Worst textbook ripoffs

[pstokely]

Having to pay $100 for a new math textbook just for a website code or CDROM, then they won't buy it back because no class uses the book. That probably happened to the people who threw away the textbooks I found.

[Wetzelbill]

1. I wrote an article for an alumni magazine about textbook ripoffs...

The textbook industry is basically engaging in highway robbery. It's effed up.

[pstokely]

3. Could you post it?

[Wetzelbill]

6. I don't think it came out yet

I haven't asked when it's supposed to be out. But here is a link to the report I got most of my info from.

Rip-off 101 : How The Current Practices Of The Textbook Industry Drive Up The Cost Of College Textbooks

http://calpirg.org/CA.asp?id2=11987&id3

[WindRavenX]

2. my o-chem textbook cost 200$

They paid me 20$ at the end of the year during buybacks :eyes:

[pstokely]

4. Should've tried half.com or eBay

[WindRavenX]

5. alas, I was a stupid Sophomore

NT

[TheMightyFavog]

7. The prof who oversees the public speaking class here.

He writes the textbook, and changes it every year so students can't use books from last year.

Did I mention it costs around $100?

Did I mention his near-impossible midterm is soley designed to see if students are actually reading every last word in his book?

Did I mention that it's damn near impossible to find online?

Did I mention we have a Textbook rental system here, and Student Government has been fighting for years to get him to update the textbook only every few years so the book can be put on text rental?

There is a reason that this man is the most hated professor on campus.

All of this makes me glad that I fulfilled my requirement for this course at the junior college I attended.

[pstokely]

8. What level class is this, what college is this?

Does he write books for all classes he teaches?

[TheMightyFavog]

12. It's basically a 100 level course that every student (except for transfers) has to take.

I'm not sure if he writes his own books for other classes, though.

[Reverend_Smitty]

9. I had many textbook ripoffs...

I bought a $110 biology textbook that I literally opened once my freshman year of college because I was a young eager student then when I took off the shrink wrap to see what was inside of it that I sold back for a meager $25. That kind of chapped my bum...I spent another $85 on a nutrition textbook that I only opened the shrink wrap to use the CD Rom for a dietary analysis program that I later found out the professor was giving out for free to us to burn...Dammit! Then when I took that book back to sell, I found out that a new addition was coming out so I couldn't sell it back, so it sits on my bookshelf today.

When I come to think about it, there were very few books that I bought for college that I actually used. Those specific examples are the worst offenders, but when I come to think about it I really think that I could have made it through 4 years of college without buying most of the books that I did. I found for the most part if you showed up to lecture and payed attention, you really didn't need a textbook at all

[mykpart]

10. I knew a guy who went to the library and xeroxed his textbooks

a few pages at a time. He said it was cheaper than buying them. That was before personal computers, though.

[Reverend_Smitty]

11. I don't know if this was the case at most colleges but...

I found that my professors would lecture about the most important parts of the classes (or at least what was going to be on the test) so if you showed up for every class, they would just tell you what you needed to know...no book required. I have great note taking skills and a bit of a photographic memory... Still that didn't keep me from buying the books every semester out of the paranoid fear that I might need to use the book for studying purposes. The only books that I'm actually glad I bought were books directly relating to my major because they are medical books and are needed when I want to look up obscure things and a complete anthology of Shakespeare simply because I love to read him in my free time.

I actually wish I would have thought of Xeroxing my books because that would have saved me quite a bit of money. Even with my lazy studying habits I managed to graduate with a respectable 3.8 GPA

[Nikia]

14. That was the case for many of my classes, especially for my biology major

Most of the professors who did that stated that at the beginning of the term and also had the textbook on reserve in the library. I showed up at class everyday and usually went to the library to read the textbook if I wasn't clear on something.
I had to buy math, chemistry, and physics textbooks because we were usually expected to do homework which took some time.
Many of my liberal arts type classes included book type books (as opposed to textbooks) which I bought, but usually were relatively inexpensive and easy to get elsewhere or used.

[mduffy31]

13. My $300 Chem book

They told me at the buyback they would give me $1 because there was a new edition coming out. I asked what the hell, there weren't any new elements discovered in the 3 months since I got it.

[Nikia]

15. I didn't sell any of my books back for $1

I regret selling back the books that I got $5 for.

[mduffy31]

16. I sold it on Half.com for $75

I like to think we both made out on the deal because a used one was $200