Buyback bumfuckery...part deux... now with bonus phone fsck ups!! (kinda long...)

[Geek King]

The only time I don't think renting is good is if you'll need a book for more than a semester--I'll buy my nursing textbooks but not my art appreciation or government ones.

Not to mention that some textbooks are useful past graduation. I still have all my programming books, Math texts, and the humongous (1000+ pages! ) Physics text that come in handy occasionally. Ok, so maybe I just keep the physics book around to beat people to death with, but it is still useful!

[protege]

I still have nearly all of my college texts. I don't know about the rest of you, but I found the idea of getting only $5 for a ~$200 tax book a bit irritating. Well, that, and I tend to take notes in the books, add tabs on certain chapters, etc. Plus, since I'm an accountant, I'd be using most of the material anyway...except for the tax code portions. Seems that every year, those tax books become worthless the next, because of the idiots in DC changing things

[Aut]

Not to mention that some textbooks are useful past graduation. I still have all my programming books, Math texts, and the humongous (1000+ pages! ) Physics text that come in handy occasionally. Ok, so maybe I just keep the physics book around to beat people to death with, but it is still useful!

I bought my anatomy books last semester because I knew I would want to keep them. I rented the textbook for my writing class because I wasn't going to keep that. It was an $80 book that I rented for $10 from Chegg with a coupon code. I'm sure that if I had bought it and resold, I would be out more than $10.

[LadyAndreca]

I wish I was at your campus. At mine we're lucky if we get back a third of what the books are worth. I got most of mine online, usually used for about half cover price, and I've kept most of them too. Music theory really hasn't changed much in the past couple hundred years.

[HYHYBT]

Only a slight mixup: you've brought out Plinko, and they're trying to play One Wrong Price

[Mr Hero]

How the hell do you sleep at night, cheating hardworking students like this!?!?!

On top of a big pile of money next to many beautiful women

[fireheart]

We don't do buybacks here in Ausland, at least not in my state. REaders (basically handouts bound into a book and usually divided according to tutorial) can't be returned, as they do new ones every year. I keep all of mine-any useless ones will be turned into firewood for camps.

If people want to sell textbooks, they usually tack posters around campus stating "FOR SALE: such and such textbook for <class> <price> please contact me at blah and blah"

[bainsidhe]

What's to stop someone from selling back books multiple times for a chance at plinko money? I'm not talking about someone stealing books, just curious why students don't come back later with more books and in an effort to up their plinko money? If I knew I'd only be getting a few dollars for a buyback (my worst was $12 for a $120 new sociology text, ouch), I might try to boost my chances with plinko.

Then again, I'd have to wait in line each time. And wait. And wait. So maybe I wouldn't after all.

[Dreamstalker]

Not to mention that some textbooks are useful past graduation.

I still have most of my theater design and computer textbooks. TCP/IP Illustrated could be useful as a weapon in a pinch. Any that I did sell I used Amazon and got a better percentage back than the bookstore offered. Yeah, different editions each year that only change around two paragraphs are a scam.

I think my dad has all of his as well.

"Why would anybody want to sell their books?" Gil Grissom (CSI), "Chaos Theory"

[protege]

On top of a big pile of money next to many beautiful women

Damn...I'm in the wrong business

[Chromatix]

I didn't bother selling my textbooks. But they weren't horribly expensive to start with, and since I'm in a science/engineering field, they remain relevant for reference for a long time.

ETA: the professors also accommodated people who had the previous edition, by giving two sets of page numbers.

[McGoddess09]

Ok, that's such a scam. Me, I'd be buying them off ABE or Amazon if they tried pulling something like that. Let me guess - the library won't put the textbook on course reserve either? So you pay AND don't keep the book?

We just have the textbook center that does all of this. Each professor picks out the books they want for their classes and they are there for us. Everyone is guaranteed to have a textbook for the semester. Think about it,though. I pay $70 a semester and that covers any amount of books. My first semester, one person in line needed 28 books. $70. I will be taking a bunch of literature classes that will probably require many books.$70. However, if someone isn't a full time student, they pay per credit hour, but I will never know about that one lol.

My mother is currently taking classes at a nearby tech school and is still paying a bunch more money renting her books online than I am and she only has two textbooks!

No. We don't keep the book because it's like checking out a book from the library. It's actually a great deal, if you think about it.

[Magpie]

Well you're clearly one of the people for whom that deal works well. I'm just glad I didn't have to put up with it .

[underemployeed]

I only ever sold one book back to the university, it was for my motors class the book was horrible done and it bought me a $30 bottle of 151, which really helped to drink away the suck of the class.

The rest of the time I just swapped books with friends or sold them to other people I mean really. If I paid $80 for a book, the bookstore wanted to give me $20 for it, to sell used for $80, I would then sell it to a someone for $50, in which part both of us won against the evil bookstore. Otherwise I just kept, the rest for reference, and the fact that if I spent $50 on a book and they wanted to give me $5 I might as well burn the damn thing, and get much more enjoyment.

Although it sounds like your buyback is nice especially with plinko, haha It took me 4years to stop buying pointless books and learn to just sell them back ASAP and borrow a friends copy.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Here's the one thing that gets me...

Why the hell are COLLEGE STUDENTS so bad at BASIC MATH???