Is this a new thing?

"Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis" (Dwhite95)
08/12/2013 at 11:21 • Filed to: None

Cause its pissing me off. Texts books for specific colleges now that have no option to buy used, even on the private market, what the fuck. Fucking $119...

DISCUSSION (20)

Bakkster, touring car driver > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
08/12/2013 at 11:23

Nope, it's an old tactic to release new 'revisions' every couple years even though nothing of substance has changed, just to keep selling new textbooks.

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > Bakkster, touring car driver
08/12/2013 at 11:25

I just didnt know they "made" them for specific colleges.

desertdog5051 > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
08/12/2013 at 11:25

What school is that?

It's a "Porch-uh" > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
08/12/2013 at 11:26

Blame your professor. He/she can easily change books, but doesn't because the publisher takes him/her out to dinner all the time.

ttyymmnn > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
08/12/2013 at 11:27

Sadly, this is nothing new (got my bachelor's degree in '89).

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > desertdog5051
08/12/2013 at 11:27

Its called Grand Valley State University. I like to think of it as the biggest school nobody has heard of.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
08/12/2013 at 11:32

If it is specific for your school you may be able to get a digital copy, and if you have friends who have had it before you can get a copy from them. Or, have you tried renting from your book store? It's usually cheaper.

ddavidn > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
08/12/2013 at 11:33

Not new at all. All my books cost $100+ and I even bought some previous versions used because I knew that I didn't need the brand-new ones.

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
08/12/2013 at 11:34

Well from the store at least buying it new is the only option. I will look into the other options though.

desertdog5051 > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
08/12/2013 at 11:38

That's what I was thinking. Funny, I went to school there when it was Grand Valley State College in the 70's.

GhostZ > It's a "Porch-uh"
08/12/2013 at 11:40

Not always. Some departments (at least at my college) have extremely strict 'rigor' requirements for textbooks, which have to be approved by committees and such before teachers are allowed to use them. Granted, the publisher may still be taking the department heads out to dinner, but the professor's hands are usually tied in most cases.

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > desertdog5051
08/12/2013 at 11:41

Yeah its a lot different, money has been flooding in for the last ten years or so and they have like 25k students now.

desertdog5051 > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
08/12/2013 at 11:49

Wow. Thing have changed. When I went there it was out in the boonies. Bet it ain't like that now.

Thought you were a Detroit side of the state resident.

Sn210 > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
08/12/2013 at 11:51

When I was in school I had to buy a book new that was written by the school's own science department for $100. I didn't open it once, and the bookstore wouldn't buy it back at the end of the semester. I rented my books the next semester and got all of my books for $150

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > desertdog5051
08/12/2013 at 11:52

I am but I was choosing between this and Central and with how close it was to grand rapids and how nice the campus (and the business campus) is, it wasnt a very hard choice.

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > desertdog5051
08/12/2013 at 12:25

Just as a small example. They just built a really fucking expensive new library.

Kinja'd!!!

desertdog5051 > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
08/12/2013 at 12:34

Those $119 textbooks certainly helped to pay for that.

Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
08/12/2013 at 12:56

Oh yeah, that's always fun. Spent $560 on three textbooks already and I still need to get about $160 more of stuff that is "school-published and only in the school bookstore" when I get to college.

It's all a scam -_-

William Byrd > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
08/12/2013 at 13:48

I worked at the book store in college, don't recall any being made specifically for our school, but it was a small'ish DIII school. Now new editions came out all the time and there were no used books available for those typically. I used to print out signs saying so each time so it cut down on questions. Not that some didn't still ask like there was a mysterious stock in the back we weren't telling them about.

JasonStern911 > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
08/13/2013 at 12:02

I would never suggest searching for a scanned PDF of the book online, because that obviously would be illegal. But unless the teacher is assigning work directly from the book or allows you to use the book during a test, are you sure you even need it? Show up to class, take notes, and take advantage of the wealth of information available on the internet. There is no copyright on those Shakespeare and Dante's Inferno style books humanities classes used to require you to read. And between forums, the Wiki, companies like Google and Microsoft giving free online training, information is likely out there if you willing to search for it.

That said, if your professor is an author/co-author of a book, you're pretty much screwed. :)