creekland Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Just my semi-annual reminder to those of us on a budget who like to buy less expensive college books online... I just paid $224 (including postage) for books that otherwise would have cost my guy $425 + tax at the bookstore (buying the least expensive used). All books I bought were in Like New or Very Good condition. This time I bought them all using Half.com, but I still compared prices using Dealoz.com - then going to the site and checking out similar books, not just the least expensive that comes up. I look for great feedback percentages, minimal wear, and little to no writing/highlighting - plus beware of International Editions listed as the "real" thing (some are ok, some aren't - we stay away from them). IME, the least expensive really good options sell quickly - hence - my friendly reminder to be on the hunt if your school lets you know which books your student will need - check the online bookstore and put in the exact course they've signed up for - exact number as some profs choose different books. If you need a "new" book, it's worth it to e-mail the prof (well, your student e-mails the prof) to see if an older edition will work or not. Every single semester I've been able to save quite a bit of $$, not necessarily on every class, but overall. My kids get to keep or resell the book as they wish later. Sometimes they've even been able to resell them for the same amount I paid for them (to other students, not the bookstore). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 I second creekland's suggestion to contact the instructor. You may be able to save additional hundreds of $$ if you contact the instructor and ask whether an older edition of the textbook would be acceptable. Those often cost only a few dollars used. As a college instructor, I am happy to help my students save some money. Sometimes the old edition may work perfectly fine. Sometimes the homework problems are taken from the new edition, but the old one would work fine for reading. In this case, often the same homework problems are also in the old book, just with different problem numbers; this can easily be correlated. Sometimes old textbook is OK, but workbook and lab manual must be from the current edition. The instructor should be able to tell your student. The college bookstore would not know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 This is great information. DD is starting to take dual enrollment courses and the current price of new and used books at the college bookstore are outrageously high. However, for some courses, they sell customized texts or bundles that include an online code. Her first course had a textbook bundle with online code so we spent the extra money to buy it at the college bookstore (used, but still $$$). I could have saved a bundle buying the text online because the instructor never made use of the online content. I'd love to hear some experienced voices on how to save money when the required text listed is customized for that school or bundled with an online code. Do you still buy used online and then buy the online code only if it turns out to be needed (and do you lose all the savings when you buy the code separate)? Can a standard text often be utilized when the course uses a customized text? DD is taking two courses next Fall. I have already purchased her textbook and CDs for the music appreciation course (Half.com) but am scared to try anything but the college bookstore for the beginning Spanish course. It has a custom text AND an access code. Edited to add: She can't email the instructor because the college hasn't listed the instructors for each section yet. By the time they are listed, we'll be in crunch mode to get the books before class starts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 I'd love to hear some experienced voices on how to save money when the required text listed is customized for that school or bundled with an online code. Do you still buy used online and then buy the online code only if it turns out to be needed (and do you lose all the savings when you buy the code separate)? Can a standard text often be utilized when the course uses a customized text? Contact the instructor! My college bookstore sometimes can get a cheaper deal from the publisher if they bundle the textbook and workbook with the online access code, as opposed to just ordering the textbook and workbook alone without the code. So, they bundle to save the students money - but I do not use the online resources. For DD's French course, we asked the professor. Turned out, she could use the old textbook, and she simply purchased the online access separately. We also bought lab manual and workbook separately used online. Compared to the complete bundle of all required resources through the bookstore, we saved a lot of money. Some customized texts are inside identical to a standard text; they may omit some chapters. Again, the person who would know is the instructor. ETA: Just saw your edit that you can't contact the instructor. Then contact the academic department. Some departments have common textbooks, and they might know the book even if the instructor has not been announced. They might also know who will likely be teaching the class, even if it is not official. If there is a custom text, chances are that there will not just be a single instructor who has requested this. To what degree the custom text is identical to the general text is also a question the bookstore might be able to answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Agree with regentrude about contacting instructor or department. Our department chose to go with an unbound text rather than a bound one to save money (texts are quite the racket). We do have an online code bundled though. Not everyone in the department uses it. I do and find it very useful for my students. In my class, the online material is a requirement. It is MUCH more expensive to buy the book elsewhere and then the online code since the online access includes an online version of the text. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 It is MUCH more expensive to buy the book elsewhere and then the online code since the online access includes an online version of the text. Would they even need a textbook then at all, or could they get by just with the online code? (Not that this would work too well; I have yet to speak to a student who got the online version of our text and liked it.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 I'm okay with students using the online text. It's a RARE student who actually reads the text despite me telling them to. Online materials have the text as PDF, course videos, and MyMathLab. We do use the text examples in class on occasion, but students can share texts then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 It's a RARE student who actually reads the text despite me telling them to. Isn't that the truth, sigh? I have not found a magic bullet that gets them to read the textbook. Which is even more ironic since they spend so much money on the book - hey, I would not make them spend all this money just for the homework problems! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Agree with regentrude about contacting instructor or department. Our department chose to go with an unbound text rather than a bound one to save money (texts are quite the racket). We do have an online code bundled though. Not everyone in the department uses it. I do and find it very useful for my students. In my class, the online material is a requirement. It is MUCH more expensive to buy the book elsewhere and then the online code since the online access includes an online version of the text. Would they even need a textbook then at all, or could they get by just with the online code? (Not that this would work too well; I have yet to speak to a student who got the online version of our text and liked it.) I am sorry to be naive about this, but do college students often forgo having a hard copy of a text in order to save money? I know how my high school students feel about online texts and it's not positive. The more difficult the text, the more likely they are to want a hard copy. Also, why customizable texts? Someone mentioned on another board about replacing the part about evolution in a science text with their own part about creation. How much does a university customize a text? Is there a valid point for it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 I have heard of some classes (not math!) where the text is a required text but the instructor doesn't use it. I can see that being very frustrating as a student. I think some students (my classes) are used to high school and not having to study much outside of class. I remember in middle school and high school taking turns reading aloud from the text. I always hated that. I imagine some of that still goes on (especially since I can't get some students to READ the text). So I think students avoid buying the text for a number of different reasons. Some think they can get by without it (wrong typically in my class). I've also had students tell me they don't have money to buy the text. If that's the case, they REALLY shouldn't be taking the class - the text is a requirement!! And with my class, 15% of their grade comes from online work. We do have the hard copy bundled with the online code. I have some try to use the online text (would save some money) and I'm okay with that. I taught at a different cc where we had a custom text. The text was bad... it was cut and paste from 3 different texts... prealgebra, algebra, and trig. It was a strange course that was a requirement for 3 different departments (non-transfer credit). Each wanted some topics in there and the custom text was the best compromise. I don't often see a custom text to be much cheaper than separate texts, but if you're doing a course and you want certain topics, that would be why you might go with a custom text. To regentrude, I'd prefer a different text than we use, but I do understand the point of having departmental texts for courses at the cc. As an adjunct, I will complain when they're using a text I consider poor, but I can only rock the boat so much. If something is completely wrong IMO, I can always quit... but we're not there yet :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara H Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Also, why customizable texts? Someone mentioned on another board about replacing the part about evolution in a science text with their own part about creation. How much does a university customize a text? Is there a valid point for it? The reason you'll often hear is that it cuts down on cheating. For some of the most popular tests there are full solution sets circulating on Ebay. But, the bigger reason is probably profit for both the textbook companies and for the universities that get royalties. online.wsj.com/article/SB121565135185141235.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 I am sorry to be naive about this, but do college students often forgo having a hard copy of a text in order to save money? I have very few students who tried electronic texts, for cost saving, and their reports have not been positive. Many of my students, however, use the text solely for the homework problems and do not do the assigned reading. I seriously wonder why they are spending the money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 The reason you'll often hear is that it cuts down on cheating. For some of the most popular tests there are full solution sets circulating on Ebay. Actually, for science, the full solutions for all common introductory texts are available on cheating websites like Chegg. This said, the customized texts I have seen contained exactly the same text and problems as the generic ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 This said, the customized texts I have seen contained exactly the same text and problems as the generic ones. I agree. The customized texts I saw at second hand bookstores for community colleges are identical to high school texts except for less a few chapters. Sometimes it is cheaper to get the thicker high school text than the customized version. Even the chapter numbers are the same for both versions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 Just a note about an experience my son had as a dual enrollment student at the local CC. Every online source for his microbiology text was pricier than the college bookstore, something that surprised me. It turned out that the bookstore was selling a loose page, cover-less version of the text. Indeed it was less expensive but there was also no resale market for an unbound text. Dana mentioned that her department uses unbound texts. Do students find a resale market amongst themselves? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 I haven't seen students resell the unbound books. I do see students post notices for selling some books but not these. I'd be concerned about missing pages! The difference in price between unbound and bound is almost $100 which is by the department chose to use the unbound version. I think text pricing is ridiculous...but I do really like the online software for my classes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara H Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 Most books we've been able to save with shopping online, but we hit on one customized textbook that had the problems numbered differently so we had to go with the custom version or homework would have been impossible. Great advice to shop early online. Also, if your student wants to resell books - list them as soon as possible at the end of the semester and write good descriptions. I much more likely to buy a book that lists condition very clearly - no writing, no highlighting, tight binding, nonsmoking. We have often been able to sell the book for as much as we paid for used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 I agree. The customized texts I saw at second hand bookstores for community colleges are identical to high school texts except for less a few chapters. Sometimes it is cheaper to get the thicker high school text than the customized version. Even the chapter numbers are the same for both versions. This was true of the PreCalculus book that my my daughter used for College Algebra and Trigonometry classes at the local community college. The cutstomized version was simply the regular textbook minus several chapters. I found the regular textbook at a local thrift store and my daughter used that for both classes. This saved us more than a hundred dollars. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted June 9, 2013 Author Share Posted June 9, 2013 With regards to access codes... many profs don't actually use those, so one can still find used books with unused codes - just be certain the description says it has an unused code. We've had a couple of custom deals over the semesters. We've just bought from the bookstore for those. In the future I'll see if we can compare to a real text. I had no idea some of the customs actually had LESS material. I also buy books with better descriptions even if I pay a few bucks more (not huge amounts more, but a few bucks). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 With my class, students can buy online access directly...no need for a separate code...but it is pricey. The software has recently gone to a way that students can get free access or 1-2 weeks at the start of the term. Be sure if buying from someone that the packaging with the code is unopened and the code hasn't been used. From what I hear, tech support isn't the greatest for students. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigid in NC Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 This was true of the PreCalculus book that my my daughter used for College Algebra and Trigonometry classes at the local community college. The cutstomized version was simply the regular textbook minus several chapters. I found the regular textbook at a local thrift store and my daughter used that for both classes. This saved us more than a hundred dollars. :iagree: I always shop for used editions too--and it really can save you hundreds of dollars in a single semester! The "custom" editions infuriate me. They are a scam, IMO, as they offer no added value. My two ds's took quite a few dual enrollment classes, and I was always sad and angry to see so many high-priced custom editions. Custom editions change so frequently that there are limited **or no** options for resale. We have found virtually no opportunity to comparision shop, since the custom editions at our local CC are shrinkwrapped--and once you break open the shrinkwrap, you cannot return the material. My two "follow the rules" guys were totally stressed out at the idea that the question sets in a used copy would not match up if we did not purchase the specific custom edition on the syllabus. :o And contacting the instructor . . . it just doesn't seem like students should have to go through this extra step. Book vendors and the bookstore know that most won't. Everybody is on a budget these days, but so many CC students are schooling on a shoestring. Some school book strategies border on the unethical IMO. And now, off of my soapbox--and thanks for the reminder, Creekland! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildcat Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 :iagree: I always shop for used editions too--and it really can save you hundreds of dollars in a single semester! The "custom" editions infuriate me. They are a scam, IMO, as they offer no added value. My two ds's took quite a few dual enrollment classes, and I was always sad and angry to see so many high-priced custom editions. Custom editions change so frequently that there are limited **or no** options for resale. We have found virtually no opportunity to comparision shop, since the custom editions at our local CC are shrinkwrapped--and once you break open the shrinkwrap, you cannot return the material. My two "follow the rules" guys were totally stressed out at the idea that the question sets in a used copy would not match up if we did not purchase the specific custom edition on the syllabus. :o And contacting the instructor . . . it just doesn't seem like students should have to go through this extra step. Book vendors and the bookstore know that most won't. Everybody is on a budget these days, but so many CC students are schooling on a shoestring. Some school book strategies border on the unethical IMO. And now, off of my soapbox--and thanks for the reminder, Creekland! We had the same thing happen wrt a custom edition. I found what looked like the same book online for less, but since this was ds' first experience with this, we went with the school's edition--- it was shrink wrapped and there were no used books. The reason why was obvious; it was unbound and hole-punched so ds needed TWO binders (or the really large 4 inch one) and the pages all ripped at the rings as they were printed on very cheap paper. It's still sitting in the attic all these years later as it was unsellable to others and the school printed a 'new' edition the next year. I swore the next time he came upon a 'custom' edition he would ask someone about it. It's nothing more than a racket!! The article posted upthread was eye-opening. And it really ticked me off. Creekland, thanks for the reminder. I 'haunt' Amazon for used books all the time. One thing I started doing is noting who is selling the edition I am looking for.... if I'm buying more than one book and it's a 'store' that has one of my books, I'll go to their webpage and price out the others. Sometimes the books are cheaper there and sometimes they are cheaper to buy individually, even with the shipping. I also like to buy from what seems to be college kids by buying their books *if they have excellent descriptions*. I will take my chances on someone with no feedback if their description was written with many adjectives. :tongue_smilie: Like others, I avoid the 'useless' descriptions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 We had the same thing happen wrt a custom edition. I found what looked like the same book online for less, but since this was ds' first experience with this, we went with the school's edition--- it was shrink wrapped and there were no used books. The reason why was obvious; it was unbound and hole-punched so ds needed TWO binders (or the really large 4 inch one) and the pages all ripped at the rings as they were printed on very cheap paper. It's still sitting in the attic all these years later as it was unsellable to others and the school printed a 'new' edition the next year. I swore the next time he came upon a 'custom' edition he would ask someone about it. It's nothing more than a racket!! I do not think the custom editions are a deliberate racket. It is very possible that a new custom edition is significantly cheaper for the student than a new textbook - and these are the only prices the bookstore can compare. The bookstore can not guarantee that they can get enough used copies to enough low prices for the entire class; quite possibly, requesting a custom edition with cheaper or no binding was originally a cost saving measure. (Only now with the easy nation wide searching for used books by computer, they can't compete with the used books available.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 Many of my students, however, use the text solely for the homework problems and do not do the assigned reading. I seriously wonder why they are spending the money. I had a few ex-classmates in engineering who would photocopy the pages of the homework problems of those of us who bought as they don't wish to buy the text. My alma mater has a fair use rule that allows for photocopying of at most 10% of any book. Most of my lecturers were also kind enough to have a copy of the textbook in the library under Reference (use in library) so we could use those if we could not afford to buy. Dana mentioned that her department uses unbound texts. Do students find a resale market amongst themselves? Some community colleges and universities have student co-op where they sell/trade textbooks. The community college custom textbooks that I bought as fun references were soft bound paperbacks and I bought them for $1-3 at library book sales. They were for math and science subjects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 Regentrude why is it considered cheating to get worked solutions for math and science texts? I truly don't understand that. It's not like homework is "graded" in college; the only point of it is to reinforce the material and find out if there's anything that isn't understood. These sites and solutions manuals don't have test answers. As a homeschooler, we definitely used solutions manuals for checking homework, so why not for college? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 While custom bundles are often cheaper, they also bring in less for re-sale. Often the texts are abbreviated and paperback. The hardcover texts retain their value much better and are more widely used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 Regentrude why is it considered cheating to get worked solutions for math and science texts? I truly don't understand that. It's not like homework is "graded" in college; the only point of it is to reinforce the material and find out if there's anything that isn't understood. These sites and solutions manuals don't have test answers. As a homeschooler, we definitely used solutions manuals for checking homework, so why not for college? Homework actually is often graded in college. In all our math and science courses, homework is a portion of the grade. In some classes substantially so. If I collect homework, I want to see the student's own work, not a copied solution. Aside from this, copying homework does not teach the students anything. If I have them rework a homework problem the following day in class and grade that, many students are unable to reproduce what they presumably worked out the night before. having solutions available gives students a shortcut that bypasses actual learning. There is a direct correlation between doing the homework and mastering the material, i.e. grade. I do not mind them using a site to get a hint; however, I do mind passing off copied solutions as their own work and turning it in for a grade. That is cheating. One colleague has homework count for 40% of the class grade. Because of the rampant cheating with online solutions, he now has to write his own complete problem sets. It is a huge pain and very time consuming. ETA: An entirely different question is whether homework should be graded in college. I personally would much prefer if it was not, and if the students who did not do homework would simply fail their exams. This, however, is not wanted by the administration concerned about retention. And the sad reality is that the majority of students would NOT complete the homework if there was not an "incentive" in the form of points. . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 I had no idea homework was graded. Dd's class grade comes from the average of the test scores. I wasn't suggesting that the solutions manual be copied, but that there's nothing wrong with a student checking it to see if they worked the problem correctly. This is college, and again her homework isn't graded, just the tests. As with homeschooling, an excellent test grade verifies that the student has mastered the material, whether they remembered everything perfectly from the lecture, or consulted the solutions manual for a refresher here and there. JMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 I had no idea homework was graded. Dd's class grade comes from the average of the test scores. I wasn't suggesting that the solutions manual be copied, but that there's nothing wrong with a student checking it to see if they worked the problem correctly. This is college, and again her homework isn't graded, just the tests. As with homeschooling, an excellent test grade verifies that the student has mastered the material, whether they remembered everything perfectly from the lecture, or consulted the solutions manual for a refresher here and there. JMO. Oh, absolutely nothing wrong with checking. In fact, our department conducts 10 hours of weekly free homework help for each big introductory course, where students can get an instructor's input. If they do the homework at the learning center, they walk out knowing that what they have done on the board and then written down in their notebooks is correct. Owning the solution manual is not cheating. But copying is. What course is your DD taking that has no grade component for homework? I would imagine it makes a big difference whether the main component of a course is problem solving or not. "Remembering anything perfectly from lecture" will not help a student to pass physics or calculus, he must practice problem solving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 @creekland Thank you for starting this thread. Interesting! We have many more years ahead of us and I have a question: In your experience, which months have the largest selection/lowest prices available? (I'm thinking maybe July and August and then again in December and January?). So far, the textbooks we have purchased came from different Amazon Sellers, so I was interested that this time you purchased from Half.com P.S. Yes, we are on a very tight budget... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 "Remembering everything perfectly from the lecture" was my wording and clearly a poor choice as these courses are all about solving problems. Maybe the difference is that these courses are all beyond the introductory level. Honestly though, I can't imagine 40% of the grade coming from homework for even introductory college courses. I also can't imagine that a student who is copying from a solutions manual, or online source, is getting good test grades. Instead of having to make up their own problems, the professors should be allowed to stop grading homework. That would put an end to the cheating as it would serve no purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 "Remembering everything perfectly from the lecture" was my wording and clearly a poor choice as these courses are all about solving problems. Maybe the difference is that these courses are all beyond the introductory level. Honestly though, I can't imagine 40% of the grade coming from homework for even introductory college courses. I also can't imagine that a student who is copying from a solutions manual, or online source, is getting good test grades. Instead of having to make up their own problems, the professors should be allowed to stop grading homework. That would put an end to the cheating as it would serve no purpose. Actually the courses with the highest percentage of points for homework are upper level classes. There are even entirely project based classes without any exams, where homework is the only source of points. (But the higher the level, the more likely it is that the instructor will design his own assignments.) In the very first intro courses, homework counts usually between 10 and 20% (the most effective way is to have students rework a previously prepared problem on the board for credit.). Of course students who copy will fail the exams. But it may be hard to sell to the administration when 60+% of students fail a class. And they would, if there was no incentive for homework. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 The type of homework you're referring to for the upper level math theory courses, which likely involves hours and hours of proof work, probably isn't showing up on Chuggs or in solutions manuals anyway. Based on that comparison, I guess these would be mid-level courses at a university, or upper level at a community college. A large percentage of students withdraw or fail the introductory courses at our community college as well. They're not meant to be easy and require work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted June 10, 2013 Author Share Posted June 10, 2013 @creekland Thank you for starting this thread. Interesting! We have many more years ahead of us and I have a question: In your experience, which months have the largest selection/lowest prices available? (I'm thinking maybe July and August and then again in December and January?). So far, the textbooks we have purchased came from different Amazon Sellers, so I was interested that this time you purchased from Half.com P.S. Yes, we are on a very tight budget... IME the earlier the better for buying books over the summer, but many bookstores don't have a list of what books are needed until June. Therefore, I buy in early June. I used to wait thinking more books would be added, but instead, I found books I had my eye on had sold leaving me only more expensive options. I never found a better deal by waiting. December or early Jan works. What I do is get a list of what books are needed and get a basic price for a Very Good to Like New version online. This is done without a lot of checking out books. I let my guys know what I feel I can buy them for and they check around at school with students they know (and via school Facebook pages or other book exchange places). Sometimes they can get books cheaper there. If so, great! They have prices, so they know what a good price is or can make an intelligent offer that does not "cheat" the other student. They let me know what they can get (or already got) and then I make my purchases and have the books sent directly to them at college (after the first year - the first semester the books come here and we take them to school). There are usually a couple of small things they need to buy at the bookstore - books or lab books costing < $5 and occasionally there is something brand new they need that is priced competitively there (lab books or bundled books). This year, since I paid over 50% list price (of used books), I actually paid a bit more than I have other years. My best semester I was right around 33% paid. My guys use Half.com to price their own books if they choose to sell them. That money is theirs, but my boys are not frivolous with their money, so it works out. Sometimes they do use that money to buy other books there, sometimes it's generic spending money, sometimes they apply it to their bill. It all depends on how much. We're "one" family so our common goal is to see that our share of the bills are paid and they can live with a reasonable budget. They don't need much since they have their food paid for (although this summer, middle son is using some of his book money for groceries - no dining plan for summer). I do want them to have $$ to spend on fun stuff (like Student Union movies, or concerts - even the Farmer's Market or occasional pizza/wings), so it all works out. And as for graded homework, yes, that has been a switch since the days when I went to college and NONE of my homework assignments were graded. Now, some classes give 10% of a grade to homework. It surprised me. My guess for the change is that colleges wanted to up their graduation rates and NOT doing homework was a big reason students failed - hence - allow points for homework. I guess I'm ok with it as long as it's a low percentage. I wouldn't want to see 40%. Too many kids copy and learn nothing. 40% makes it too easy for them to pass without knowing much. (BT - seen that with our high school classes.) It could easily contribute to the dumbing down of college the same way it's happened with high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 @creekland Thank you for the Follow On, in post #34. Much appreciated. Early June and after... OK... Regarding December and January, near the end of December, we needed to buy an Art textbook for DD. I was going to wait, until 10-15 January, to order it, to avoid the Christmas shipping rush. But, someone came in with that book on Amazon at a lower price, and then many of the Sellers lowered their prices. The Seller i had my eye on lowered their price about $7, to $3.94, so I ordered on 27 December. Prices on that textbook then went down to as low as $0.01, for many Amazon Sellers. Not all of the Sellers lowered their prices, but many did. Now, the prices on that textbook are back to normal. I found that "price war" interesting and apparently many Amazon Sellers have computerized pricing to adjust their prices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted June 10, 2013 Author Share Posted June 10, 2013 Dec - Jan is a bit more volatile as each school lets out at different times and you have Christmas in there. Some students list their books right away, others do so later. It's tough to know when the "best" is, but I usually like after Christmas just for the convenience of my time. In the spring, kids seem to list their books quickly and buyers are circling looking for them. When books were added later, they were often listed at the going price at that time - which was higher than earlier. My hypothesis is some kids just want to "SELL" so list at a "lowest" price quickly. Kids who want to get more $$ price theirs higher and wait. Those who procrastinate listing see the higher prices and assume that's the going rate and might be a little lower than those, but not the "low" of earlier. It's only a hypothesis... but I've found some really good deals buying early (in the spring/summer) compared to later - sometimes $50 less on an expensive book (and it can be $150+ less compared to new). Most often I'm talking $5 - $30 less for a similar quality book. That's not a whole lot if one is only thinking of one book, but it adds up with 4 or 5 courses. Then compare the savings to the bookstore costs and the savings can be really substantial. If money is no object, I can see wanting to support the college bookstore. We're just not in that position. I do know some who are and they like the convenience of just popping in and buying all their books (new). Then they just resell the books to the bookstore after they are done (or, some of these students have given my kids REALLY good deals). I'm glad there are folks out there like that. We each need to find where we fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 @creekland Thank you again, for your Follow On, in post #36. One thing I have learned, is to send a message to the Seller, via the Amazon Messaging system, asking how they ship and if they provide tracking that is immediately available on Amazon. And, in the future, I will try to avoid those who ship via DHL Global Mail... And yes, last September, I put 5 books in my Shopping Cart on Amazon, on a Tuesday night. 2 days later, my wife told me to place the Order, and the Science textbook I had in the Shopping Cart had been sold to someone else... At the last minute, I had to find another Seller. That Seller turned out to be the one who shipped first and that textbook was the first one to be delivered in South Florida... I will be happy to buy from them again, if they have the right book at the right price... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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