worst used book experience

[ajs1976]

What is your worst experience when purchasing a used text book? I have gotten books that were heavily highlighted and/or had a lot of notes written in them, but for the most part nothing major until I purchased the book for capstone. Physically the book was in great shape, but its previous owner most have been a heavy smoker. It smells so bad. It is a little better after I let it air out for a week and I try to leave it opened.

[lavagirl]

Once I got a book listed "good as new" that was chewed by a dog ( or a rat? )

[bricabrac]

i didn't know books held cigarette smoke. Books stored in damp moldy basements have a horrid odor, but I'm surprised by this. Anyway, my worst experience was a book that you would have thought new but for the missing edges. Brought to mind the phrase, "the dog ate my book."

I guessed the text cover was constructied of such poorly compacted cardboard that upon dropping it would simply split and break. I wanted to keep the text so covered with a heavy decorative paper book cover. I would have chucked it in the trash before attempting to resell. It really looked bad.

For those who are crafty and like book covers here's a very nice design. Both attractive and the ones with pockets, practical. http://youtu.be/4FiQLqWh85U and http://youtu.be/bk8x3mpHTtU.

[clep3705]

I prefer buying unmarked books, but I have wondered if books highlighted by a student with a 4.0 GPA would be more valuable than a book without highlighting. :-)

[cookderosa]

I HATE buying books that smell bad, but probably right up there are when I search and search for hours to get a reasonable price/correct edition/get it shipped/etc. and then we don't even use it. Total waste of time!

[Westerner]

I ordered books listed as "good" or better, mostly through Amazon, and they all came in pretty good condition. Some had underlining and highlighting, but not excessively. Clep3705 has a good point, I too like seeing what others thought was important, as at the very least, it gives me a heads up.

[Christopher]

Back in the dark ages of the late 1990s lol I would buy used books from the campus bookstore. They were usually in good shape. My worst experience was buying a new in plastic textbook for $100.00, barley if at all use it, and the campus bookstore will offer to buy back the same book for $5.00 at semester end. Books were more expensive then the class. The class was like $11.00 a unit or $33.00 for the entire class, and the book would be like $100.00 or some classes required two textbooks.