Textbook Question

[burbuja0512]

Hi,

Forgive me for the very dumb question, but most of my B&M credits are from the early 90's before everyone was on the internet.

Anyhow... I remember having to buy textbooks from my school bookstore and hoping that I'd be lucky enough to get one of the used ones before they were all gone. We're so lucky now to be able to shop around on Amazon, eBay, etc to get the best used text!

I will hopefully be enrolling in my Capstone class (if I can pass Principles of Finance on Monday) and wanted to go ahead and buy my textbook. I went to the COSC online bookstore and once I found the book I needed for my class, I searched for it on both Amazon and eBay. After seeing the used book costing over 100 dollars, I was very surprised to find several brand new books for $48 dollars!

On closer look, these new, cheap books are "international editions." Does anyone here know what that means and is the book good? I want to take advantage of the price, but 48 dollars is still a lot of money to spend if the text won't work for the class.

Thanks!

[cookderosa]

Hi,

Forgive me for the very dumb question, but most of my B&M credits are from the early 90's before everyone was on the internet.

Anyhow... I remember having to buy textbooks from my school bookstore and hoping that I'd be lucky enough to get one of the used ones before they were all gone. We're so lucky now to be able to shop around on Amazon, eBay, etc to get the best used text!

I will hopefully be enrolling in my Capstone class (if I can pass Principles of Finance on Monday) and wanted to go ahead and buy my textbook. I went to the COSC online bookstore and once I found the book I needed for my class, I searched for it on both Amazon and eBay. After seeing the used book costing over 100 dollars, I was very surprised to find several brand new books for $48 dollars!

On closer look, these new, cheap books are "international editions." Does anyone here know what that means and is the book good? I want to take advantage of the price, but 48 dollars is still a lot of money to spend if the text won't work for the class.

Thanks!

My husband and I buy IE all the time. They are exactly the same, but hard to resell because buyers are unsure.
I have heard storries of lesser quality paper, black/white only, etc. but I've not encountered it. We've bought maybe 15 or so IEs.

[burbuja0512]

My husband and I buy IE all the time. They are exactly the same, but hard to resell because buyers are unsure.
I have heard storries of lesser quality paper, black/white only, etc. but I've not encountered it. We've bought maybe 15 or so IEs.

Thanks Jennifer - I went ahead and ordered it. Lol... I could care less if the paper isn't good quality. For the money I'll be saving, I think I can handle it! I was just worried that maybe it was missing a chapter or something.

[irnbru]

After paying for the last two courses with Excelsior I looked at the required textbook. $237.50 How much? Two hundred dollars? Buy second hand for $178.00, save $59.50!

Right, no. Ordered the international edition. It's exactly the same textbook, content in English, printed on slightly lower quality paper with a different title.

$35.50, including postage. When it finally arrived, price tag on the back stated 63 Yuan; so, about $9.50. Obviously I had no problem with the reseller markup considering it saved me two hundred dollars.

Education can be such a business so it definitely pays to shop around. Provided you purchase based on the ISBN it's highly recommended.

[burbuja0512]

After paying for the last two courses with Excelsior I looked at the required textbook. $237.50 How much? Two hundred dollars? Buy second hand for $178.00, save $59.50!

Right, no. Ordered the international edition. It's exactly the same textbook, content in English, printed on slightly lower quality paper with a different title.

$35.50, including postage. When it finally arrived, price tag on the back stated 63 Yuan; so, about $9.50. Obviously I had no problem with the reseller markup considering it saved me two hundred dollars.

Education can be such a business so it definitely pays to shop around. Provided you purchase based on the ISBN it's highly recommended.

Glad to hear that another person has had success with the international edition. Textbooks have always been expensive, but I seriously don't remember them costing more than 150 back in 1993... they really have gone up in price.

[PonyGirl93]

Yeah, I have bought several IE's, I was a huge fan For spring quarter, even the IE's were over $150 :ack:

I have also been buying one-edition older... Never had an issue with it, except possibly different page numbers. This time around I paid $80 for 4 textbooks (3 of them an edition older)... The original price total, even for crappy used ones was close to $300. Hopefully it won't backfire on me this time

[burbuja0512]

Yeah, I have bought several IE's, I was a huge fan For spring quarter, even the IE's were over $150 :ack:

I have also been buying one-edition older... Never had an issue with it, except possibly different page numbers. This time around I paid $80 for 4 textbooks (3 of them an edition older)... The original price total, even for crappy used ones was close to $300. Hopefully it won't backfire on me this time

Good point about the older editions. I bought past editions for my Straighterline courses because I figured that there wouldn't be anyone to scold me if I shouldn't have done it It worked out fine, though yes the page numbering was off. I just am super-nervous about this class because it'll be my capstone so I didn't want to take any chances.

[MA2]

Ebay is a good spot to look too.

I just bought a Microeconomics textbook for $53 including shipping, the cheapest I could find that EXACT book used at a college bookstore or online was like $110.

College textbooks are a huge rip off industry, change a few words and it's a new edition, require the new edition for each class, and the used ones become worthless and the college and publisher make a lot of money.

It would be like the gas companies changing the gas type every 2 years so you'd have to keep buying a new car because the one you have won't work anymore.

[burbuja0512]

Ebay is a good spot to look too.

I just bought a Microeconomics textbook for $53 including shipping, the cheapest I could find that EXACT book used at a college bookstore or online was like $110.

College textbooks are a huge rip off industry, change a few words and it's a new edition, require the new edition for each class, and the used ones become worthless and the college and publisher make a lot of money.

It would be like the gas companies changing the gas type every 2 years so you'd have to keep buying a new car because the one you have won't work anymore.

It's sad that they're able to get away with taking advantage of students on tight budgets. So glad we can beat the system a little bit with ebay and amazon.

[TheCommuter]

On closer look, these new, cheap books are "international editions." Does anyone here know what that means and is the book good? I want to take advantage of the price, but 48 dollars is still a lot of money to spend if the text won't work for the class.

I have been using international editions on and off since 2007. These textbooks contain the exact same material as what you'd find in the pricier version, but they tend to be paperback, somewhat flimsy, on low-quality paper, and sometimes contain black-and-white pictures. Overall, they are a bargain compared to the ones you find in U.S. college bookstores.

International editions are usually printed overseas under copyright agreements with U.S. publishers that permit these textbooks to be sold cheaply in other countries because the students in other countries wouldn't be able to afford the marked-up prices. This enables people in poorer countries to attain the same education as what we receive.