Criminy! One should not need six hours and a degree in logistics to navigate a textbook purchase.
New book with Premier access code at campus bookstore: **$488.75 before tax/b
1) Amazon, new book w/ Premier code: $368.46, less buyback offer of $29.30 = $339.16
2) Publisher direct, 25% off, new book w/ Premier code: $323.21, less Amazon buyback = $293.91
3) Publisher direct, 25% off, Premier code only (no book): $242.21
4) Net cost of new book alone (#2 minus #3): $51.70 with buyback, $81.70 w/o buyback, so let's see if I can find or rent the book for less...
5) Used book, no access code: roughly $85 plus shipping. No dice. New is cheaper.
Rentals, book only:
Amazon, one semester: $72.48
BN 60 / 90 / 130 days: $57.75 / $62.62 / $69.58
Chegg, thru Aug. 17: $45.99
So from here, it looks like the Chegg rental plus 25% off the Premier access code is the way to go. $45.99 + $242.21 = $288.20. Nice! Some $200 less than the campus bookstore.
BUT WAIT!
There are four levels of access codes, and each level has its own ISBN number. The ISBN number is what determines the buyback price from Amazon.
So if I look at the version of the book with the Advantage level of access code, the Amazon buyback is $72.43 even though access codes should be irrelevant to used books because the code is considered to have been used/not included. So now I have to price book-only with each different access code.
/headdesk
End result after running a freaking grid search of used vs. new. vs. code version vs. buyback is like so:
Premier code, 25% off: 242.21
Used book in Very Good condition: $103.99
Less buyback of specific ISBN: ($72.43)
Yeah, we were so excited about his $600 book scholarship at UNM that’s separate from the rest of the NMF package. Now I see that it will pay for one book, with maybe enough left over for some highlighters and a Coke! =))
This class is at our local CC over the summer. The book is more expensive than the tuition. 8-} :-?
My D is planning to take Human Anatomy at a local CC over the summer - the 2 required books are $302 and $205! I just checked and the one text says “without access code” - music to my ears ^:)^ - now we go on the used book and/or rental search!
Well, another milestone for DP Jr. is in the rear view.
His Varsity sport ended in a playoff loss tonight. I’m not sad about the loss, but that it closes another chapter in his High School story. With the number of days in the academic year dwindling, the chapters are getting shorter.
I’m proud of my D. She won’t get credit for any APs, and some of them won’t even enable her to skip the intro course, yet she’s been studying hard for her APs because she knows her teachers are impacted by how well or poorly their students do on the exams. She had Senioritis earlier, but has been pulling herself together for the tests.
Huh. I realized something just now. You know those little twinges of regret that some of us have about the school(s) that got away? For me, those twinges were about Tulane and Pomona mostly, with an occasional niggle about UCR and UCSB.
They’re gone. Poof! Completely evaporated with not even a trace remaining. I don’t know exactly when it happened, either.
I’ve also been seriously crushing on UNM, and really delighted for S at the prospect of getting there, settling in and forging ahead with his life.
Anyone else in the same boat?
Also, best wishes to everyone taking an AP test today! S is doing AP Lit. AP Calc AB is next week.
@DiotimaDM Yep, I know exactly how you feel, my brain has moved on - no more what if’s, now its what is ahead.
I am super excited for DD, I want to be doing something LOL, I am driving her crazy about dorm stuff, bedding etc. I should not say she doesn’t care I should say her interests are completely different from mine - she has no desire for a bedding set, she wants cartoon/superhero sheets and her assortment of blankets that include her handmade quilt from her Auntie, her Spiderman quilt off of her queen sized bed and her very ugly creepy fabric fleece blanket she made herself last summer. If I can add Disney or Star Trek sheets to that mix, she will be a happy camper.
Last night at Costco, she let me buy her a multi pack of those Command removable sticky hook thingamajiggies for putting up on the walls. (they are on the dorm check list). She also bought 3 bath towels last fall as she liked the colors - they don’t match anything.
While wandering the aisles of Costco last night, she did periodically point out things that I can send to her in care packages LOL
Re: care packages - One of S’s stocking stuffers this past Christmas was one of those Amazon buttons that orders a multi-pack of Pop-Tarts. He pushes the button, and two days later Pop-Tarts arrive. There are some built in safeguards against things like accidental / excessive pushes, but we’ve said he can order a box a month if he wants to.
If I am being honest, not quite yet. I think there are still too many external conversations where we feel like we are justifying Alabama to the surprised faces of folks that we talk to. This too shall pass.
@DiotimaDM yes to a certain extent they have quieted and I have definitely embraced the cult of A&M easier that I expected. It helps to know that DD2018 seems at ease with her choice. I’d be lying if I said the “what if” bug doesn’t still bit me for DD2016 about the enter her junior year, even though I know, without hesitation, she has found her Goldilocks “just right” school.
The “what if” school for D is USC. I feel a little twinge every now and then, but it quickly goes away when I remember it would have cost us about $30k more per year. I believe she made the right choice, and I’m pretty sure she believes it, too.
I’m with @labegg still with slight regrets over D16’s school (as she enters her junior year. It’s just me–she is great with her choice at Pitt and thrilled to be debt free entirely.) I actually think I was MORE willing to pay more for S18 knowing that I still slightly regretted D16, if that makes sense.
And yes, having a hard time letting go of the planning. I work on course choices and dorm issues behind his back! (He never has to know, right?)
Course choices… Eep! I have a 4-year sample schedule planned out in Excel. It’s… well, it’s color coded and everything.
We worked on it together because his program is complicated. He has pre-med requirements, a possible double major, an interest in some Honors classes just for fun, plus we needed to see how all of his AP / DE credits would fit, so I mapped out the whole four years.
All he has to do is print out each semester’s sheet and give it to his advisor for approval.
My D was able to use one foreign language textbook for two semesters, and her biology and chemistry textbooks also covered two semesters. That helped a bit. And whether there was a required access code seemed to depend on the professor. She rented some books, and bought some, depending on what was cheaper.
@davidpuddy your son is/was on RRSP wait list, no? It seems to me that EVERYONE loves it at Alabama. Our son was on the RRSP wait list and after a drawn out spring, he decided to go elsewhere. He said had he received a spot in Randall he definitely would have chosen Alabama. I personally think it would have been an amazing place for him—Randall or not. I’ve let go of Alabama (several people have said that there’s another chance with D20–hehe, but I don’t picture her there as much as I pictured S18) but I’m pulling for your son. I assume you’ll post here about Randall if he gets off the wait list. I think he is going to have no regrets once he gets there. Anyone who talks/looks down on it has never seen it.
He pushes the button, and two days later Pop-Tarts arrive. There are some built in safeguards against things like accidental / excessive pushes, but we’ve said he can order a box a month if he wants to.