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Price of books

edited September 2006 in General
Doesn't anyone else feel like they are being totally ripped off when they go to get their textbooks? I seen a segment on the news the other night that alot of times when you buy the new edition of a textbook there is nothing new in it. If you think about it how many times does our math system change. Why do they need to have a new edition every two to three years. This just irks me. College is expensive enough without ripping us off for the books. Just had to vent.

Comments

  • edited September 2006
    i agree! however, u can find cheaper books at chapters, but if they dont have it in stock its probably too late to order them now since u wont recieve them for a few weeks.. but for next term u can get the same books at usually 20% cheaper
  • edited September 2006
    yeah check out abebooks.com u can find dirt cheap textbooks on there, my buddy told me bout it last term i saved a few hundred bucks this semester

    ~Becs~
  • edited September 2006
    Thank you guys for the suggestions. I will checking these sites out. Anything that will save me money on these books is great.
  • edited September 2006
    check out amazon.ca too, u can find both new and used books
  • edited September 2006
    My experience with Chapters and Amazon is that they usually don't carry the books I need. On the rare occasion, I have found some books there, and yes, it is usually a bit cheaper... I'm going to try that abebooks.com though. Thanks!
  • edited September 2006
    I dunno... even when you buy used textbooks or use other resources, they just cost a fortune! "Dirt cheap" is only speaking comparatively. I wish there was some way to have more of our textbooks on the computer.
  • edited September 2006
    IF you have to buy new books, try Amazon, or HalfPriceComputerBooks.ca (they have a section specifically for SFU books.. not only comp books but for other faculties too)

    For used, i usually like to buy from students.. you save money and they get more than what they'd get back from the bookstore..

    The UnknownAce
  • edited September 2006
    karenlyn said:
    I dunno... even when you buy used textbooks or use other resources, they just cost a fortune! "Dirt cheap" is only speaking comparatively. I wish there was some way to have more of our textbooks on the computer.
    Why? So we can remove the incentive to make textbooks in the first place? You can always violate copyright laws and scan the textbook yourself then return it.
  • edited September 2006
    Actually misteranswer your reply seems very unfounded. If it wasnt for the readability aspect, I think text books would already be in digital format. More and more people are using laptops at school these days because everything is become online and digitized. It may take a few more years but I think text books will inevitably become available in a cheaper, digital format as well. Its a win win situation for all parties... it will cost the companies no money to print the books meaning students will get them for at least half the cost of what they are today.

    The only thing really stopping them is the copyright issues of people easily being able to send copies to their friends. As soon as they put some sort of protection on that then I think we're bound to be able to download books directly onto our computer or carry them around in our pockets on a usb drive...for half the cost
  • edited September 2006
    Smartso said:
    Actually misteranswer your reply seems very unfounded. If it wasnt for the readability aspect, I think text books would already be in digital format. More and more people are using laptops at school these days because everything is become online and digitized. It may take a few more years but I think text books will inevitably become available in a cheaper, digital format as well. Its a win win situation for all parties... it will cost the companies no money to print the books meaning students will get them for at least half the cost of what they are today.

    The only thing really stopping them is the copyright issues of people easily being able to send copies to their friends. As soon as they put some sort of protection on that then I think we're bound to be able to download books directly onto our computer or carry them around in our pockets on a usb drive...for half the cost
    The day textbooks come in digitalized format is the day profit is no longer a motivation. For every method of protecting copyrights there will exist many different ways to circumvent it. The market for textbooks is simply just too small. There are only aren't many buyers and even fewer suppliers. The only way I can see publishers putting textbooks in digital format is if there was an easy way for customers to turn the books themselves into computer files, like CDs to mp3s.
  • edited September 2006
    UnknownAce said:
    IF you have to buy new books, try Amazon, or HalfPriceComputerBooks.ca (they have a section specifically for SFU books.. not only comp books but for other faculties too)

    The UnknownAce
    Wheres the SFU section?

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