<p>I was wondering if we should purchase books now (online option) or wait until we have our first day of classes to see what books we definitly need.</p>
<p>If you buy the books a couple of days before, or the day of classes, will all of them still be available?</p>
<p>I would buy my books now, but I only can find new versions of calc and chemistry on the my school's book website. English, intro to engineering, and a freshman intro course are not listed on the website.</p>
<p>There are not even used options for the calc and chemistry books, and I don't have the money to spend $500 on new books.</p>
<p>Also, math and chem do not have my instructors listed....</p>
<p>I have the option to buy the books online and they will be ready for me to pick up, but it doesn't seem like they have all the book sin stock yet....even though it's getting close to august 29, the day classes start...</p>
<p>If you want used and can’t get it online, then I’d just wait.</p>
<p>I know it can bug you waiting. I don’t have my books yet either. I don’t even have most of my classes, which we choose at orientation a couple days before classes start. I only know a few music classes that we’re preregistered for as music majors, and I’ve bought my theory books, but that’s it.</p>
<p>Depends, usually I start shopping for books as soon as the book list is available for the classes I have. That way I have time to buy used ones online and still have time for them to arrive and even order a different book if someone sends me the wrong one.
Half of my classes though are using brand new books this year that aren’t available used because they just came out. So, I’m going to wait for the 18th to pick those up because that’s the day my school issues book vouchers from financial aid if you have enough after tuition. Since it’s only a bit different in price between the college bookstore and anywhere else, it’s worthwhile for me to wait and use the book voucher versus putting them on a credit card. I like to have my books in hand a few weeks early so there’s less for me to think about as class approaches plus I get a head start reading through the material.</p>
<p>I get mine the first day financial aid becomes available to use in the bookstore. We don’t get our refunds til 14 days after school starts, but you can charge books AT THE BOOKSTORE to your account. It sucks because they basically rape you on prices but this year I’ll go on the first day we can, the 17th so I can get used books and rental books before they run out.</p>
<p>I either have all mine already or they are ordered and coming my way. I have to spread out my ordering to go with my (tiny) paychecks. Thankfully my dad has offered to give me some money to help offset the costs this year, one of my classes requires four books :0</p>
<p>It’s best to buy at the end of a semester (when everyone is selling) and sell at the beginning (when everyone is buying). It’s also a good idea to email all your professors and make sure the book they “require” is a) really required and b) the correct book / edition. I’ve had profs say “oh yeah that textbook in the booklist wasn’t right”…GRRRRR.</p>
<p>I always wait until after the first class meeting so I know whether the book is actually required or not. I’ll also look up the professor’s website (if available) to see the actual book they use, since often the online book list is wrong.</p>
<p>I always wait 2-3 weeks into the semester. Lets me get my money together, find the best deals, and gives the professor the chance to tell me what books i’ll definitely need for the course or if i’ll need a book at all.</p>
<p>I usually get my books offline (from amazon or half.com) when the books list comes out when ever I can. though at the same time, sometimes you can share, buy from a student, or sometimes you can get by without the book. So I buy my books in advanced (I avoid the school bookstore WHENEVER POSSIBLE), but it is up to you.</p>
<p>Since the list is up I’d order them very soon. I used to buy them and resell them, but lately it’s been a headache so now I just rent them. Renting is so much cheaper.
Buying them at the campus bookstore is a huge waste of time and money.</p>
<p>I usually buy my English books through amazon and start reading them before class begins so I wont be swamped with books. Textbooks, on the other hand, I don’t really care for until the first week of class because they’re so expensive and the teacher can easily change it.</p>
<p>^^ Renting a book is dumb…especially with Chegg’s model. Spend 1/2 the buy price and not own it …brilliant for them, sucks for you. Reselling you can usually make 80%+ back.</p>
<p>depends who you are reselling it to. the university (most I heard of mine included) very rarely give you 80% back. I only sell a couple books back to the bookstore, most i try to sell to other students who will be needing the same books</p>
<p>Yeah never use the campus bookstore for anything unless it can’t be avoided. They charge full retail which is often 50% more than Amazon’s price, and then buy back for 30%.</p>
<p>Ironically my campus bookstore tries to pretend like they sympathize and have links to articles talking about textbooks prices increasing 6x faster than inflation. They also try guilt like “using us keeps your money on campus reinvested in blah blah blah”. Yet they still rape you whenever you buy/sell to/from them.</p>
<p>well like i said i dont buy from them. so to clarify I have been bale ot buy books online and then sell them to the bookstore (if i choose to). yea like i said and the perosn above me, dont buy from the bookstore unless you absolutely have to,</p>
<p>One only cost me $15 to rent and the other was $22.
If I bought from amazon, half, ebay it would have cost me $35 for the one and $45+ for the other…not worth buying and reselling. If I resold them it wouldn’t have made a difference also I’ve bought books and then the next year the publisher puts up a new edition and your lucky to get even $10 for the outdated edition.</p>
<p>^ One of my strategies is to get a book from the library or buy it if not available, take pictures of all the pages (easy to do nowadays and only takes 40 minutes for a 1000 page book), and then immediately turn around and resell it as like new. Eliminates the chance of a new edition screwing over resale value and you can get 90%+ recovery.</p>
<p>(I only do this for books that aren’t already available (cough…illegally) online)</p>