Back to school shopping ... yay!

[Tigress]

We're in the middle of it right now. The public schools here start August 9th. Yes, you read that right. August 9th. I would have been really pissed as a kid if I'd had to go back that early!

Not only do we have to deal with school supplies, but there's also uniforms! Yay! On top of the normal kid's clothes! Such fun...not.

We used to have that in NC, too. After I graduated, the start of the school year crept up earlier in August and the end crept up later in June. Finally, the state legislature noticed a couple of years ago that students in some districts were only getting 5 or 6 weeks of summer vacation. So they enacted a law that school couldn't start any earlier than the next to last week in August. And the school districts fought the law tooth and nail. It was rediculous.

[Tria]

Jesus H. Christ, what are kids carrying in their backpacks these days that they need a new one every year? Rocks? Explosives? My backpack lasted me all throughout high school and my first two years of college.

Appearantly you were never the school bully's personal bitch in school.... Tear the back pack off, toss it around play keep away.... Whoever said that high school is the best years of your life was probably a bully....

[Kelly Lynne]

The poor books....

More than half of the books ended up not being used in the class, but he "justified" their purchase at the close of the semester by stating he thought we "would enjoy reading them" since we had an "appreciation" for the subject now. Riiiiiiight.

D'oh! Because it would've been so hard for him to have you buy the books you actually used and give you a "suggested reading list" for the rest. Or making some books "optional" or "recommended" rather than required.
Geez....books you never even use should not be part of the required textbook list for a class.

Of course the bookstore would not buy them back. I used a few of the books as kindling for a frat bon fire at the close of the year. That gave me more enjoyment than reading them ever would.

::whimper:: Sorry, but the concept of burning books, even crappy ones, makes me shudder. Must be an English major thing.

[Kelly Lynne]

My old school (George Mason Bookstore) had that beat. They told all the professors that they couldn't release the syllabus (what books are required) until the first day of class and would have them give an assignment from the book due the next day.

What makes it so bad is that everyone KNEW this was the reason and they weren't shy about it.

Oh....that's evil. There's gotta be a way to beat it, though. (Anyone that sneaky really needs to be beaten at their own game.) Hmmmm....

Maybe get together with three or four people in your class, split the cost of one copy of each book from the bookstore, share them or pass them around for the first few weeks (long enough for everyone to get their own book from half.com, amazon.com, or paperbackswap.com), then return the book and split whatever you get back.

Going as a group to return the books and splitting up the money right in front of them might be fun too, except that it's probably not the person working there (likely a student) who has any control over the policy.

[South Texan]

D'oh! Because it would've been so hard for him to have you buy the books you actually used and give you a "suggested reading list" for the rest. Or making some books "optional" or "recommended" rather than required.
Geez....books you never even use should not be part of the required textbook list for a class.

No, it was because he had not thought out what he was going to teach.

Each of those books had been on the original syllabus, but he threw that thing out within the first month - but too late to return anything - as he obviously had had no idea how long it was going to take to cover the novels and plays he had selected. We received a revised syllabus three times during the semester.

[Depot Denizen]

I work at my university's computer store. We service and sell comps for all the faculty, staff, and students. We have a Back To School program there. Right now we're selling Dells, Apples, and the Gateway Tablet PC (Business school requires their students to buy the useless things). We end up getting about 1,000 BTS orders in. Our ship home/pick up date ended Monday, but we still get parents wanting to order for early pick up and ship home. -_- Often times we get calls from parents, and sometimes they outright accuse us of ripping them off (nevermind the fact that we sell them for cheaper than direct from the manufacturer). They don't want to pay $1500 for a decent laptop, they'd rather get an el cheapo deluxe at Best Buy or Staples for $700 or so. Usually when I tell them about the warranties that come with our computers they shut up. We fix hardware issues right in the store/service area, if it's a machine we sell.

[Ringman]

the Internet is your friend. $150 textbooks suddenly cost $30.

any links to these places?

[Dog Welder]

any links to these places?

http://www.phatcampus.com/
http://www.textbookx.com/
www.ebay.com
www.half.com
www.amazon.com
http://www.campusbooks.com/

And go look on the school bulletin boards, there are ususally postings of students selling their textbooks. I save about 40% that way.


Good Luck.

[AFpheonix]

I sold a lot of textbooks for non-major classes to other students for more than I'd get selling back to the bookstore, but for less than they'd pay for used book price.

Powell's books in Portland was also my friend for textbooks.

[Ringman]

thanks dog welder.

[theredbaron47]

My old school (George Mason Bookstore) had that beat. They told all the professors that they couldn't release the syllabus (what books are required) until the first day of class and would have them give an assignment from the book due the next day.

What makes it so bad is that everyone KNEW this was the reason and they weren't shy about it.

I don't understand why that is sneaky. Can you explain what the reason was?

[karma_gypsy]

About the college textbooks (a little OT), if you keep the books a little too long, then the things are impossible to get rid of. . . even online, because then they're way to outdated.

[TYFSOK]

And now, from the overnight stock point of view...
-A tidal wave of backpacks. Jesus H. Christ, what are kids carrying in their backpacks these days that they need a new one every year? Rocks? Explosives? My backpack lasted me all throughout high school and my first two years of college.

Here in Japan, most elementary school students get a very specific backpack, called a randoseru. It's either red or black, made out of very thick leather, with padded straps and back, and it's sturdy enough to last the entire six years. And, after that, they're still in good enough shape to be given to another child, although many keep them as mementoes.



They start at around ¥11,000, and the really high quality ones can be over ¥20,000. (That's from $100 to over $200, USD.)