<p>My daughter has a text book for one of her math classes that says it is custom made for her college. It is an expensive book which is not available used and cannot be sold back as it is loose leaf pages. While I was searching for her other, non custom, books online i discovered that a book with the exact same name and author, but different ISBN #, is readily available used online and much much cheaper (nearly $100). I’m really curious whether it is in fact the same book. Anyone have any experience with this?</p>
<p>I really begrudge paying over the odds. Her books this semester started off at $491 (mostly used !!!). I managed to find 4 of them online so saved $99 on those 4. So far drawing a blank on the 5th book (same price online except for one described as really bad condition - we like good condition) and this custom book. It is the most expensive of the lot of course.</p>
<p>I have suggested she email the prof and ask if there is really a difference between the custom and the other.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it was custom made for her college but my D had an earth science text this summer that was in loose leaf form. In her case she was told it reduced the cost of the text. Also her school bookstore said they will buy it back used. Not sure how they make sure all the pages are still there and in order.</p>
<p>It is a good thing that she is checking with the prof. Many math books have the same title (eg; Introduction to topology) but the content may be quite different. The prof may have revised the book; a common strategy for publishers is to “revise” the text by tweaking a tiny bit and try to foil attempts to buy used books by scrambling the order of the problems at the end. S had one Biology textbook like that and ended up buying the new edition at $100+.
In college, several of S’s profs were using their students as guinea pigs for their new textbooks. I don’t recall if they charged for more than the cost of photocopying, however.</p>
<p>This one is “Calculus Early Trancendentals by James Stewart” which seems a fairly unique sort of name and is readily available online, but the one at the school says it is “custom” for the school. Grumble grumble.</p>
<p>Yes, James Stewart’s Calculus is a popular text. Perhaps your D could find out in which way it has been customized. Sometimes, profs decide to teach a text in a different sequence from the one provided by the author. The biggest issue would be the problems.</p>
<p>This is the calc book for my son’s calc class too.</p>
<p>College textbooks have been a racket since we went to school, and the “school-specific text” thing is clearly a ploy to keep kids from going online to get used books cheaper.</p>
<p>I’m tempted to go to our state AG to have them look into it and see if there are any real differences, or just enough to stick it to the consumer.</p>
<p>S also has a “custom” calc book this coming semester. After a futile attempt to find it cheaper, he bit the bullet and ordered from the bookstore. He also had one of those bundled language packages that he had to get through them. Luckily, all other books were found elsewhere online at good savings.</p>
<p>I had a custom book for my summer algebra class. It cost $100 along with an online access code. Ridiculous, especially since the school bookstore won’t buy it back! (By the way, it was also one of those loose leaf ones that you have to put in a binder).</p>
<p>We experienced it when my D took a summer school class. The book was “new” because it was custom and the bookstore would not buy it back. It is a scam that involves kickbacks. Many states have addressed it, but perhaps not as strongly as they should. </p>
<p>D “customized for her particular school” is/was the exact same as Calc transdentals by Stewart. Every chapter was exactly the same. Found this out after she purchased it last year.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom - try addall.com for one of the best search engines out there. Plug in whatever info you have, name your state (or the state you want the item shipped to) and it will even bring you the shipping charges with the best prices online.</p>
<p>As for the other…I’m the type that would buy a copy, compare, contrast, and either be relieved or ticked. Perhaps the “custom” is the binding?</p>
<p>As someone who teaches at a community college, I’d like to put my 2 cents in. These “custom textbooks” are a ploy by publishing company salespeople to get faculty to agree to use textbooks that might otherwise be unsuitable. For example, if a book covers topics “A, B, C & D”, but the course only covers “A, B & C”, the salesperson might say, “Oh, we can customize a book just for you,” if faculty balk at choosing their textbook because it goes into too much depth. These customized books are supposed to be less expensive, not equal or greater in cost.</p>
<p>Oh, and the “bundling” with access codes and the like are also supposed to “save students money”, but that isn’t what usually happens by the time the school bookstore gets the pricing gun out!</p>
I have actually been seriously considering this. But it would limit where I can get the used copy from as a lot of the half.com people I probably can’t return the book to. The book can be returned to her book store before the end of the drop period (2 weeks after school starts). I still want her to email the prof and ask.</p>
<p>Kiddos have been using half.com, ebay and Craig’s List for their used textbooks, even the “custom” ones. On another post son was able to acquire Carey’s O Chem for $5 on Craig’s list a few days ago. Much better than the bookstore’s $165 used!!</p>
<p>And yes my kiddos do email all their profs early, as in preceding semester to find out if they can use previous editions and if so, will the difference effect what they will be learning and graded on.
They start early so they can start watching for good deals. Sometimes they switch classes, but since they don’t usually spend much on the books it has not been much of o total loss, less than $50 over 4 years and 4 students. Well worth what has been saved.</p>
<p>Last semester daughter’s books were reaching over $800 and she was able to do it for under $100. Multiple that times 8 semesters and 3 summers and the numbers are HUGE. Add in a few more siblings and the numbers are close to kiddos’ tuition!!</p>
<p>Wow - we haven’t found any bargains quite that good!! But I am happy just saving something.</p>
<p>From the the math dept web site it sounds like the ‘custom’ book is the same as the published books. But they say the custom book includes the ‘webassign’ codes for semester 1 & 2 and that those list for $35 a semester. Not sure where I would/could find those and if they really are $35 per semester. If so it would not save much, if any, money to buy the books used if we then had to pay $70 for the webassign codes.</p>