College bookstores are evil

[mattperiolat]

I have to vent on this a bit, just because it bugs me so much.

Spent over 160 bucks on college books this past semester. Now, I know going in I am never going to get anywhere near that amount back. Figure if I make 40 back, I'm good.

One book was a rental, so no refund for that.

One book, despite not being opened, was not resellable.

One book they didn't want.

That left ONE book that cost me 20 bucks to buy and how much did I get back?

Two dollars. TWO FRIGGIN DOLLARS out of 160!

Do these bookstores think we are made of money or something? Might as well post a sign by the front door telling us to grab out ankles before we open our wallets.

I'll be over here in the corner growling for a while, thank you.

[Cela]

160 bucks for books? Please share your time travel knowledge with us! At least go back to your own time and warn Europe of the coming plague.

[Viva]

Next time, Chegg.

[mattperiolat]

Dec 28, 2010 23:18:54 GMT -5 Cela said:

160 bucks for books? Please share your time travel knowledge with us! At least go back to your own time and warn Europe of the coming plague.

One of my classes used only one book and I already had it, left me with three classes I needed books for and two of them were 20 bucks or under.

Was my cheapest semester yet, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised that I got the worst return on my initial investment so far.

[Red Impact]

Yeah... textbooks are a frickin' rip off.

[Mayonnaise]

Dec 28, 2010 23:19:40 GMT -5 Viva said:

Next time, Chegg.

Yup, them and half.com saved me a metric ass ton of cash on textbooks.

[Red Impact]

I got most of mine online. Look for international editions, they're the exact same book (maybe with some differences of the problems in the back, if there are any) and are about 1/3 of the price.

[ariestheram]

When did renting college textbooks start? I haven't been out of school that long, but my options were always buy new or buy used. Renting would have been much easier.

[britishbulldog]

Agreed. The worst part is buying a book to have it be replaced next semester so you get nothing for it. With as much as they make it's a wonder they need to charge tuition at all.

[Dr. T is an alien]

The college bookstores are not the truly evil ones. Sure, occasionally they do questionable things to edge out competition (for a while the school own bookstore at IU allowed you to buy your books with your bursar account, which is infinitely easier and an advantage that the other stores could not offer), but it is the publishers that cause a lot of the headaches that you described. Oftentimes new editions are released with very few revisions, which can really screw you over as the old edition would work well enough but the schools and the bookstores are contractually obligated to require the newest edition.

That is not to say that everything is designed to screw you over. For instance, if your school is large enough sometimes the publisher will make a special edition that only contains the section that your class requires at a significantly lower price.

[Drillbit Taylor]

Hell, using Amazon or BN to buy books can save a Huge amount over the school

[BigJerichool222]

I spent OVER 600 DOLLARS

I only got $62.50 back, FOR ONE BOOK. the other 3-4 didn't sell for various stupid reasons.

I found a store that took books no matter what and got only 45 bucks for them. Better than nothing.

[rapidfire187]

This is why I rent books online. Much cheaper. The only drawback is that if you wait too long to rent the book, you sometimes have to go a week of class with no book while you wait for it to ship.

[Massive G]

My college rented books, and charged us if the books were damaged or lost, but otherwise it was no cost. It was still annoying to pick up / return them every semester, but I can't imagine the point of paying $400 or whatever for a bunch of books you'll never look at outside of a classroom.

[stealthamo]

Dec 28, 2010 23:36:19 GMT -5 ariestheram said:

When did renting college textbooks start? I haven't been out of school that long, but my options were always buy new or buy used. Renting would have been much easier.

I think my school just started doing it last semester. At least, it was the first time I was given the option of doing so.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

One of my professors, in our first day in class, was going over the syllabus. He said, "I know it says there are three books for this course. Have any of you bought the books already?" A few people raised their hands. He said, "When you leave here, head to the bookstore, you can still get your full refund. We won't be using them. I had been unaware of how much these things cost, and how little they give you for them when you resale them, if you get anything. I think you're being ripped off, and I won't have any part of it. I can teach this course without a book." And he did.

That guy was one of my favorite professors.

[Alex Shelley]

The bookstores aren't the problem, it's the f***ing publishers. It's complete bullshit what they do. It's just disgusting, it really is.

In the science building at my school, professors always decorate the doors of their office with stuff so that, when you're outside waiting for them, you have stuff to look at. My favorite professor, a chem teacher, always has his office open so he hasn't put any decorations up. Instead, he's just put up a small sign that says "If you're a textbook publisher wishing to meet with me, turn around immediately." and basically says, in much more polite terms, "go f*** yourself, I want nothing to do with your shit."

[ibdude]

That's why when I was in college (I'm trying to go back) I always waited until at least a week into the semester until I realized we were using the book. If I saw that we were using the book then I would buy it.

[crash1984]

It makes no sense to me why books are so high other than the publishers want to get rich. My first year of college there was some woman complaining about having to spend $5 buying some type of pamphlet on how to do some type of bullcrap.

I know it does cost money to publish textbooks however you could go in a regular bookstore and get a non-textbook for significantly less. So I don't buy (no pun intended) that the reason books are high is that it costs a lot to produce them.

The next excuse they may say is that it is due to the ever-changing research in certain fields. Okay I understand medical and science is always changing and we are learning new stuff. But what groundbreaking things have happened in calculus, English, and literature up to 1865?

[Alex Shelley]

Yeah, I can forgive the Campbell/Reece textbook (biology) for coming out with a new edition as often as they do. I bought my current textbook in 2009 and there are already pieces in it that are outdated. Small pieces, but pieces nonetheless. The price I can't forgive, but coming out with new editions makes sense in a field that can change so rapidly.

What I can't forgive is the stats textbook where the "updates" made in the yearly new edition are changing the numbers in a couple of word problems.