I feel your pain. It's absolutely BS what they charge for the books, and even more so how often hey release a "new edition" that literally has NO substance behind the change, but then makes your obsolete and you can't sell it.

I wish the government would get involved somehow, it truly is a form of extortion IMO.

 

Almost as much as a trip to the lake.

 

A trip to the lake (including wrecking) will cost about the same as books... and the lake is a whole lot more fun.

 

Ahh yes, college textbooks... I always try to find the information way ahead of tiem about what books will require then I start looking for it on ebay, amazon, and even craigslist. I rarely pay the full price for the book and when I do its usually because I just signed upf or the class like two days before it started and I have no choice.
With craigslist and some other sources like ebay, you just want to make sure you check volume numbers, otherwise you're going to get a textbook thats volume 5 instead of 6, and it'll be useless, even though its the same information for the most part.

I think the best deal I ever got on textbooks was when I signed up for accounting class. I went in to buy the book and brought a book with met hat was a year or two old that I knew I'd never use again, so just to see what they'd pay me for it. They ended up paying me $40 for it, most I ever got from a book. Then while I'm waiting in line, the guy in front of me is trying to sell them his old accounting book (the exact one I needed) back from the previous semester, they offered him $7.50, I offered him $10, and boom had a nice $100 book for $10 .

The most expensive textbook I ever bought was for a business class, was a brand new book so no used ones availabel through the bookstore OR online... cost me $195, and ended up being one of the most useless books I ever bought. But if you go to a school that has medical classes as well, go look at those book prices, eek!

 

I got greedy with my Water Hydraulics and Engineering Physics books, wanted the money when I sold them back. Now I'm wishing I hadn't, I could use those references at least once a month in my job.

My Thermodynamics book on the other hand, I shed a happy tear when I sold that one back.

 

Ditto... I kept a couple physics books, a PLC book and a couple others I can't remember, but they're all so outdated (which other than the physics books, they were when I bought them), that they're useless... I find the internet is a much more useful resource than any book, especially college text books.

I don't understand why they still require that trash. Let students spend that money on a good laptop that they can use for other stuff, and find the info they need on the net. Well, I guess I do understand. College is not about educating the masses its about making money, and showing off your football team... but that's another big gripe of mine that I won't get into...

 

Since others have come to the defense of oil companies and republicans, I'll defend college textbook prices.

As with any manufactured good there are fixed costs involved followed by cost per unit.
The greater the volume produced, the more the 'fixed cost' is spread per unit.

'Harry Potter' prints 20 million copies.
Fixed costs are divided by 20 million and the book could go for 3 bucks.

An 'Accounting 101' book used at maybe 20 schools with 200 students at each
has it's fixed costs divided by 4,000 copies and a retail of $90.

(I kept that book, give it a read)

 

What, college shouldn't be about athletics?

Signed,
Football players in their Junior year with an undeclared major.

 

$170 for a CAD book we used as a "reference manual". All our work was done on the PC. LoL.

Amazon and Half.com FTW! As long as you know the correct ISBN # at least 2 weeks in advance.

 

Lumadar,

You cant be a republican and go around making statements like that

Is that the Roush valance on your truck? It looks great.

 

Actually, the correct form of the word is "they're" as in "they are". Perhaps you might want to add an English book to that list.....

Just kidding!

 

I feel everyone's pain...

However, being a Bio/philosophy major, I can really feel the burn of book prices...and I echo everyone who says to buy online.

Thank the Good Lord that I taking my last final ever on fri! It's Ochem though, so life sucks right now...

Ochem lecture text: 285
Ochem Lab text: 190
Lab manual/supplement: 25
Lab notebook: 25

Total for one course: 525...I can think of soo many things to do to my truck for that chunk of change.



And I havn't even started on my majors-level bio course books/lab books etc.

 

My roommate just bought 4 books and the total was $450.