I just went and picked up all my textbooks for my fall classes.... $626 for 4 books! That's ridiculous. And the teachers changed the editions of all the texts so there were no used ones, although even then it would have still been over $500. It just seems so wrong to make us pay that much for these thngs - as if my student loans aren't high enough already. The really frustratin thing is I just went to see if they were buying back the text I'm using for the class I'm in right now, and they said they're paying $11 for it. I spent $140! Sorry, just had to rant about that for a little while. More of my student loan down the drain....

Oh, I remember that frustration well. Just wait until they won't buy the books back AT ALL - and you're stuck with piles of books on obscure subjects.

I don't know where you go to school, but where I attended we also had "readers" - big bound photocopies from a variety of sources. I once had to pay $65 for about 200 photocopied pages...

Anyway, I feel your pain and hope next term you can sell them back to get at least some of that money in your pocket again.

The texts I don't want to keep and I know the class is still going to use, I sell them directly to other students. I get far more of money back than I would if I sold it back to the school and the other student can get a great deal. It's a win-win situation.

I hate that!!!

I know your pain. Luckily, I've been finished with those kind of subjects for a while. I'm now taking classes where I actually want to keep the books. Since the classes are literature type classes, I can go to practically any used bookstore and find what I need.

Ahh... must be nice to actually want to read the things again - somehow I don't think I'll be keeping Advanced Operations Management for a Strategic Advantage for some evening reading! Oh well, one more year to go, then no more textbooks! Just professional dues....

have you tried some of the online text book places? I think like half.com or something like that...I'm sorry - as I write this I realize I'm drawing a blank
but there are lots of discount book stores online. even amazon is usually cheaper - I know our bookstore is just there to rip us off

good luck!

I feel your pain... I just spent around $600 for my textbooks as well. $166.42 for Business Research Methods alone. What can they tell me about business research that is anywhere near worth $166.42?!?!
As far as selling back books try Ebay. I've sold a few odds and ends there and have had some good luck. I'm sure you'd get more then the $11.00

My husband is a buisness major and his 4 books cost more than my 23 books, I'm a history major,,,tons of reading.

His was 488 and mine was 426....GOD!! over 900 dollars in BOOKS!

4th year of college....
1st semester nursing school....I spent $965 and some change on all my textbooks. I have to admit that about $200 of it was not required, but they didn't tell us that until halfway into the semester when we were all asking about why we weren't using so and so.
And with nursing books you cannot resell them at the bookstore....their information is only good for one year (according to our school).

Boo.

I just experienced this during summer school...who's bright idea was it to make this pile of crap? My inorganic chemistry book that was incomplete (meaning it had to index, no table of contents, and no answer section (that is standard with the book it was taken from).
It cost a little over $115.
And of course you can't see back that book either...oh and the summer school I went to was too cheap to bind the book for us! They just punched 3 holes in the 200+ pages. So the minute you unwrap the shrink wrap the book is officially off the market for resale...

I know how you feel.. and for me, I feel like it's such a waste of money. I also think it's evil how they go and change editions so frequently just to kill the 2nd hand market, which help students get affordable textbooks. Anyway, I'm glad I'm done with all that, I'm graduating from grad school on Saturday! Well good luck and hopefully, you'll get something useful out of those books besides using them as a doorstop.

Thanks for the advice, guys - I'll definitely look into the on-line sites, and selling them to other students is a great idea. Regardless, I guess I'll just have to grin and bear it for now - only 12 more classes to go!

If I would have ordered my 3 textbooks (ONLY 3 this semester YAY) from Amazon.com, I would have saved myself $60 - and that is at Amazon's prices, not the third party vendors from which I could have gotten even more savings.
Our university bookstore is a rip off.. I spent $220 on 2 textbooks and 1 study guide. Last fall was my first semester in the nursing program and I spent almost $800 on textbooks for that semester...... ugh

I have spent no more than $150 on textbooks for the past 3 semesters for 3 reasons:

1. And this is the rarest, but sometimes I can get away with not having it.... Like I said, very rare

2. I can check it out from the Library or purchase it for WAY cheaper at a local bookstore

3. Half.com.... is a godsend.

Oh, the benefits of being a SUPER senior.