Colleges Give Up On Bookstores, Just Send Students To Amazon
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Ordering books off Amazon can be risky, though, and a pain. They can take weeks to get to you, even if you expedite shipping. I know people who have had these issues for very important books that they needed but didn't have on time, even if they ordered them well in advance. And when you select them and they're in your cart, it'll tell you it can ship in as little as say, 3 days, yet when you're about to check out it will say "ready to ship in 3 weeks" and you're like whoa - what happened to 3 days? The only good thing about Amazon is the books are cheaper but IMO it's way more reliable to buy them in the school bookstore, or any other bookstore like Barnes and Noble. They're more expensive to buy but a lot of college bookstores offer buy back or rental programs which can save you a lot.
I've never had that issue when buying from Amazon. I have Prime, so I usually receive my books in just 2 days. Even when I buy books used from third party sellers, I've never waited more then a week. The Goodwill stores are usually the quickest. They will usually have a 2-3 week shopping estimation, but it's never been that long. One class, I needed 8 books that were not going to be used till October. I still ordered them right away, but wasn't concerned about shopping times since I had over a month till I needed them. I received each book much earlier then the original date estimations.
Amazon alwill also buy back textbooks (free shipping), has rental textbooks, etextbooks, and rental etextbooks. When buying textbooks it will show how much you'll get if you sell it back. Which is nice when deciding to buy or rent the book. If Amazon says that a $110 book can be sold back for $70, but it "only" costs $35 to rent, then I'm going to rent the book. But if it cost $50 to rent, it is a better deal to buy the book and sell it back.
University bookstores do a good business in used books, and can compete on that level. Also, the general public browses the textbook section, as well as the general-books section. They'd lose those sales if they eliminated their textbook section. The most successful university bookstores have an extensive general books section as a key source of business, and host author readings, and all that.
Thank god...college book stores were SUCH A NIGHTMARE. You were lucky if you could find what you wanted...over charging...looooong lines.
THIS!!!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by melaniej65
Things are so much better than when I got my last postgrad degree in the early 90s. My tuition was something like $4000. and my course materials could top $700. with maybe the chance of selling them back for $150.
.
I was lucky to get back $15 for $300 worth of books.
I went to college in the late 80s and early 90s and my last semester, senior year in 1991 my books were $500!!
I'm glad college bookstores are getting screwed over.
They were so expensive it was insulting.
There were many times as a starving student I had to buy books over buying food.
Ordering books off Amazon can be risky, though, and a pain. They can take weeks to get to you, even if you expedite shipping. I know people who have had these issues for very important books that they needed but didn't have on time, even if they ordered them well in advance. And when you select them and they're in your cart, it'll tell you it can ship in as little as say, 3 days, yet when you're about to check out it will say "ready to ship in 3 weeks" and you're like whoa - what happened to 3 days? The only good thing about Amazon is the books are cheaper but IMO it's way more reliable to buy them in the school bookstore, or any other bookstore like Barnes and Noble. They're more expensive to buy but a lot of college bookstores offer buy back or rental programs which can save you a lot.
Between my three children, my wife and myself, we had several of us in college from 2004 to 2013. I eventually learned the lessons of textbook shopping and started buying and selling many of our textbooks. Buying from Amazon.com is extremely reliable and risk free. What you are describing is buying used textbooks from 3rd party sellers and having the books shipped Media Mail. Amazon will give students a free six-month trial of Amazon Prime, which provides two day free shipping. When ordering items via Media Mail, Amazon tells you that the item may take as long as 23 days to arrive. Items shipped via Media Mail are sent via trucks and are the last items to go on the truck. Therefore, if you order a book from someone on the other side of the country, you should expect it to take longer to arrive.
Amazon tracks shipments and late shipments affect vendors' ratings on Amazon. Vendors with the highest ratings tend to be more reliable.
I also found that the college bookstores sometimes had lower prices than Amazon. It pays to shop around and to start as early as possible. Most college bookstores provide the list of required textbooks and associated prices online. We typically had all of our textbooks by the first day of classes or soon after.
BTW, I some some textbooks after the semester for more than I paid for them.
Bookstores are in on the racket, but it's really the publishers that control it.
Quote:
The Orange County Register reports that Alain Bourget, a math professor at Cal State Fullerton, is in danger of serious disciplinary action from his employer. His crime? Refusing to teach the assigned textbook, which costs $180 and was co-written by the chair and vice-chair of his academic department. According to the Register, the mathematics department decided way back in 1984 to “approve” the text and hasn’t revisited its decision since. Bourget wanted to use two other textbooks instead — one of which costs $76, and the other of which was free. Maybe there are other underlying complications that the Register hasn’t reported — but the story reinforces a strong basic message. College textbooks are a racket.
Thank god...college book stores were SUCH A NIGHTMARE. You were lucky if you could find what you wanted...over charging...looooong lines.
The whole college book thing is nothing but a major scam....a consistent money grab by textbook authors & publishers in cahoots with educators in order to wring out the maximum of money they can from students and parents. For example, minor changes will be made in the next edition of whatever required book but the college syllabus will advise that the newest edition is required, thus forcing students to pay a premium for the newest edition book......a previous edition would suffice but they add or change it just enough to have page number differences, b.s. "updates", etc. preventing a student from borrowing or cheaply obtaining an older existing book which contains 99% of the same material.
At this point, if one could find a pirated copy online they shouldn't feel bad about downloading it for free......thievery??....not in my mind.....the real thieves are these authors/educators who are bleeding our kids & us blind under the guise of "education essentials", which most times are retreads of stuff going back years to which they slap a new cover/photo on and reclassify as the next edition.
I got hosed with textbooks the past few semesters, because all of mine were only available in eBook format; ie. you pay a couple hundred dollars for an access code that expires at the end of the semester. I suppose we could find outdated paper versions of the textbooks, but then we'd still need the access code for submitting homework, quizzes, and tests. I understand that books cost money, but at least with a traditional textbook, one can potentially sell it after it is no longer needed, or keep it for personal reference.
University bookstores do a good business in used books, and can compete on that level. Also, the general public browses the textbook section, as well as the general-books section. They'd lose those sales if they eliminated their textbook section. The most successful university bookstores have an extensive general books section as a key source of business, and host author readings, and all that.
My last two years of college, I noticed that there were minimal used books for sale. The publishers were spitting out a 'new version' every year so the school wouldn't even buy back the books as used.
Husband and I shared one book for each class. Annoyed the crap out of some of the instructors, but they couldn't really do anything about it. And it was still an outrageous expense which you often couldn't recover any money for because invariably, revised editions of required textbooks would pop up just in time for the new semester. And the revisions often only included a few words or rewording or changed punctuation. Quite a racket!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
