College textbooks - not that costly after all

[disneysteve]

One of the many things we heard so many times before our daughter entered college was how very expensive textbooks would be. I came to take it as fact that we'd be spending hundreds each semester.

Now that she has finished first semester and we are in the process of buying books for second semester, I can honestly state that it simply isn't true. Or at least it doesn't need to be true.

She needs 9 books for 2nd semester.
She already owns 3 of them because they are continuing courses from 1st semester.
She might need an online access code for one but we aren't sure yet if the one she got last semester still works.

Of the 6 remaining books, I just ordered 2 of them used, one from Amazon, one from Half.com. I spent a total of $13.48 for the two. They would have cost $28 new from the bookstore.

She will be renting 2 of the remaining 4 for a total of $38.98. Purchased new those books would be $219.50.

One of the remaining 2 must come from the bookstore as it is supplemental material prepared by the professor. It is $6.75.

We're not sure about the last book yet. The school website doesn't clearly identify it so we can't shop around. It is $76.75 at the store but I'm sure once we get the details, we'll find it cheaper elsewhere (or at least rent it instead of buying).

So right now, for the entire semester, we're looking at no more than about $136 and probably less. Plus, when she is done with the books that she does purchase, we can resell them and get some of that back. We've already gotten back $55 from what we spent last semester by reselling one book and have 3 others left to sell.

So for those of you looking ahead to college expenses, don't worry too much about textbook prices. If you spend a little time shopping around, you can very easily save hundreds of dollars each semester and keep costs pretty reasonable.

[LittleMissSplendid]

I agree that textbooks aren't always so expensive. Some of this is major specific because some classes will require fewer books, they're novels you can get from the public library, and now there's the option of renting them. One of the main reasons I spent so much on textbooks was being so irritated with used ones that people wrote and highlighted in that I just would get new ones. I don't find people do that with public library books so why must they do that with textbooks they'll sell back? So irritating.

[Petunia 100]

Your daughter did really well on books! She must have picked up some pointers from Dad somewhere along the way.

One thing I ran into a few times and found SO frustrating, was a new edition of the same book coming out before the semester ended, making my book worth $0.

I never did any renting, I should have looked into that more.

[disneysteve]

One thing I ran into a few times and found SO frustrating, was a new edition of the same book coming out before the semester ended, making my book worth $0.

I never did any renting, I should have looked into that more.

Frequently, the new edition is minimally changed from the previous edition so enterprising students are often willing to buy the old one to save a bunch of money. It all depends.

As for renting, you really need to compare prices. It isn't always cheaper. For example, one book I bought today on Half.com was $2 cheaper than renting the same book.

If it is a book that is major-specific, you might want to hang onto it for a while and not have to give it back right after the semester ends.

Also, most books can be resold so you need to factor that in. If it costs $50 to buy a used copy and $25 to rent but you could resell the purchased one for $35, you'd come out ahead.

[phantom]

My experience buying college textbooks is 10 years out of date now. (I must be getting old.) But, I remember being pleasantly surprised with how not-crazy-expensive textbooks were too. Most semesters, I managed to keep my costs under $100. I think it helped that I majored in computer science and minored in multimedia because most of my classes in my major and minor used small textbooks or no books at all. My favorite "textbook" was the one for my Java class. The professor just followed the documentation on the Sun web site. At the time I was just happy not to need to buy a book, but using online programming language documentation was a great learning experience that has helped me in picking up many new languages since leaving school.

I think it's great that the school web site lets you know what books will be needed in advance. I never knew what books I'd need till I got back on campus. So, I'd buy non-sealed copies in the school book store, order cheaper copies online, and return the books to the school book store once the ordered books arrived.

[FrugalTexan75]

When I completed my Masters a few years ago, my final cost for textbooks was around $20 for two years of classes. I bought all but one textbook used, and then resold them. There was only one book that I couldn't sell back (part of the $20.) Most I was able to sell for the same price I paid, and a few I sold for more than I paid.

[txex86]

I think it depends on your kid's major and how far along they are in their college career as to how much textbooks cost. Case in point, during my daughter's freshman and sophomore years it was easy for her to buy used books or rent to keep costs low. However, now that she is in the integrated Master in Professional Accounting program, she has found her accounting books to be extremely high. We're talking $320 for an an auditing book and $168 for a hole pinched, unbound cost accounting book. Since she will sit for the CPA in couple of years, she wants to keep these books so renting them is not a good option.

[jbax]

This may seem a little out there for a lot of people, but here it goes...
I live in a college town and at the end of the semesters/school year, you would be shocked by how many people just stack up their books and leave them in a big pile at their apartments. You can pick up a few of these books and sell them back to the stores. True, there may be some that they do not purchase, but you just take those back with you and your free money!

[disneysteve]

So DD and I sat down and researched all of her textbooks for the spring semester. We rented 2, bought a couple others used, and there are 2 classes she doesn't need to buy anything for as she can use the same books from last semester.

There was just one book that the bookstore has on backorder and their website doesn't clearly identify the book so I wasn't positive which book it was to go looking elsewhere. I called the bookstore and they would not provide the ISBN, which I guess I can understand since they don't want you going elsewhere, even though they don't have the book.

So DD e-mailed the professor. He wrote back with the ISBN and said the book is out of print! No wonder it's on backorder. What's the point of making the required text for your course a book that isn't currently available. How exactly does he expect all of his students to acquire this book?

I actually snagged a used copy on Half.com for $9.99 so she's all set but that was by far the cheapest one we could find. The next cheapest on Half.com is $27, then $63 after that. And there are only a handful of copies available at any price.

I have a feeling he will end up changing books once he realizes the students can't get them, but for $10 I was willing to take that chance and have her be prepared. At least her reaching out shows some initiative. If he ends up not using the book, I'll just resell it. Based on what I've seen, there is a reasonable chance I can break even or make a profit.

[disneysteve]

I thought I'd update this thread.

We just sold the last of her first-year textbooks. Well, technically we still have one to sell but I don't expect it to sell. It's listed for $0.75 on half.com along with a slew of others. There are also 2 books from first year that she has decided to keep, at least for now.

Total spent: $656.89
Of that total, amount for rented books: $87.77

Total earned from resales: $115.71

Net amount spent for the entire first year of college: $541.18

As noted, that includes 2 books that she is keeping which cost a total of $75.58. Those may or may not get resold at some point.

I don't think $541 for the year was bad at all. I was definitely expecting to spend more. Now on to year 2 (I'm starting another thread about that).