Renting/buying books for spring semester for duel enrolled classes

[momofkhm]

I'm running into a lot of the books being out of stock. Is this because books from fall semester are not all turned in yet? When should I look?

[regentrude]

Where are you looking, at the school's bookstore? Are these non-standard texts or old books? I find it very unusual for books not to be available at this time, as most students have begun selling their books.

I would keep looking on amazon and abebooks and similar sources. the school's bookstore is usually the most expensive option for purchasing textbooks.

I also suggest to contact the instructor and ask if an older edition of the textbook is acceptable; this will save you a lot of money.

[momofkhm]

Where are you looking, at the school's bookstore?

 

Right now I'm looking at Chegg and Amazon for rentals. But yeah, the college store's prices are higher.

[regentrude]

 

Right now I'm looking at Chegg and Amazon for rentals. But yeah, the college store's prices are higher.

 

Have you looked for purchase instead of rental?

[regentrude]

We rent ours through campusbookrentals.com

 

 

Do you really find it worth renting?

My students have told me what they pay in rental fees- it can be as much as 50% of the original price. Which makes it hardly worth it. Do you get better rates?

[regentrude]

I find that I'm paying about 25-30% of the cost of buying.

 

Is that compared to buying new or used?

[regentrude]

Okay, I'm coming back to this again...

 

If you can rent a book for 50% of the cost of buying it, does that not make it worth it? You're losing me on your logic here... (LOL)

 

If rental cost is 50% of the cost of buying NEW, buying the book used and reselling it after the semester is by far the cheaper option.

I personally also have seen rental fees above the used price, and that makes absolutely no sense for me. That was why I was asking whether it was compared to new or used.

 

ETA: here's what I found on our bookstore site:

Textbook for my course: new through bookstore 126, used through bookstore 100, rental 60, used online: 29 :confused:

Why on Earth would anybody want to rent a book for twice as much money as it costs to BUY a used book elsewhere?

[regentrude]

People have to do their own comparison shopping to find the best bargain.

 

Oh, I totally agree!

I was not being snarky, just really curious because the deals I have seen on our campus are ridiculous.

[Lanny]

The best time to look for Used Textbooks would probably be during July. But you do not have the luxury of waiting, for a Spring semester course. Keep checking, with the ISBN number, on Amazon.com and hopefully one or more of their Sellers will have the books.

 

When I ordered 4 Middle School textbooks, 6th grade, for Texas, during September, for my DD, I was *astonished* at the huge price variances..

 

One book, I was able to buy for less, New, than I could have purchased it for Used. :-) One book, was so much cheaper Used, that the savings on that one book paid for almost all of the shipping, both within the USA, and the Forwarding, to our house in Colombia. 3 of the 4 books were new.

 

I noticed that the same Amazon.com Seller might have the same book listed, for several different prices. For example, a book with a "List" price of $92, shown in listings for up to 3 times that. I do not understand why some Sellers place listings like that.

 

The 4 books we ordered from Amazon.com Sellers were all shipped the least expensive way, via U.S.P.S. to South Florida. Excellent service from U.S.P.S., from different Texas cities, to South Florida! $3.99 for each book. Then, they were Forwarded to us, together in one carton (17 pounds).

 

GL

[G5052]

Yes, just price it out.

 

The community college class I teach has books and materials that cost $180 or so new. You do much better than that on Amazon, but the risk is that they won't come in time and/or they may be the wrong edition. One of the books I use had three editions with the exact same cover, but of course different ISBNs. Just before finals one of my students went to see what her books would go for, and they offered $80 for one, and nothing for the other. We are using the exact same books in January and this summer, so I don't know why they will buy one and not the other.

 

My department head always orders a few extras and puts them on reserve in the library for students whose editions end up being wrong or who have delays with financial aid, but that doesn't work very well for a whole semester.

 

I see a lot of "for sale" emails on local homeschool lists for classes that are commonly taken for dual enrollment.

[Lanny]

What price would the Rental company charge you, if the rented book is lost, or, if it is returned to them, on time, and they do not like the condition it is in? Best to play "Devils Advocate" and look at all possible scenarios. GL

[Beth S]

Some college students are still taking Finals this next week. The used textbook websites will start to pickup right after Christmas, and the first week of January. It's such a blessing to be able to buy AND sell used! (We use Half.com, but there are lots of options.)