College Books

[creeeaature]

So, I'm buying my books for class and figured I would try Amazon. I come across this.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0763704814/ref=lp_g_1/104-8408273-4767961?ie=UTF8&qid=1189115343&sr=8-1

4.50 + 3.99 shipping? How can this be possible? Are they seriously selling these books for this cheap?

I'm basically asking for others experiences in buying from similar situations, is it legitimate?

 

[Genocidal]

Very possible; I purchased a physics book from Amazon that cost the guy more to ship it than I paid one time. If it's not the newest edition, most people are just looking to make a few bucks and free up some space in their room/apartment.

 

[Prock]

im taking data structures too, and discrete structures also.

 

[killjoy188]

[quote name='creeeaature']So, I'm buying my books for class and figured I would try Amazon. I come across this.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0763704814/ref=lp_g_1/104-8408273-4767961?ie=UTF8&qid=1189115343&sr=8-1

4.50 + 3.99 shipping? How can this be possible? Are they seriously selling these books for this cheap?

I'm basically asking for others experiences in buying from similar situations, is it legitimate?[/quote]It's probably legitimate--A lot of colleges only pay 10% of the retail price for students who sell back books, so people end up forced to sell them dirt cheap. And even if it's not, amazon guarantees them, so you can always get your money back.

I've heard that amazon is relatively high for textbooks, and that abebooks.com is much better. I haven't tried them yet though.

 

[iflabs]

The edition you're buying is probably being phased out, so no one wants to buy it. I bought this one particular C++ book for $70 and after the semester was over, they were going for less than $5 because professors started using the newer editions.

 

[creeeaature]

Can you ever get away with buying a previous edition? Like the 3rd instead of 4th. Often, arn't the changes simple spelling mistakes or the similar? The price difference is just phenomenal.

 

[freezervv]

[quote name='creeeaature']Can you ever get away with buying a previous edition? Like the 3rd instead of 4th. Often, arn't the changes simple spelling mistakes or the similar? The price difference is just phenomenal.[/quote] Like 90% of the time. Ask your professor; he or she should know.

Edit: Problem sets tend to be the iffiest, although I once photocopied everything I needed (about 25 pages) out of a friend's book at the beginning of a semester so I could use a couple editions back.