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Rank: Senior Student
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/13/2008
Posts: 73
Location: Scarborough
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i know its early to start the topic..but its confusing...i wanna know where most of the students get their textbooks...wuts the easy and cheap way and not risky?...i got some people saying buy it online where as some people say no and stick with the book store...this is really confusing..especially as a first year student going in..any suggestions?.. Thans
Information Technology Management---Ryerson 2013
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Rank: Student Body Vice-President
Groups: Member
Joined: 6/5/2008
Posts: 927
Location: Edmonton, AB
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For my first year I bought all my textbooks from my schools bookstore. You can go in and type in your student number and it prints off your book list. This was stress free but expensive. And I hardly used some of my textbooks. This year I'm going to wait until a couple of weeks into class to buy my textbook because you don't really use it for the first part anyways (usually). And sometimes your professor will tell you that you can use an older edition just as well.
I have never shopped online and I'm not sure I trust it, but that's just me! It can be much cheaper and just as good from what I hear.
University of Alberta - Mechanical Engineering '11
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Rank: Student Body Vice-President
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 955
Location: Alberta
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Weren't we all talking about this in the other thread? Where bijan was telling us the wonders of purchasing from the internet? Did i just dream that?
Taiyab wrote: Is it me, or is Karla Homolka gorgeous!
Lamoid wrote: SHE HAS A KILLER BODY.
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Rank: Senior Student
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/13/2008
Posts: 73
Location: Scarborough
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lol no..u didnt dream dat..i just wanted to start this topic cuz no one was replying to dat..haahha..same thing
Information Technology Management---Ryerson 2013
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Rank: Senior Student
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/13/2008
Posts: 73
Location: Scarborough
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plus..i wanna know wut majority of people do..and how it works
Information Technology Management---Ryerson 2013
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Rank: Student Body Vice-President
Groups: Member
Joined: 6/5/2008
Posts: 927
Location: Edmonton, AB
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Majority buy from the school book store (you can usually get new or used there)
University of Alberta - Mechanical Engineering '11
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Rank: Valedictorian
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 545
Location: Toronto, ON
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Yeah I think majority of people buy from the bookstore, or some people wait like 20 minutes in line to save $5 in the discount book stores around campus (don't worry there will be flyers EVERYWHERE the first week).
That acconts for I think 60-70% of the people, then 20%-30% buy used and from upper years. And then theres the other 10% really money concious people who either
1) find the PDF online and just print it out either using their school printing quota (so it's free) or go to a print shop and get it done (usually $20 or less)
2) Buy the books online and save a lot of money. First year I bought from the bookstore, some books I only opened like twice and had to sell it for like $40 cheaper so I lost a lot of money. 2nd year, I found most of the PDF's online so I just downloaded them and just printed off the pages I needed. And a couple books that I couldn't find I bought online. Mind you I had ONE bad experience where they "forgot" to ship my product, but I got a full refund anyways but it just wasted a week of my time.
+ I think the best thing so far has been that I've been able to sell the books I bought online for MORE than I actually bought it for originally! People are like WOW only $60? It's $180 in the bookstore. And I really only bought it for $40 lol
-University of Toronto Electrical Engineering 1T0!
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Rank: Student Body Vice-President
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 955
Location: Alberta
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bijanv wrote:Yeah I think majority of people buy from the bookstore, or some people wait like 20 minutes in line to save $5 in the discount book stores around campus (don't worry there will be flyers EVERYWHERE the first week).
That acconts for I think 60-70% of the people, then 20%-30% buy used and from upper years. And then theres the other 10% really money concious people who either
1) find the PDF online and just print it out either using their school printing quota (so it's free) or go to a print shop and get it done (usually $20 or less)
2) Buy the books online and save a lot of money. First year I bought from the bookstore, some books I only opened like twice and had to sell it for like $40 cheaper so I lost a lot of money. 2nd year, I found most of the PDF's online so I just downloaded them and just printed off the pages I needed. And a couple books that I couldn't find I bought online. Mind you I had ONE bad experience where they "forgot" to ship my product, but I got a full refund anyways but it just wasted a week of my time.
+ I think the best thing so far has been that I've been able to sell the books I bought online for MORE than I actually bought it for originally! People are like WOW only $60? It's $180 in the bookstore. And I really only bought it for $40 lol haha textbooksellbackowned
Taiyab wrote: Is it me, or is Karla Homolka gorgeous! Lamoid wrote: SHE HAS A KILLER BODY.
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Rank: Senior Student
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/13/2008
Posts: 73
Location: Scarborough
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which website is good for buyin the books online?...the one that u can trust and get it early
Information Technology Management---Ryerson 2013
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Rank: Frosh
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/20/2008
Posts: 29
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Rank: Valedictorian
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 545
Location: Toronto, ON
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yeah abebooks.com or ebay. Usually with ebay you can ask for express shipping so it's a bit better. But Abebooks has a much wider selection and connects you to actual store owners around the earth that have the book you want and you buy it from them. Just be smart and realize why some books are cheaper than others when its the same book. Sometimes it's a black and white photocopy, sometimes its a colour copy, sometimes its the real book international edition, and all other times it's a real book.
Also don't worry about buying online.. you can always dispute a charge with your credit card company and get your money back if you think you're getting scammed (never happened to me before and I buy at least 10-12 things online a month for the past 3-4 years).
-University of Toronto Electrical Engineering 1T0!
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Rank: Valedictorian
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/5/2008
Posts: 680
Location: Kingston and Toronto
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God, I love messing with Frosh. I bought a book used for $40 and sold it to a frosh the next year for $70.
Uschi
Queen's '10
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Rank: Student Council
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/7/2008
Posts: 329
Location: Toronto
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I went on Amazon, and started adding up the books I'll need for a history course to the cart to see what the total cost would be.
So 8 books, most of them textbooks, paperback: $60.
So yeah, try to search online for deals, because even with shipping costs, it's way cheaper. After all, uni is expensive enough as it is without spending a thousand on brand new books.
McGill Arts '12
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Rank: Senior Student
Groups: Member
Joined: 4/9/2008
Posts: 139
Location: Ontario, Canada
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How do you know what books you need before classes start? Would it say it on the website or anything?
Honours English Major/History Minor, York '12
Stong Rez
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Rank: Frosh
Groups: Member
Joined: 5/25/2008
Posts: 11
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I think some universities have a system where you can enter your student ID and it has a list of the courses you're registered in and says what textbooks you need.
Can anyone comment on what's the best way to find pdf versions online? Just google?
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Rank: Valedictorian
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/4/2008
Posts: 545
Location: Toronto, ON
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the way I do it is type in the book into google and add in "rapidshare" at the end, if you don't find anything try "megaupload" . So for example if I'm looking for a book called signals and systems by Brawford (making this up) I'd put into google: signals and system brawford rapidshare or something of the sort.
Rapidshare and Megaupload are two of the biggest sites where people just can upload whatever they want and give links to people to download stuff from. So when you search you'll come across a page that has your book and a link to one of those types of sites and you download it from there
-University of Toronto Electrical Engineering 1T0!
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