<p>Does having a different edition, if it’s off by 1 or 2, cause any real problems?</p>
<p>^ I used a 3rd edition that I borrowed from my friend in art history last semester when the course required a 4th. A few things were different but for the most part, it worked great and saved me $100.</p>
<p>SSSmomof3,
you have to make sure that by even using an older edition of the book, your classmates(or your kids’ in this case) do not gain an edge just because their books are more current. Find out if exams are going to be open book, or if some things have to be printed directly or the book. Most of the time though, it’s perfectly fine. I remember that for thermo, we had to look up these values from the tables listd in the back of the book and its open book, but some of the older ones were missing some columns of numbers, so I had to make copies of those missing tables and asked my prof for approval to use during exam. It worked out fine in the end.
Equations are always the same, but the page number in which they appear could be slightly off.</p>
<p>Well it depends on the book…my BIO textbook was one edition behind the one suggested and all the chapters were different and it was missing some content.</p>
<p>Question: in general, how much time does one have to purchase books - IOW, are class booklists published sufficiently ahead of time of the class start dates to get them mailed? For the cost savings, I’d go expedited (extra couple of bucks).</p>
<p>Half.com or Amazon, I agree, kids give me books they don’t want anymore and I list them on Half.com, more money for books!</p>
<p>Amazon all the way.</p>
<p>Though, one time, the bookstore was actually cheaper than Amazon (occurred weeks before the class started).</p>
<p>Amazon FTW!</p>
<p>The advantage of renting is you don’t have to worry about selling the book back. Period.
Unless your VERY good with money it doesn’t make sense to by 1000$ worth of books, when you can rent them for 150-200$ . For one, most students don’t have an extra 800$ hanging around .</p>
<p>Chegg is reliable and will get you your books in 3 days , I hate the drama of selling books back . Buying used books off amazon is like praying the person who sends you the books sends them on time , real fun when your getting behind in classes . </p>
<p>Generally do this, compare prices, I have a 230$ math book I rented for like 40$ . If your taking a class your not sure your gonna keep then rent, since you can turn back in a rental with like 21 days .</p>
<p>I first look in the library which really never works, and then for torrents on demonoid, piratebay, some Russian sites, and others. If I find an older edition I’ll probably settle with it, unless the price of a new book is reasonable (Dover editions are good). To get the correct homeworks I’ll use a friend’s book, or go to the bookstore and take pictures of the homework problems. Neither one is available all the time so I’ll ask the professor if I can take a picture from his/her book.</p>
<p>If I can’t find the book that way well, then I’ll go to the bookstore and buy a new edition of the book. Luckily my school has a full return policy within x number of days. And luckily my school has a very efficient, free to use scanner/copier that is available almost 24/7 - certainly it’s possible to use it for an hour or two without seeing anyone. I don’t really bother with the secrecy though, I just stick in a USB, copy the pages(could take an hour or two), collate them with ABBYY (torrented previously) and then upload a torrent to demonoid if I’m feeling like it. And then I just return the book and get all my money back. I might keep the book on my computer exclusively or put it on my kindle for mobility.</p>
<p>If the class has open book exams I ask the professor for his understanding and usually s/he’ll let me use the book on my computer. Otherwise I’ll print out some useful pages, or just freeball it. I can’t rent the book for a brief time and then return it because my bookstore only sells books near the beginning of semesters.</p>
<p>^HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA reply of the year</p>
<p>==</p>
<p>Seriously though - I just get the book off torrents or library.nu, and then use free printing to print the ENTIRE textbook (4 pages a sheet). :D</p>
<p>From Amazon.</p>
<p>What’s an international edition?</p>
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</p>
<p>Some publishers produce editions to be sold cheaply in countries like India and China. Technically they can’t be legally sold in the US, but you can buy them online.</p>
<p>Thanks ThisCouldBeHeavn.</p>
<p>Say on Amazon, should I type [ISBN] International Edition or what?</p>
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<p>I was under the impression that even though the publisher “prohibits” them from being sold in the US, it is perfectly legal to do so.</p>
<p>That may be true. I know that you can’t buy/sell them on half though, and maybe not amazon either. Usually I’ve had to get them from smaller, less reputable sites. I haven’t had any problems though.</p>
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<p>I think there’s been one book during my time in college that I couldn’t buy somewhere for a lower price than was available on Chegg. Unfortunately that was because the book’s publication date was after the start of the quarter, so Chegg wouldn’t have been able to send it to me until 3 or 4 weeks into the quarter. So it ended up costing me an extra $25. Of course this way I still have the book…</p>