<p>I have a freshman who will be taking some of the basic classes (Biology, Western Civilization, etc) When is the best time to buy text books, do you buy some now before classes begin? Where is the best place to start looking - used book store? amazon.com? craigslist? Thanks!</p>
<p>It’s always cheapest to buy your books online from places like amazon.com, half.com, bigwords.com. Books ISBNs are now placed on myBama.</p>
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<p>The ISBN is important because it uniquely identifies your book to the correct title, author, edition, etc.</p>
<p>Now, for a lot of freshman classes, the Supply Store tries to get you by saying you need to get a bundle of textbooks, software, solution manual, etc. But in most cases, you’ll find that the only thing required is the textbook itself. (There are exceptions, though, such as math, where you DO need the bundled software.)</p>
<p>They finally posted the ISBNs for D’s math class & I tried looking for the two items on other sites. Not found, they all said. Finally I went to the publisher site (Pearson) and they are University of Alabama designated textbooks and supplemental materials. Crud. Guess we’ll have to bite the bullet on that class!</p>
<p>How long can you get by without using the textbook? </p>
<p>Because when I was down in Bama last year on my tour, I was talking to a girl in line to check out of the bookstore and she told me to not buy the books right away, some profs don’t even use them and they will tell you whether of not they do. Some will let you use the older version of the same book or a similar older book for less $ she said. She was a hard science major, maybe chem, I don’t remember, not sure if that has something to do with it. </p>
<p>How true has this been in y’all’s experiences? It sort of makes sense, and I guess those classes would be just lecture based…?</p>
<p>Yeah, it’s true that rarely will you need a book on the first day of class. The only exception I can think of are math classes where you will probably have homework assigned at the end of the first lecture.</p>
<p>The instructor will tell you on the first day if a book or other “required” materials are actually needed for the class. Sometimes you will have to take notes on the lecture and sometimes the notes will already prepared and you add to them. Other times, the instructor just doesn’t use a book or software package because they don’t want to. For example, my calculus teacher didn’t use the “required” online homework software because he didn’t require homework and used a more low-tech teaching style. It saved me a good chunk of money.</p>
<p>Some of the books assigned are new editions and are not yet available from other sources. Assigned course materials may not reflect what is actually required or can be used instead of listed materials as some departments require instructors to list a required book regardless if it is ever used. The reasoning I heard (from a reputable source) for this is so those with book scholarships can use their scholarships. I’ve taken to e-mailing every instructor beforehand and asking if something is really required.</p>
<p>I’ve bought books from various websites, craigslist, and the Supestore. There are also other sources like off-campus bookstores. I use an aggregate search engine and choose whichever source has the best prices and fastest shipping. International editions are usually a good deal and often ship quickly.</p>
<p>Note that the Supestore has a new policy where they only buy back books you bought from them, so if the prices are similar and you include the sales tax (9%) on Supestore purchases, it might be better to buy from the Supestore. I’m really glad that ISBN’s are now posted, though it took federal legislation and still we are only given the ISBN-10.</p>
<p>Last semester, I took Biology, Chemistry, Spanish, Human Development, and Medical Ethics. I never actually opened my Chemistry or Human Development books and stopped opening my Biology book after the first week. I read my Medical Ethics book three times last semester. I did use my Spanish book every single day. </p>
<p>Just go ahead and buy the Foreign Language books ahead of time because you will use them. Hold off on the hard science books because a lot of teachers use the notes that come with the books to teach instead of the books themselves. </p>
<p>Also, any books that the SupeStore doesn’t buy back (ones you got off the internet) you can most likely sell at the FedEx store right on the Strip. </p>
<p>It’s not a bad idea to go on Ratemyprofessor.com and see if any students recommend that you buy the book.</p>
<p>We get our books the easy way…LOL…just order them online thru Supe Store. Last year, my kids did find a few books cheaper at the off-campus book store, so they returned those SUPE store books.</p>
<p>The problem with ordering too early or from elsewhere is that kids often change their schedules during the summer…</p>
<p>We’ve ordered through the SupeStore before, but we also got some excellent buys through various used sites, including Amazon.com and abebooks.com.</p>
<p>Hey, I wanted to bump this to share a web site a co-worker recommended.</p>
<p>[Compare</a> Prices on New & Used Textbooks, Cheap Textbooks - GetTextbooks.com](<a href=“http://www.gettextbooks.com/]Compare”>http://www.gettextbooks.com/)</p>
<p>They search by ISB then list vendors by price. You’ll also see the shipping costs and any taxes if you plug in your zip code. It looks like a good place to comparison shop.</p>
<p>Oh, and they list rental sources and prices if that is your preference.</p>
<p>Definitely wait to buy textbooks until after the first day of class. Some profs will use different books, or additional (or less) workbooks, etc.</p>
<p>By far the best textbook search site:</p>
<p>[BookFinder.com:</a> Search for New & Used Books, Textbooks, Out-of-Print and Rare Books](<a href=“http://www.bookfinder.com%5DBookFinder.com:”>http://www.bookfinder.com)</p>