College books are a SCAM!
m...@privacy.net
They wouldn't buy one.....and the other book only
wanted to give me $10 (hardback even)!
Anyone steel them online? If yes.... what best place to
do so? Tired of getting screwed
Larisa
m...@privacy.net
>As far as selling them, try half.com or abebooks or ebay or
>something. Maybe it'll help.
OK but is half.com reputable? I've never sold anything
online
skar...@gmail.com
You can try selling them on Amazon. Actually, you can check if anybody
else is selling the same book and learn how to set the price.
I have never sold anything online, but according to a friend of mine,
there is no better place than eBay. Apparently he sold everything he
wanted to sell and he is a common man like you and I (not a reseller
for business).
Good luck.
Melissa
<skar...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1185561072.7...@e16g2000pri.googlegroups.com...
There are new restrictions for selling textbooks on eBay. My sons, all in
college, have sold many of their used books on half.com and had very good
results. They've also found some they needed on there.
Melissa
m...@privacy.net
>There are new restrictions for selling textbooks on eBay. My sons, all in
>college, have sold many of their used books on half.com and had very good
>results. They've also found some they needed on there.
Ok will give it a go!!
Thanks
One thing that makes me nervous abt eBay is they want a
credit card number and checking acct info even if
selling
Is it safe to give them that?
Rod Speed
> Melissa <nos...@neo.rr.com> wrote
>> There are new restrictions for selling textbooks on eBay.
Only very minor ones like not allowing Teacher's edition textbooks.
>> My sons, all in college, have sold many of their used books on half.com
>> and had very good results. They've also found some they needed on there.
> Ok will give it a go!!
> One thing that makes me nervous abt eBay is they want a
> credit card number and checking acct info even if selling
> Is it safe to give them that?
Yep. Its just used to reduce the amount of fraudulent
sellers, pretending to be new sellers when they arent etc.
m...@privacy.net
>>Is it safe to give them that?
>Yes. They have to know you are a legitimate seller.
OK
Dumb questions but...... I see some books on Half and
some on EBay
Are the books on eBay ones that people "bid" for
whereas Half is a set price? (no bidding)?
jes
Just a note: college books are expensive because it's a narrow
consumer market. Not Harry Potter type sales.
Although I've heard of an industry racket that publishers year after
year declare current textbooks obsolete, and it's imperative they be
replaced.
Some stuff changes like the wind -- one wouldn't want old medical or
law books -- but others seem like the field is pretty well settled.
Joan
Rod Speed
Basically. Tho the buy nows on ebay have no bidding either.
Parallax
Sorry, it's still no guarantee. I bought a printer off of Half.com,
billed as brand new. I got it and the box was opened, the stuff was
loosely thrown inside the box, and mostly empty ink cartridges were
still in the printer. I filed a complaint, the seller lied and disputed
my claim, and Ebay's response was basically "Sorry, nothing we can do,
it's a case of he said/she said."
It may not be a fly-by-night company, but it's still buyer beware.
--
Replace '???????' with 'hotmail' to e-mail me.
clams casino
It's been said many times, only a fool would buy an electronic item off
eBay.
While eBay is an excellent source for (select) bargains, electronics are
rarely reliable, assuming they even get shipped.
Don K
news:46aa3e2f$0$3182$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
>
> There are new restrictions for selling textbooks on eBay. My sons, all in
> college, have sold many of their used books on half.com and had very good
> results. They've also found some they needed on there.
It seems to me, the best place to sell a textbook would be at the college that
still uses it in one of their courses.
Put a for sale notice on the bulletin boards in the student union and in the hall
where that course meets.
Don
Parallax
This has nothing to do with it being an electronic item. What was
shipped was not what advertised. That could happen with anything. In
the case of college books, it could be listed as a senior-level biology
book and you might end up with a cookbook. If the seller says they sent
the biology book they listed, you're equally as screwed.
Rod Speed
> Parallax wrote:
>
>> Abe wrote:
>>
>>>> Larisa <purple...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> As far as selling them, try half.com or abebooks or ebay or
>>>>> something. Maybe it'll help.
>>>>
>>>> OK but is half.com reputable? I've never sold anything
>>>> online
>>>
>>> Half.com is fine. It's an ebay company.
>>
>>
>> Sorry, it's still no guarantee. I bought a printer off of Half.com,
>> billed as brand new. I got it and the box was opened, the stuff was
>> loosely thrown inside the box, and mostly empty ink cartridges were
>> still in the printer. I filed a complaint, the seller lied and
>> disputed my claim, and Ebay's response was basically "Sorry, nothing
>> we can do, it's a case of he said/she said."
>>
>> It may not be a fly-by-night company, but it's still buyer beware.
> It's been said many times,
Only by fools like you.
> only a fool would buy an electronic item off eBay.
> While eBay is an excellent source for (select) bargains, electronics are rarely reliable, assuming
> they even get shipped.
Just another of your stupid pig ignorant claims.
Millhaven
> Abe wrote:
I've bought electronics off Ebay with no problem yet. One of them
though was an obsolete piece of Tascam equipment sold through one of
the Ebay stores and they said "as is, no idea if it works." Where
ones declared in great condition sell for $200ish, I bought this one
for around $40 and its worked perfectly for over a year. It was a
gamble but it paid off. I love Ebay.
clams casino
> clams casino wrote:
>
>>>
>>>
>> It's been said many times, only a fool would buy an electronic item
>> off eBay.
>>
>> While eBay is an excellent source for (select) bargains, electronics
>> are rarely reliable, assuming they even get shipped.
>
>
> This has nothing to do with it being an electronic item. What was
> shipped was not what advertised. That could happen with anything.
It could (and, at times, does), but electronics have the notorious
reputation for most always not being up to the buyer's expectation /
most widely misrepresented items sold.
Jessica V.
Sell on eBay, just before the next semester begins for maximum return,
charge realistic shipping there are flat rate priority mail boxes that
ship for $8.95, or if it will fit, flat rate envelopes for $4.60
postage. Not something to mess around with media mail shipping on.
If I buy used from the school I am usually able to sell at about 50%
of what I paid for it, used on Amazon or Half.com typically near break
even, new more like a third.
The last class I took required a brand new book, which was $130, used
wasn't available anywhere. I was able to get a digital version for
about $58 at safarix.com. Not everything is available in digital
format, but what is can be a big savings. Another thing to look into
is purchasing international editions online, generally much less
expensive than US editions, and they do have the same content.
345
Only in your pathetic little drug crazed fantasyland.
clams casino
One of the naive ones, eh? There's one born every minute.........
345
Nope, someone who hasnt had a problem with an
electronic device from ebay, and I've bought heaps too.
> There's one born every minute.........
Fools like you ? Yep, lot more than one a minute, actually.
clams casino
>clams casino <PeterG...@drunkin-clam.com> wrote:
>
>
>>345 wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>clams casino <PeterG...@drunkin-clam.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>One of the naive ones, eh?
>>
>>
>
>Nope, someone who hasnt had a problem with an
>electronic device from ebay, and I've bought heaps too.
>
>
>
Heaps are probably OK, but it's widespread amongst the savvy that
electronics are a sucker's seller game on eBay.
345
Easy to claim. Hell of a lot harder to actually substantiate that claim.
William Souden
>
> Only in your pathetic little drug crazed fantasyland.
>
>
What is 345, your monthly stipend?
Don Klipstein
I suspect part of the problem is that the textbook publishers do
frequent updates and the college/university and/or the professors go along
with that - so a 2-year-old version is supposedly obsolete, even if the subject
matter has had only minor or even outright negligible updating in the past
2 years.
Sometimes the college/university switches textbook requirements to a
recent new author, sometimes one of their own!
In my college years, the class a year or two after mine in my major had
to buy a different author textbook than I had to buy for some earlier
undergraduate math requirements, with the newer version written by one of
that university's own math professors and mine written by someone else.
And in my personal opinion, I found the older version much better written
than the newer version.
- Don Klipstein (d...@misty.com)
throwitout
> Went to sell two books back that I paid $200
>
> They wouldn't buy one.....and the other book only
> wanted to give me $10 (hardback even)!
>
> Anyone steel them online? If yes.... what best place to
> do so? Tired of getting screwed
Nothing new that college / university books are overpriced.
Your best bet is to where possible buy them used from an individual.
This is usually the lowest price as there's no shipping, no ebay
listing fees, no bookstore markup.
Then sell them at the university the next time the course is being
offered. Usually people just post signs up around the university. Be
sure to include the exact edition #. Look for online book exchanges
for the university (or any others in town) If you buy used and sell
used, usually you won't lose any or much money. Sometimes you can sell
for more than you bought.
Bookstores usually buy back books at under market value because they
need to be able to mark them up and sell them above market value. They
make a LOT of profit on used books. If the book won't be used again at
the university they will only offer pittance as a wholesale price.
The only profs that like forcing updated editions of books are ones
that get kickbacks on sales (or wrote the books themselves) otherwise
it's an annoyance as usually the material changes location and they
have to update their notes.
Even if it's an old edition, at the right price students will buy it
as the base material won't change, just the order of presentation, and
the chapter questions, which can be copied from someone else's book.
The Real Bev
> "Melissa" <nos...@neo.rr.com> wrote:
>
>>There are new restrictions for selling textbooks on eBay. My sons, all in
>>college, have sold many of their used books on half.com and had very good
>>results. They've also found some they needed on there.
I've bought stuff from ebay and half.com and from the private resellers
through Amazon. No problems so far, but nothing over $100 either.
> Ok will give it a go!!
>
> Thanks
>
> One thing that makes me nervous abt eBay is they want a
> credit card number and checking acct info even if
> selling
>
> Is it safe to give them that?
I gave them a CC number, but there's no way I want anybody
depositing/withdrawing from my checking account except me.
--
Cheers,
Bev
--------------------------------------------
There is no such thing as a foolproof device
because fools are so ingenious.
The Real Bev
> On Jul 27, 9:10 am, m...@privacy.net wrote:
>> Went to sell two books back that I paid $200
>>
>> They wouldn't buy one.....and the other book only
>> wanted to give me $10 (hardback even)!
>>
>> Anyone steel them online? If yes.... what best place to
>> do so? Tired of getting screwed
Steel?
> Just a note: college books are expensive because it's a narrow
> consumer market. Not Harry Potter type sales.
>
> Although I've heard of an industry racket that publishers year after
> year declare current textbooks obsolete, and it's imperative they be
> replaced.
Probably happens more often when the instructors require the latest edition
(a new one every year) of their own books.
> Some stuff changes like the wind -- one wouldn't want old medical or
> law books -- but others seem like the field is pretty well settled.
--
nos...@nospam.com
<bashley1...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Just a note: college books are expensive because it's a narrow
>> consumer market. Not Harry Potter type sales.
College text books have a huge captive market.
Logan Shaw
And don't forget: algebra and calculus change a lot from year to year,
so they definitely need to release new editions of books to keep them
"up to date".
- Logan
Shawn Hirn
The Real Bev <bashley1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> jes wrote:
>
> > On Jul 27, 9:10 am, m...@privacy.net wrote:
> >> Went to sell two books back that I paid $200
> >>
> >> They wouldn't buy one.....and the other book only
> >> wanted to give me $10 (hardback even)!
> >>
> >> Anyone steel them online? If yes.... what best place to
> >> do so? Tired of getting screwed
>
> Steel?
>
> > Just a note: college books are expensive because it's a narrow
> > consumer market. Not Harry Potter type sales.
> >
> > Although I've heard of an industry racket that publishers year after
> > year declare current textbooks obsolete, and it's imperative they be
> > replaced.
>
> Probably happens more often when the instructors require the latest edition
> (a new one every year) of their own books.
In many schools, that practice is banned. I work at a large university
and unless the instructor can show a compelling reason to use his or her
own book, it won't happen because its perceived as a conflict of
interest. The professor can use a book in development in a class he or
she teaches as handouts or in manuscript form or if no other comparable
book is available, but that's it.
Shawn Hirn
clams casino <PeterG...@drunkin-clam.com> wrote:
>
> Heaps are probably OK, but it's widespread amongst the savvy that
> electronics are a sucker's seller game on eBay.
Really? Several years ago, a colleague at work bought a heavy duty HP
laser printer for the office off eBay for $800. The printer was used,
but sold as such, and a new one would have cost my department $4,000 at
the time, which was money we didn't have in our budget. That printer was
used heavily for a few years before it finally crapped out.
We really got our use out of it. I did jam several times, but our
hardware maintenance contractor was only too happy to put it under our
annual service contract for a few dollars a month, so we were able to
get a lot of use out of it before it got so bad that they printer repair
guy was fixing it more than it worked. We used it daily for around three
years before we replaced it with a new printer.
clams casino
>In article <qwwqi.6231$GO6...@newsfe21.lga>,
> clams casino <PeterG...@drunkin-clam.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>>Heaps are probably OK, but it's widespread amongst the savvy that
>>electronics are a sucker's seller game on eBay.
>>
>>
>
>Really? Several years ago, a colleague at work bought a heavy duty HP
>laser printer for the office off eBay for $800. The printer was used,
>but sold as such, and a new one would have cost my department $4,000 at
>the time, which was money we didn't have in our budget. That printer was
>used heavily for a few years before it finally crapped out.
>
>
>
People occasionally win lotteries too. That doesn't mean they aren't
sucker's games as well.
dfr
Different matter entirely. It's trivial to show mathematically that lotteries are
poor value for most, but you can't actually do that with ebay and electronics.
Rick
That's weird. When I attended SUNY Fredonia in the 70's and worked in
the book store instructors were expected to publish, publish, publish.
And if they did or did not was a major deciding factor as to whether
they got tenure. A professor of Sociology, who published their own book
on Sociology, was expected to use the book in his class instruction if
the content was appropriate. As a book, not as an excerpt handout.
Rick
Rick
There's a lot of logistics problems here that people are citing.
First off, you are assuming that a student will know what books any
given professor will be using for their courses next semester in the
last week(s) of the current semester. The college books stores don't
even know this information at that point most of the time. The
instructors do have to notify the college bookstore so many weeks in
advance of the semester start of the books being used and the expected
quantities. But if there are large breaks between semesters - like a
summer break - it can be two months before an instructor turns his book
order in to the book store.
The majority of the time you don't find out your required book list
until the first session of the course.
So trying to buy books in advance is risky at best. The instructor might
use the same book(s). Maybe not.
College books stores don't usually buy used text books themselves for
the same reasons. They normally don't have but a small percentage of
their instructors books orders in at the *end* of a semester, when
people want to get rid of them, for the upcoming semester. A book store
never assumes an instructor will use the same books. No book order
placed for a semester - no books ordered for the course. Usually a
representative from a bookseller comes on sight, buys them, and they are
shipped out. Then the book store buys a percentage of used and new books
from that bookseller once they know what the instructors will actually
be ordering. The store knows based on experience that a certain
percentage of students will want the lower price and don't mind a
previously marked up and hi-lighted book. And they also know a certain
percentage don't want to start with someone else's notations, despite
paying a premium for clean, new book. Ordering that percentage ratio is
always an educated guessing game. (No pun intended...)
So when people want to get rid of them at the end of the semester,
students aren't looking to buy in advance for an upcoming semester. Sure
they've always been expensive and are a lot more so. But the average
student just wants to get rid of the books at semester end, rather than
lug them home, and back to campus again, to try and make as much off the
used book as they can. Booksellers buy them based on large scale sales
trends - they aren't just reselling them to a single university - and
are also aware of whether new editions are coming out or not. New
editions coming out does affect the price you get, or whether a
bookseller will take a book at all.
Taken a look at retail prices on non text books? Sheesh! At least in the
consumer market you have the option of saying "no." But in college you
are pretty much a captive audience. I think that's why people feel so
screwed by book pricing in college. And it *is* a specialty market. Most
text books are never produced at the volume levels of commercial
publications. And consequently the associated production costs per
volume are higher.
Rick
George
One purchase is really just statistical noise.
Brian Elfert
>Although I've heard of an industry racket that publishers year after
>year declare current textbooks obsolete, and it's imperative they be
>replaced.
I don't think they delcare books obsolete. They just put out a new
edition and don't print more of the old ones. The used book dealers
refuse to buy old editions so the professors really have no choice but to
use the new edition.
Brian Elfert