[kenny87]

I have just learned another cruel fact about these things besides their price, and that is their expiration date. I bought a brand new book for English class last semester, which ended in may. I had a screw up with financial aid, which I am still getting, but it won't be right away in time, so I have to cover some school expenses and books( its a CC so its cheap). So I decided to sell my old books to lower the damage on cost, and who would have though that two books from not even a year ago are "no longer in use". My anthropology book was pretty old so I could see that, but my English book was sold their brand new, Copyright 2008, not even a year ago, and the lady says they can't take it because it is no longer in use. Teachers their have always told us that they rearrange the contents of books and make new editions every so often to keep students buying new books but that was ridiculous. I was origional going to try to sell them on amazon, but this financial aid thing was unexpected and I need the money as fast as I could.

Would really suck if you signed up for a class and bought your books, had to hold off a year because of a major incident or something, decided to return next semester only to find out the same class requires a newer book, even though the old one was only a couple years old.

Lesson Learned: If you are going to sell text books back, do it ASAP, never know when they will pull the plug on one.

Now I am off to try to find some torrents for these books, if they exists, as I have till the 25th to return them for a full refund.

 

[jas498]

eh, I understand your frustration. It's not the teachers that create the new editions though.
I've used just-outdated textbooks. Typically, the content is almost the same and you can get away with it. The exception is if there is a workbook involved, or online access codes or media. Also, you can sell your textbooks on Ebay, Craigslist or even one of the many online stores that buy your books to resell... many will still buy them if they are an edition old.

I'd suggest contacting the teacher and ask if an old edition will do. But yes, sell them right away...

 

[pyramidsong]

Oooh, that gets to me! I hate buying textbooks, and although for some subjects it's fine to use older textbooks, some lecturers will make you feel as though "oh noes, if you don't have the right book- EPIC FAIL!!!!11!!!!!" Gah, how much money to they actually think a student has? I'd rather spend it on, you know, not starving. I'm crazy like that.

 

[kenny87]

'd suggest contacting the teacher and ask if an old edition will do. But yes, sell them right away...

oh, the problem isin't buying them, its when you want to sell them to the bookstore because you need money real fast and its already to old. I'm not angry at the teachers, but I am angry at whoever is responsible for this crap.

 

[Judi]

You know, students doing taxation law has to buy a new text book every year which costs 300 dollars for a set O_O Smart students opt to do the subject in their second semester of school so they could buy second hand books rather than buy them new at the start of the year.
My uni recommends new editions but will give a guide on page numbers for older editions, which is pretty nice of them. They know most students are poor.

 

[cakesniffer]

Most college bookstores scam you. I never dealt with the one at my college. Always sell your old textbooks online through Amazon, Half, etc.

 

[kenny87]

man, just checked amazon, my book is one edition old and the amazon prices have done went down the crapper on my book so far its not even worth selling.

 

[pita]

I feel your pain. This has happened to me many times.

 

[SilentLoner]

I know. What really gets me is when you buy a new edition and find out afterwards that the old one is fine (happened to me twice in science classes) or find out you barely use it (I've bought $100+ textboks I've never opened).

Looking foward to buying some "university bookstore" only texts when I get back there in a few weeks.

 

[zookeeper]

My favourites were the collection of photocopies they had spiral bound and then charged $90 for. Urge to kill: rising.

 

[kenny87]

What really gets me is when you buy a new edition and find out afterwards that the old one is fine (happened to me twice in science classes)

that isn't an issue here, school starts the 17th, but when you buy textbooks you are given till the 25th to get a full refund, which should be enough time to figure out if you need the new one or not.

 

[turingmachine]

It is a racket. I stopped selling books back a long time ago and decided to just build a library instead. The last book I tried to sell back in undergrad was a $110 calculus book. The book store offered me $5 since they were switching to a new edition. That was the last book that I attempted to sell back.

 

[TorLin]

i would have tried to find a pdf format of the book.

 

[kenny87]

I tried, cannot find it anywhere, you can find porn, movies, music, every other book, tv shows, pictures, just about everything else on the internet but textbooks are nowhere to be found, there was only one torrent site for textbooks and it got taken down last year, only one so far. Hard to believe there isn't another brave soul to do it, its not like no one wants it or anything.

 

[Perfectionist]

I keep most of my textbooks. But yes, the rapid changing of editions is ridiculous. I've tried to sell the odd book back, and the bookstore offers me about 4% of the original price.

I've spent $227 on a textbook the prof insisted was mandatory, and never opened it once. It still looks pretty on my library shelf of textbooks though.