<p>Debruns,
you wrote : My daughter hasn’t been charged and it has been a year…anyone else have that happen? The ad now says 6 months. Her sister was waiting for hers to end and then she would sign up so they would share it. </p>
<p>(sorry, I don’t know how to quote)</p>
<p>My D’s Amazon prime expired after 1 year (just a couple weeks ago) and we’re waiting for D2 to get home from camp so she can activate hers (college freshman). Did your D do anything to retain her free prime after the 12 month mark? My D got the offer to continue at half price ($39) but we’d rather wait for D2 and then we’ll all share/access hers. Not sure what I’ll do a year from now…I guess pay the $39!</p>
<p>In terms of textbooks and ISBN, I guess we’ve been lucky that D’s private school and D1 have always made the ISBN available. Didn’t realize that wasn’t always the case…definitely don’t want to get the wrong text. Sorry to hear that’s a challenge for some.</p>
<p>I thought she had joined earlier, she said March today (I remembered the offer before Christmas) so she has until then. Then her sister can join and she can use hers. 39.00 isn’t so bad, but does cut into the savings a bit. </p>
<p>I never realized it either since Drew did for my son, Yale has done it, and Holy Cross. I have heard of students though that get the wrong book, same title, etc. and I think it’s a good thing.
I couldn’t believe some of the comments against it though on a site, cheaper books means their son or daughter doesn’t make as much money later selling it?? Well, it’s cheaper going in, they shouldn’t need too and professors have a way of changing titles, so that isn’t always a good idea.</p>
<p>jym,626 it says (and you can see that on the B &N link I had earlier):
New federal law requires that colleges make information available to students about the textbooks that
will be used by instructors in every class they teach before students register for a class.
This is an acknowledgement by the federal government that the high cost of textbooks has been, and
continues to be, a barrier for many students when it comes to achieving their educational goals.
To put it simply, the law requires that colleges and universities make the International Standard Book
Number (ISBN) for each book required for each class section available to students so they can determine
the true cost of taking any class in college. The ISBN is a 10- or 13-digit number that uniquely identifies
books and book-like products published internationally.</p>
<p>Have you looked at the fares this morning? Glad I bought my son’s Thanksgiving flight anticipating that airfares would not come back down and taxes would be added on top of airlines’ new pricing (profit they took when taxes were not collected).</p>
<p>Went to a restaurant preview last night. Party of 5. Two rounds of drinks, appetizers, main course, milkshakes and dessert. FREE. Only cost was the valet parking and the tip . And the food was great!</p>
<p>Darn, I want to go to a restaurant preview!!! </p>
<p>Bought a Groupon today for Nutty Guys (online) - $10 for a $25 Groupon. Will be great to use to send S some gummy bears and trail mix (his favorite snacks) to his dorm room sometime this fall. Can’t buy and send stuff in the mail that cheap myself!!!</p>
<p>Debruns and Northeastmom - What are bundled books? </p>
<p>I’m in the midst of trying to get textbooks at the lowest price possible. It’s difficult because the bookstore has posted book information for only one of my son’s classes. (A book listed for $64 that I was able to purchase for $10 through half.com!) The bookstore is saying they haven’t received orders from many professors. He emailed his professors, but has only heard back from a couple of them. One said he doesn’t know why the bookstore doesn’t have the information and provided an ISBN (science book) that doesn’t produce any results on an internet search. I think the professor said that one of his colleagues wanted it to have a homework package, which makes me wonder if this will result in the publisher charging exorbitant prices for the package. (Is that what “bundled means?”) If you can get the book used, can you then just purchase the online access?</p>
<p>I’m wondering if the bookstore is waiting to release the ISBN numbers until the last possible moment so that students are more likely to purchase from them.</p>
<p>Last semester we paid almost $200 for a computer science book. They never opened the book, but needed the online license. Not surprisingly, the book has no resale value.</p>
<p>jgoteach, what I understand “bundle” to mean is 2 or more books together as a package. You should be able to buy the book/s that you need individually.</p>
<p>Great score on the $64 book for $10. Just make sure it is the exact edition your son needs.</p>
<p>I can tell you that the school my son attends lists book titles, editions, and authors but is not currently listing ISBN numbers even though they should. This information is supposed to be made available upon registration. Still, with the information that they listed, we were able to find the correct books.</p>
<p>If you live in the Northeast, Amazon may be a better deal than ever. I used to order textbooks from Barnes and Noble because they run a lot of campus bookstores and had pretty fast delivery from Edison, NJ. Then they did away with coupons on textbooks and I dropped my membership - Amazon had better prices without the membership but their shipping was quite erratic. I needed to order with two weeks of time with Amazon.</p>
<p>They seem to have a warehouse in the Worcester, MA area now and I just order with the cheapest shipping and it typically gets to me in three days.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for the heads up. Looks like Groupon folks in particular have had difficulty. That always gives me pause. They sell lots of discount/coupons/preorder items and then are terrible at fulfilling them. I’ve found reviews on some Groupon bakery offerings to be similar.</p>
<p>BCEagle, I ordered my son’s books through Amazon on Friday night. Everything arrived on Monday afternoon. Books were scheduled to get to us on Tuesday, but all arrived a day early! It was amazingly fast!</p>
<p>@abasket - customer service was a complaint, however the biggie seemed to be delivery time (things arriving late with what seemed ample lead time). I’d just avoid the holidays and sending anything with a freshness factor. If you plan accordingly I’m sure your student will be thrilled and it won’t be $ wasted!!</p>
<p>Got most of my daughter’s books today from Amazon that I ordered Sunday, Amazon Prime has fast shipping, just the one for the 3rd party seller is coming in a few days.</p>
<p>Yes as NE Mom said, bundled means when the class says you need a book, notebook, etc and you have to buy them all at once through the bookstore. Many times it is cheaper apart and some things you don’t end up using.
One of my son’s teachers told them they could buy her books unbundled online which I thought back then was nice.</p>
<p>If you need web access as part of the bundle, check the publisher’s website to see if you can buy the code as a stand alone item. They can be expensive this way, but may be less costly than the “bundle”. To some extent, it depends on the components and how long it has been since the text was published.</p>