Cheap Ass College Students

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IOnceWasLegend

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The name may be a bit redundant, but I feel the need to brag after spending the first two years of college buying books straight from the bookstore. (Note: not so much taking advantage of a deal, but I figure it fits in under 'shopping around' and 'bragging rights'). Anyway, the books were for organic chemistry, genetics, diff. calculus, and a recreation class.

Books through university bookstore: $850 ($475 of which would've been simply for chemistry :bomb:)

Books through Barnes and Noble: $510 :wave:

Advantage: me :D

Anybody else have any tips and tricks/happy tales of saving cash in college? :)
 
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=903422

Probably could have saved more if you didn't use B&N since they tend to be overpriced as well. Amazon offers decent prices for new and sometimes used (YMMV) but abebooks.com is my favorite.

Also, knowing upperclassmen with the same major and same professors definitely helps a lot since I've gotten free books from them. Just don't forget to pass those books down to underclassmen and spread the savings for other books your friends may need.
 
I worked at the college paper and ask for a review copy of books I needed in a next term. I am sure you are make up a letterhead or just work at the paper.
 
You should've waited. I never buy most books day one because I hardly ever use most of my books. For example, for math classes, you'll most likely need your books. But for my history class, I had to buy 2 books and didn't end up needing either one because the professor just followed the book.

I get most books from Half, usually in great shape even if they're used. Amazon is too slow IMO but on half, a lot of sellers offer a faster option which only takes a couple of days.
 
If I'm buying I use Addall.com. It basically searches online databases to find the cheapest used/new books on sale.

Renting I use chegg.com. I've gotten discounts up to 60% off instead of buying it from the bookstore or online.
 
[quote name='chickenboybryan']I worked at the college paper and ask for a review copy of books I needed in a next term. I am sure you are make up a letterhead or just work at the paper.[/quote]

Please tell me you weren't the editor of your school paper.
 
Sometimes I buy an older edition just to keep up with the context. I did this with my pyshology class, althuogh you may want to check with your professor 1st. Abebooks.com is a good site to buy used books!
 
You probably could've gotten international text books for those classes.

I'm assuming you are engineering or somesort of chemistry. For Chem Engineering I never once bought a book related to my major from the school book store. The international versions will usually run you about 15-20 plus +10 shipping most of the time. Once or twice I could only find asian international versions and they were more along the lines of 50 plus shipping (but they were nice quality).

The differences are usually just soft cover, black and white paper, and cheaper paper. But to me it was well worth it to only spend 75 bucks for books instead of 500.
 
Use Chegg.com and the rent the bad boys.

You want better then B&N, try half.com or Abebooks, my last semester in college the books would have cost $400, but through those websites and that fact that one of my fraternity brothers was taking one of classes I spent $225 on books.

Then I made $200 back.
 
[quote name='Kerig']Please tell me you weren't the editor of your school paper.[/quote]

No. just sold ad space. Now the radio sat. much to say about that.
 
I use

www.gettextbooks.com

You just enter in the title, author, or ISBN and it searchs the main sites and then gives you each site in the database that has it, in price order starting with the lowest.

Then again paying for books mean nothing to me, when my mom works at the school, so I go for free, well not free but $250 a year for some fees. I'll graduate in December with my BBA, then go for my masters (for free) in Jan :)
 
When I was in school, I tried to take all the professors I knew didn't use textbooks or had us buy a few smaller paperbacks. Of course, such a strategy only really works if you are dealing a lot with humanities (I studied philosophy and honors liberal arts). With sciences and maths, there really aren't many ways to avoid those big, expensive textbooks.
 
Amazon Marketplace is amazing for buying cheap textbooks... just type in the ISBN number, find the correct copyright year/edition, and boom... insta-savings! :D
 
Just a quick note for those saying I shouldn't use B&N: I get a 30% discount there for working at Gamestop (one of the perks, I suppose). I find it amusing I get a bigger discount at a store I don't work out than my job.

Thanks for all the tips, though, and good ideas!
 
Your school's library should have at least 1 copy of every textbook. Just keep taking it out over and over or make copies of the parts you need every few weeks.
 
Yea Amazon Marketplace is the place to go for text books. Since I'm an English major, most of my books consist of fiction novels and the like. Normally they sell for $15.00 brand new and I get them for $0.01 used each with $3.99 shipping making my used book $4.00 shipped. This semester all of my books should have added up to a little over $300. I paid around $125 from Amazon :)

Plus when you sell them on Amazon, you'll get much more money back then selling them back to the book store since Amazon pays for shipping and takes only a very small fee.
 
[quote name='KSHLove']If I'm buying I use Addall.com. It basically searches online databases to find the cheapest used/new books on sale.

Renting I use chegg.com. I've gotten discounts up to 60% off instead of buying it from the bookstore or online.[/QUOTE]
QFT. Addall really does display the best deals, but the very best deal is to rent. Those textbooks are worth less than toilet paper when the next edition comes out. It's no coincidence that it happens right around the next academic year after you buy the damn book and need to sell it.
 
[quote name='IOnceWasLegend']Just a quick note for those saying I shouldn't use B&N: I get a 30% discount there for working at Gamestop (one of the perks, I suppose). I find it amusing I get a bigger discount at a store I don't work out than my job.

Thanks for all the tips, though, and good ideas![/quote]

Do you know if that works online as well? I figured this to be a no.
 
[quote name='DefinedByClass13']Do you know if that works online as well? I figured this to be a no.[/quote]

It doesn't work online, which kind of sucks, but it's not too big of a hassle. There's one a few miles from where I work, so I just go in, bring the ISBN #'s, show them proof I work at GS (normally with a paystub, though a few have let me slide with just my employee number), and then they ship to your house.
 
This is years ago now, but I got my $861 estimated book haul down to $112 by snagging old edition proofs from the library (some college libraries have rooms full of proofs, some throw them away. There will be a lot of typos, but the info is the same. If you happen to work in a library, you might be able to borrow one of these for a semester without anyone caring. My library didn't even have barcodes on these.), splitting the tech books with classmates, borrowing a book written by one of my professors, buying copies on half.com, buying one direct from the author (newer edition than the class we were carrying for 1/4 price, printed via on-demand), and getting the required novels from a public library.

Considering that I had to sell my car to fund my first two semesters of books and lab fees, it was a welcome change. If you have any books with cd's/dvd's, don't buy it bundled unless you need the software.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE YOU BLOW CASH ON BOOKS! MORE MONEY FOR BEER!
 
Unfortunately when I went to college several years ago the used book market hadn't flourished like it is now, so I had to shell out for books. The biggest expense when you are in college has to be food (other than books), now thankfully I didn't live on campus so I ate at home most of the time but every time you wanted a bottle of water or pop you had to pay like 2$ for it and this was several years ago, I can't imagine what its like now. It didn't help that the cafeteria didn't price half of the items so you didn't find out what it cost till you got to the register. When you are in college you tend to get really thirsty too for some reason. Its not even the food that was that bad, it was the cost of the drinks. At 2$ a day the cost of soda can add up really, really fast. When I did eat at school I somehow managed to get lunch for 3$ or less every day. Surprisingly I was the only one buying cups of water from the vending machine for 5 cents a cup while everyone else was buying soda for 2$ or more.

Another thing that miffed me when I was at college was the amount of change lying around the cafeteria. You would think if college students are so strapped for cash that they would keep their change but no, they would leave it in the vending machines or just on the table. Almost every day I would go to the tables and find a pile of 10-15 pennies just sitting there and no one was taking them either, so of course I took them. Came home with a pocketful of change nearly every day.

Students are also lazy, one time I had a person pay me 5$s to go to the cafeteria to get them a slice of pizza. It was like a 30 second walk there too. Easiest 5$ I ever made.
 
Look for the international version of the book, always alot cheaper. only problem is it might be harder to sell even though they are the same book.
 
[quote name='Dokstarr']You probably could've gotten international text books for those classes.

I'm assuming you are engineering or somesort of chemistry. For Chem Engineering I never once bought a book related to my major from the school book store. The international versions will usually run you about 15-20 plus +10 shipping most of the time. Once or twice I could only find asian international versions and they were more along the lines of 50 plus shipping (but they were nice quality).

The differences are usually just soft cover, black and white paper, and cheaper paper. But to me it was well worth it to only spend 75 bucks for books instead of 500.[/QUOTE]
I'm in CHE right now and what pisses me off the most is buying a book that you should be able to use for subsequent courses and then they either update the book so you can't sell it back or change the version they're using.

^^ That's funny as hell about the $5.
 
[quote name='wolfpackgamer']I'm in CHE right now and what pisses me off the most is buying a book that you should be able to use for subsequent courses and then they either update the book so you can't sell it back or change the version they're using.
[/quote]

It is all a big scam with the new editions and the schools are in on it. They make people use the newest editions, and many times the newer editions is 99% the same.

Sometimes they fix a mispelling. Sometimes in the questions section they will change the given values, or maybe just change the order.

I actually had a teacher once give me a hard time using the international version. Gave me a line about not helping the school since I didn't buy it from the bookstore, and hurting the publisher. Oh well. I never felt bad once.
 
Just a little hint for anybody planning on going to the Air Force Academy. It is actually illegal to use Foreign books in any course there so, keep that in mind if you are heading off to the Air Force Academy.
 
[quote name='Dokstarr']It is all a big scam with the new editions and the schools are in on it. They make people use the newest editions, and many times the newer editions is 99% the same.

Sometimes they fix a mispelling. Sometimes in the questions section they will change the given values, or maybe just change the order.

I actually had a teacher once give me a hard time using the international version. Gave me a line about not helping the school since I didn't buy it from the bookstore, and hurting the publisher. Oh well. I never felt bad once.[/quote]

Here's the way my chemistry teacher likes to put it.

New editions/revisions are a total rip off. It's a way to make the students use more money. What do they do? Add information and update 2 pages? But wait, how come the books get smaller and smaller every year? One would think that they add more information, but it seems like their taking out information.

It's not exactly what he said, but it's somewhat like that.

Unfortunately for me, I bought all my books(~$600) at the college book store this year. I was in a bit of a rush and couldn't wait for shipping. Won't happen again.
 
Amazon is great. My initial cost was around 350 so I decided to check around...89.xx on Amazon shipped. I scored because one seller had like 4 of the 10 books so I got really cheap shipping and it was just nice. Helped that I don't have any math or science to take. Really helps keep the price down.
 
I usually go through amazon or half, however, I find the best deals on campus...not from the bookstore, but from students. In reality, you wont know know everyone that has had taken your class before, but you just need some connections. I've purchased books from friends, or friends of friends many times, often saving more than online prices, for example, a book I got for programing last term, sells for about 120 at the bookstore, 60 used online, and I picked it up for only 40 from the roommate of one of my friends. If I wanted to, I could probably resell this online and break even or slightly be in the black. Textbook flipping anyone >_>
 
[quote name='Link927']I usually go through amazon or half, however, I find the best deals on campus...not from the bookstore, but from students. In reality, you wont know know everyone that has had taken your class before, but you just need some connections. I've purchased books from friends, or friends of friends many times, often saving more than online prices, for example, a book I got for programing last term, sells for about 120 at the bookstore, 60 used online, and I picked it up for only 40 from the roommate of one of my friends. If I wanted to, I could probably resell this online and break even or slightly be in the black. Textbook flipping anyone >_>[/QUOTE]

Sounds like a bit of an untapped market there, although there are probably people that do it. Don't forget to check the "free" bin that often appears during book buyback at colleges, there might be something in there that you could sell for a decent profit.
 
I don't buy books unless I'm sure we'll be doing specific stuff from the book. Otherwise look it up online.
 
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