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Aug 1, 2007 | 07:49 PM

#16

Ford_Six

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Joined: Oct 2002

Posts: 18,488

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From: The Big, Oregon

What's really nice is when the "new edition" is just a different picture on the cover, as it has been for my auto repair book- Universal Tech wanted something like $60 for it, didn't even have to look at it to know it was the same one I used in high school the year before, and the same one my uncle gave me when I was 14, that was printed in the mid-70s. The difference was pictures of GM stuff replaced a lot of Packard/AMC/Renault/Fiat etc.

Aug 2, 2007 | 01:39 AM

#17

BigF350

FTE Leadership Emeritus

Joined: May 2004

Posts: 18,787

Likes: 30

From: Melbourne, Aus

Find someone in the year above you.
Buy books off them for 60-70% of new price.

Sell them to someone next year for the same price. Simple.

Aug 2, 2007 | 04:31 AM

#18

droptop

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Joined: May 2003

Posts: 336

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Ford_Six

What's really nice is when the "new edition" is just a different picture on the cover, ....

AMEN to that! The worst offenders of that school of ripoff are Mathematics Departments. They do add a twist to the new picture on the cover because they use the same exact problems but they re-number them, or they increase/decrease the type size so the page numbers are different. Calculus has changed so much in the last 400 years...NOT! I'm convinced that there is some sort of "quota" or financial compensation going on behind the scenes.

Aug 2, 2007 | 12:31 PM

#19

dono

Gone but not forgotten.

Joined: Jul 2001

Posts: 6,521

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College books .... students buy high, sell cheap. Often a new edition of the same book is required. I often bought the cheaper earlier edition and had no problems.

Aug 2, 2007 | 12:31 PM

#20

bf250

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Joined: Dec 2005

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the good news out of it is my wife and i are in the same classes together because we are pursuing the same degree right now, so it cuts the cost in half for us.

Aug 2, 2007 | 05:09 PM

#21

sandrat

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Joined: Apr 2002

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From: Back where I started...

What worked for me when I got my automotive degree was sharing books. Yes, I know this can be risky (when someone doesn't return yours or you can't get theirs before a deadline), but I was with the same 12 guys for all of my auto tech classes for two years. Learned who I could trust and who I couldn't. We'd chip in on books and share one between a couple guys, sometimes photocopy chapters for reading assignments. Before I got into auto school, I just did general courses for about two years and kind of worked the same routine, and it worked well, most of the time.