^

12/16/2007 3:59:13 PM

it doesn't matter

they fuck you everywhere

12/16/2007 4:28:15 PM

You'll get the most money by selling to individual people. However, this can be much more time consuming and there's always the chance you don't sell a couple. Otherwise, as mentioned they're all the same. Plus by now they've probably made their orders for next semester so you're going to get even less than what you would have.

When I've done this in the past I usually just set a price higher than what the book stores are offering me but lower than what they were selling them for. This way both you and the person buying the book make out better than they would have.

You can post books here on the book exchange, also sometimes you can get the instructors using the book to mention that a former student has it for sale and if anyone is interested the instructor can give them your email or something or you can ask to post a flier in the classroom. You can post them on craigslist, etc..

12/16/2007 5:00:28 PM

Quote :

"You may sell your books back to the store at any time during the year. However, the best time to sell your books is at the end of the semester, and the reason is quite simple. As soon as the faculty tell us which books they will use during the upcoming semester, we will begin to pay ½ of the current new price for the books you bring in to sell to us [emphasis added]. Once we reach the determined need for the semester, we begin paying the current price that a wholesale company will pay us for the book."

http://www.fis.ncsu.edu/ncsubookstores/textbooks.html

I got more back from the NCSU Bookstore this semester than I ever got from Addam's--I usually have gotten around 25% of the value or less from them and others. FYI.

12/17/2007 5:37:10 AM

message_topic.aspx?topic=449961

12/17/2007 8:49:42 AM

i agree with hooksaw on this one...i saw the 50 percent thing and tried it out...they gave me 50 for a book that cost me 43 on amazon....friend in the same class said packbackers was offering like 25


the campus bookstore is the best if they havent met their quota yet...luckily this year i had 0 exams so i could sell them back before everyone else did

[Edited on December 17, 2007 at 1:53 PM. Reason : only had 2 to sell back...the other few i had were just like novel type books]

12/17/2007 1:52:51 PM

I spent $400 on books that all my teachers made a big stinkin deal deal over HAVING to have, and I didn't use half of them, and only made $28 off selling them back.

I am a Sr., so I know yhow to get around having to pay full price for books and I know that some teachers won't require all the books they ask you to buy, I haven't bought a single book since I was a sophomore, but I honestly thought I needed all these books. I am so pissed.

12/20/2007 7:29:49 PM

ok not trying to be debbie downer here, but i'm guessing if you spent 400 bucks on books you didnt buy them off amazon(1st mistake)


where did you sell them back to? 28 seems awfully low

12/20/2007 7:34:14 PM

Yes, I used amazon for most all of them. I only bought about $50 worth from somewhere else because I needed one book immediately, and the other amazon didn't have (used bamm instaed for that one). So, yes, about $350 came from amazon.

I sold the one set of books back to Adams, they were giving $9 more than hillsborough, packbackers, and the NCSU bookstore. I have GOT to fond some way to get rid of these books and get some friggin money off them!

12/20/2007 10:28:29 PM

Which books do you have?

12/26/2007 8:59:32 AM

http://www.chegg.com

best thing i ever did

12/26/2007 10:07:24 AM

I spend about $20 or less per textbook every semester. Many books I pay around $5.00 for. In fact I just got my spring 2008 textbooks in the mail and I paid $12.42 for the lot. Here's what I do:

1) I never buy the newest edition textbook unless its a subject like biochemistry where the information contained within changes significantly because its a new or quickly changing science. Even so, you have to realize that many textbook editors begin working on a new edition almost as soon as the older one hits the shelves. So, at best it may be 6-9 months "newer" than the old edition. I use half.com to search for the next-to-last edition and order from the lowest priced seller (one of my favorite sellers are "betterworldbooks") An easy way to search for the old edition is to put in the ISBN of the required book and click search. Then click on the book to view the sellers and prices and scroll to the very bottom to see the list of other editions which are arranged by publication year. On half.com shipping prices are standardized for all sellers so you won't get burned with high shipping costs. 9 times out of 10 I pay less than $5 for my textbook this way.

I have used the next-to-last edition textbooks for: English, calculus, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, statistics, business, marketing, sociology, philosophy and probably several other courses that I can't even remember. The newest edition is more than often a total burn... the publishers only make money off the new texts (not the used ones) so they have to keep releasing the same book with a different font over and over again to stay in business. Don't fall into that trap. If you use your textbooks as little as you claim, you wont need matching page numbers and a shiny new edition.

2) If an old edition is not practical or available I go to the next best option: international editions. My first stop to check if an international edition is available is the american book exchange (ABEBooks.com) You put in the ISBN of the book that you are looking for and do a search inclusive of international editions. You'll need to watch shipping prices which are often upwards of $20 but the savings of buying the book overseas is significant. I purchased the infamous "Priciples of Biochemistry" Text which runs $160 at the bookstores this way and paid $29.99 when all was said and done.

International editions come in two breeds: softcover color and low-price black and white. Make certain that you are purchasing the softcover in *color* because the low-price black and white editions aren't very nice to look at. The international edition books are IDENTICAL word for word and page for page to the current edition hardcover book sold in here in the United States. In fact, these books are made in the exact same factories HERE in the United States!! The only thing different about them is the cover. If you were to rip the covers off of the hardcover and international editions you wouldn't know which was which.

A lot of people I share this method with get confused or complain that its too much work. Sometimes they act like they don't want an "old" book-- but they don't realize that the books aren't that old. They were only used a semester or two ago! I realize that this is a lot more work than going to the bookstore and getting your books. I also realize that theres no resale market for old edition and international edition books. But the investment is so small, in my case, that outweighs the negatives. But in either case, I thought I would share in case it might help another student out.

12/26/2007 10:10:12 AM

^ great advice, but

Quote :

"I have used the next-to-last edition textbooks for: English, calculus, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, statistics, business, marketing, sociology, philosophy and probably several other courses that I can't even remember. The newest edition is more than often a total burn... the publishers only make money off the new texts (not the used ones) so they have to keep releasing the same book with a different font over and over again to stay in business. Don't fall into that trap. If you use your textbooks as little as you claim, you wont need matching page numbers and a shiny new edition."

can get you into trouble if you are assigned problems out of the book, as they often change those too to force people to buy new editions.

12/26/2007 4:17:58 PM

^Very true. Most of my professors though will let you photocopy their book problems so you don't have to buy a new addition, or if it's a class with web assign you don't need to worry about the problems.

12/27/2007 12:53:27 PM

^^^ That trick works best in the social sciences and the humanities were essentially they just change the introuduction and conclusion.

With regards to selling textbooks, I have found that many online textbook places pay more than our bookstores around here (shipping is also free). Mainly because they aren't specifically tied to demand for the book at NCSU or the book value at an overstock wholesaler.

collegetextbooksdirect
booksintocash
cash4books

12/29/2007 5:24:03 AM

doesnt the library have a copy of every book on reserve or something?

20 bucks of photocopying could prolly get you through a semester i would think

12/29/2007 5:35:12 AM

You can't photocopy a book, i tried it at Kinkos and they wouldnt copy it for me due to copywrite laws. I figured i'd copy it myself, but i only know how to copy one page at a time

12/30/2007 1:47:06 PM

Have fun trying to photocopy an 800 page biology book. You could get away with copying the loose leaf books, but usually once you bust the wrap on them you can't return them.

12/31/2007 9:05:12 AM

if you don't need cash right away i recommend selling them on amazon. even though they take a commission from your sale, you'll still make way more than what any bookstore gives you. i posted up 4 books only a few weeks ago and two sold within the first week (one was sold the very next day).

1/1/2008 7:59:45 PM

half.com works pretty well too.

1/1/2008 8:57:32 PM

adams

1/3/2008 5:34:04 PM

craigslist, facebook marketplace

1/7/2008 10:20:10 PM

half.com

1/8/2008 9:37:50 AM