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Descartes
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28 Jan 2012, 12:29 am

I usually try to buy used textbooks strictly for the purpose of saving money. I'd rent those textbooks if I could.


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GoonSquad
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28 Jan 2012, 5:04 am

fraac wrote:
Do school kids not use Kindle yet?


I'm not a kid, but I use my kindle to get free books all the time. I also recently bought my first e-textbook for kindle, but only because it was extremely cheap ($39 as opposed to $75 for used).

In general, I buy my textbooks used and sell them back whenever I can.

The only books I won't part with are a few literature books I annotated very heavily... I don't want anyone to have my personal explication of Pope's Essay On Man... :lol:

If you want textbooks cheap, buy older editions on Amazon. Sometimes the difference between current and previous editions of a book can be as much as 99%.


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gemstone123
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28 Jan 2012, 7:31 am

I don't have to buy textbooks at all really but I do buy used books for my course if necessary. To be honest though I try to get any books I need from the library cause they're frickin expensive. :P


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scubasteve
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29 Jan 2012, 1:41 am

Strange. At my college, people were made fun of for buying NEW books. That was back when people actually shopped at the school bookstore though. Now everyone just buys online. A new book from Amazon costs less than a used book from the campus bookstore. So maybe it makes more sense to buy new books than it used to.



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29 Jan 2012, 11:19 am

scubasteve wrote:
Strange. At my college, people were made fun of for buying NEW books. That was back when people actually shopped at the school bookstore though.


Where I went to school, we had a joke that the bookstore was for freshman and transfers. Everyone else bought used books from online. Some even pirated their books from the internet...



mezzanotte
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04 May 2014, 10:21 am

Just in case anyone reading this post happens to live in DC.....

I highly recommend a used bookstore called Second Story Books.

I have pocketed some old, rare editions of books from there for unbelievable prices. That place is a treasure hoard for book collectors.



kraftiekortie
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05 May 2014, 9:24 am

You can't survive without "used books," unless you're rich or something.

Some people even make copies of textbooks--it's technically unethical because of copyright-type issues. That's how some people survive, though.



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05 May 2014, 5:48 pm

On a regular basis.
When I am in need of more space in my bookcases I sell my own used books as well. Books come into my life and than they disappear again.



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07 May 2014, 7:18 am

I buy used books. If I can spend less money, why not? Snobbish people would rather spend more money and buy new books, an that's stupid to me.
Also, used books often have notes written by their former owner, and they are very useful if you can understand the handwriting.



tcorrielus
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27 May 2014, 12:15 pm

Back in college, used books cost $30-40 less than the new books did. So I would buy the used books if they were the same edition as the newer ones were.