed be free for the tech savvy. Right now, virtually all software, games, music, and movies are free for the tech savvy. I don't see how textbooks are any different. Since college students tend to be the most tech savvy of them all, I'd expect textbooks to be virtually free. The people who actually pay for them will pay very high costs, while the rest of us will be chillin'. The publishing companies are going to go down. You can't prevent the internet revolution. It's unstoppable. The hackers are smarter than the publishers, so they will prevail.</p>