Selling books back to college bookstore

[tinnean]

It's been a long time since college, and the books were a good deal cheaper back then. (although it didn't feel that way at the time.) I've googled this, and it seems all the sites are for online selling and require an ISBN number. I've also looked up the cost of buying the books from the bookstore with no luck

Comments

[clover_elf_kin]

Yes. -_- In addition to the "that book's outdated now, can't take it" issue, some classes require buying workbooks, which generally can't be sold back no matter what. And those they do buy back--I seem to recall being offered all of $3 for a book once. As this wasn't exactly a cheap novel, I was PISSED.

I've admittedly never spent near that much on textbooks, but I always took a fairly light load of classes; I do remember once the total for ONE CLASS was supposed to be like $300. I went online and got them all for $~100... but this was several years into college. It took me a while to figure out that I could not only get current books cheaper online, but if I ignored the teacher's "you must have the current edition" claim, I could REALLY save some cash.

Plus, if you count the cost of computer software in textbook expenses, that major sounds like it would require some REALLY fancy and expensive programs, a la Photoshop. And those are NEVER something you can sell back.

[rainbowxgeek]

"It took me a while to figure out that I could not only get current books cheaper online, but if I ignored the teacher's "you must have the current edition" claim, I could REALLY save some cash."

This. Plus, ISEs (International Student Editions). MUCH cheaper (brand new, they can run about 1/2 the cost of a used US edition). And the content is the same. The ONLY time I've seen a difference was in physics--measurements were in metric instead of Imperial, as in the US eds. Guess which units get used in physics anyhow?)

They'll say "Not for sale in the US" but I've never had a teacher do more than make a teasing comment about it. If it's uncomfortable, book covers hide it.

[clover_elf_kin]

Sadly, I don't think I'd heard of ISEs when I was in college! Should I ever go back, note to self.

Also, icon love!

[rainbowxgeek]

:D Thanks!

And yeah, I didn't know they existed til I had to start paying cash for my books. My old school, if you got Pell, you could have the give you a bookstore credit. So I used that, b/c financial aid didn't disburse until like, halfway through the term.

When I transferred, things were done differently, so I could aford to shop around for books. Ebay is the best place to find ISEs.

[arcian]

In my experience, $90 back on a $1000 investment might be too good of a return (I had a few bad experiences in my time,) but for your purposes, it won't be too outlandish.

I see that a lot of people in thread have had similar stories anyway, but for what it's worth, I'm a Canadian who attended a Canadian university.

[tinnean]

Ouch.

I remember being highly ticked off when the book store wouldn't buy a book back. There were no online bookstores at that time, (and if there were, I didn't have computer access. :-P) so I was stuck with a book I'd never use again, and even the local used book store wouldn't take it.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

[rainbowxgeek]

I don't think that 90 on 1000 is too much. That's like 9 on 100, and I've gotten far better than that. It's hit and miss, but not unreasonable

[mark356]

Yes, it's feasable. At UMass, you're supposed to get 50% back, but there are also plenty of those packets that they make you buy, where half the cost is the photocopying and half the cost is the copyrights-- packets you buy from the print store, not the bookstore, and there's no way you can resell them or return them anywhere. They run like $40 even for packets without a lot of copyrighted stuff, and for ones with, they can easily be $100. Most of my courses didn't use a lot of textbooks, but a single textbook can easily run $150, and I'd imagine a large book with lots of drafts would cost a lot more. Also, an academic rather than a regular book runs more like $60-70 rather than the $20-30 you'd expect for a regular book. Then there are those books that aren't required for the course, but you find yourself buying for them anyway, and of course no one will accept returns on them.

[loganberrybunny]

Nobody seems actually to have asked you this, but... is this in the US? You don't say.

[tinnean]

Sorry, I should have said. Yes, it's the US, fictional college, fictional town.

[snapes_angel]

That sounds about right to me, too. Sometimes with the college bookstores (but not often) you get lucky, and sometimes, you don't; but I think that's about average/

[tinnean]

Thank you. Readers can be really snarky, and I didn't want to state a figure and then have them jump all over me and claim I was out of my mind. :-/

[snapes_angel]

It varies with a lot of things, including recent publication of updated material. Same darn book and they fix one typo, or something, or addition fo a new chapter on recent discoveries. Not to mention they pay only a fraction of the original purchase cost, even if the volume is in pristine condition. And you're welcome. :3