Buying textbooks online

[spursfan09]

I have been shopping for my college textbooks online, because buying them at the used bookstores around campus are so expensive. So anyway I noticed that the international editions of the textbooks I need are significantly cheaper than those that are not. Does anybody know if buying these international books are worth it? Has anybody used one for class?

[ashbeeigh]

Be careful and make sure they have exactly the same material. I bought what I thought was the same edition of a college algebra book once and got to class the first day and found it wasn't the same one. I think the safest thing to do would be to check the ISBN. If the ISBN is the same then they're the same and you won't be SOL like I was.

[baseline bum]

I had friends bring me pirated copies from China and Iran for $4-$8 each. Textbooks are often huge wastes of money in classes. There's no reason to buy a book for $120 unless it's a well-written book worth keeping after the class is over.

Some of my math classes used horrible textbooks (for example, my real analysis and numerical analysis courses), and I found I learned a lot more checking out better textbooks from the school library. Same thing in some of my early C++ classes.

[E20]

I only have to buy one text book this year for school. Thank god.

[dirk4mvp]

Bought all mine yesterday. $586. Idk if that's good or bad.

[baseline bum]

I only have to buy one text book this year for school. Thank god.

You're going to UCSB, right? UCLA was great about having a lot of their classes use only course readers that cost <$20, and I'd assume it would be similar in all the UCs.

[ashbeeigh]

Bought all mine yesterday. $586. Idk if that's good or bad.

$581 was a lot for me when I didn't have a science lab. by my senior year I was only spending $318.

[spursfan09]

I bought 3 books online. I made sure they were not internation editions. I made sure I bought the right edition and everything. Altogether I saved like 50 or 60 dollars. Lets just hope they are indeed the right book I need or else I'm screwed.

[brettn]

Bought all mine yesterday. $586. Idk if that's good or bad.

Depends how many books and what subjects, but I've spent about this much 2/4 semesters I've been in college. Hopefully you'll have a fat sum of cash to look forward to when you sell them back.

[E20]

You're going to UCSB, right? UCLA was great about having a lot of their classes use only course readers that cost <$20, and I'd assume it would be similar in all the UCs.

I'm not sure. I'm taking mostly lower level major requirements, this is my 2nd year and we're using those big bulky books. But it's not really a problem because my calc book is good for 3 classes: Calc I, II, III and cost me around 100 bucks. My Chem book is good for 2 classes same with my physics book and the book I'm going to have to buy for this semester which is my bio book I think can be used for Microbiology class and Macrobiology class. So I don't have to buy that many books for my lower level major course requirements.

[robino2001]

When I was in school in Boston, my university only worked with a Barnes and Noble college bookstore... there were no alternatives. I bought a bio book my freshman year for $250 and their buyback prices were horrible... I got maybe $30 or $40 back at the time. Being a naive freshman, I just sold it back. I came back to school in Texas, took another biology course and ended up needing the same book. I had to buy it again, albeit for like $125 this time, but still...

[dirk4mvp]

Depends how many books and what subjects, but I've spent about this much 2/4 semesters I've been in college. Hopefully you'll have a fat sum of cash to look forward to when you sell them back.


I got 6 books. 2 I can't sell back and another 1 I could possibly sell back as soon as school starts if that class doesn't need it.

[Sausage]

I bought 4 used textbooks from Amazon just a few weeks ago. $157 was my total. Usually I pay about $350 for books.

[Jekka]

I wouldn't take any chances with international editions if it's something like math and a prof assigns you specific problems on specific pages - what I did with a few classes was wait until I got the syllabus to see just how much I'd need specifics in the books (and most college libraries will have all of the textbooks required available for checkout - not usually to take home, but at least to use for a couple of hours and make copies in the meantime), and if it was something that was flexible between editions I'd go for it and get whatever was cheapest.

There was one professor I took three classes from who was notorious for assigning 18-20 books per semester, so I learned shortcuts around having to buy them pretty quickly. If you're only going to need a book for a week and won't need to reference it later for another class, just check it out and photocopy important pages. Keep a binder for them so they are easily referenced.

half.com and abebooks.com are both awesome, and sometimes you can also find books in the ebay auctions. It's worth it to shop around.

[Jekka]

Also, if you have to take any history classes, there are a ton of free resources online that have complete historical texts, so if you ever get assigned something like St Augustine's City of God or Thomas Payne or Francis Bacon, etc., know that those books are probably published online in their entirety between Project Gutenberg, the Medieval Sourcebook, and Christian Ethereal Classics. I like to have the paper materials, but those things are damn useful when you're writing papers with the search tools as well as copying and pasting, and if you're in a financial pinch, you don't have to buy the book.

[bdictjames]

I used the International Edition for Anatomy and it was basically the same thing.

[spursfan09]

Also, if you have to take any history classes, there are a ton of free resources online that have complete historical texts, so if you ever get assigned something like St Augustine's City of God or Thomas Payne or Francis Bacon, etc., know that those books are probably published online in their entirety between Project Gutenberg, the Medieval Sourcebook, and Christian Ethereal Classics. I like to have the paper materials, but those things are damn useful when you're writing papers with the search tools as well as copying and pasting, and if you're in a financial pinch, you don't have to buy the book.

wow thanks!