IMPORTANT: The Truth About Buying Textbooks

Colleges & Universities Stanford University
1

<p>Hey, guys. Welcome to Stanford! I’m going to be a sophomore, so I was in your shoes not too long it. Quick guide on buying textbooks (and these are all FACTS):</p>

<li><p>Textbooks are expensive. Bookstore textbooks are expensive. Bookstore charges high prices. Bookstore is evil (FACT). Textbooks can be bought for much cheaper.</p></li>
<li><p>Easiest/usually cheapest thing to do is buy books off Stanford students. Advantages are:</p>

<ul>
<li>students usually sell books cheaper than the USED price of
bookstore</li>
<li>no shipping costs (for those of us who love amazon and
half.com)</li>
<li>no sales tax</li>
<li>sometimes pre-highlighted and pre-marked important passages
(this is really for those of us who don’t mind all the
markings, but they really help in ihum books, where it is so
hard to come up with all those “original” ideas on the spot)</li>
</ul></li>
<li><p>Two websites (I’m sure there are more) that allow book selling/buying among Stanfords students:</p></li>
</ol>

<p><a href=“http://www.textopedia.com%5B/url%5D”>www.textopedia.com</a></p>

<p><a href=“http://www.screwbookprices.com/ca/stanford/index.php?[/url]”>http://www.screwbookprices.com/ca/stanford/index.php?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<li><p>Here is my advice: unless absolutely necessary, don’t buy textbooks from the Bookstore. The Bookstore is evil (FACT). Everyone knows that. Go there and write down the ISBN #'s of the books you need, then search for them on the sites above. If you can’t find a good deal there, search these:</p>

<p>amazon.com
half.com
abebooks.com</p></li>
</ol>

<p>and many other sites that sell used textbooks. This is of course for those of us who don’t mind spending time on it. It’s just that it’s so sad to see how the faces of the students drop when the cashier at the Bookstore tells them the total price of their purchase. And it’s even more sad to BE that person.</p>

<li><p>Buy textbooks from me. (Yes, there were an ulterior motive to this post. And I do want to get some of my money back. I’m not ashamed. Besides, this money will go to purchase new textbooks in this never-ending vicious cycle of higher education expenses) On screwbookprices.com, I’m irina.issakova and on textopedia, the buyers aren’t listed. Well, just email me and ask if I have any of the books you need. I took the following classes last year:</p>

<p>Econ 102A
Math 51
PWR 14: Theory of multiple intelligences
IHUM 8A and 9A: Myth and Modernity</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I don’t make any markings in my books, so most of them are like new.</p>

<li><p>Pass the word about this.</p></li>
<li><p>Email me if you have any questions at all. Even if they’re not about books. I won’t make you buy books from me, I promise. Email: <a href="mailto:irina_issakova@yahoo.com">irina_issakova@yahoo.com</a></p></li>
<li><p>Help me get rid of my gmail invites.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>And welcome to Stanford!</p>

2

<p>What if there’s a new edition of a textbook and profs require the new one? Is it worth it?</p>

3

<p>Oh yeah, definitely buy the textbook that profs require. It’ll make life easier for you. Don’t buy a book that’s not the required/recommended text just because it’s cheaper. Unless you don’t need that textbook at all (ex. if the class is chem 31x and you are already a chem genius and don’t ever read textbooks anyway).</p>

4

<p>Are there any good used bookstores near the campus?</p>

5

<p>the best one is the stanford bookstore. other ones won’t usually carry the textbooks you need.</p>

6

<p>One more tip: If the professor’s syllabus says a certain edition is required, ask him if a previous edition will be acceptable. If problems aren’t assigned out of the textbook and it’s only used for reading material, chances are pretty high that this will be acceptable, e.g. Chemistry.</p>

7

<p>bump bump bump</p>

8

<p>i sent you a PM</p>