September and October are stressful months; not only do we have to pay for tuition and (some of us) our living expenses, we also have to invest a hefty amount of money into books for classes. Unfortunately, there are frustrations all students will understand when it comes to the process of selling and buying textbooks:
Ridiculous prices.
I once heard a prof say that they get most of their class textbooks for free… Yet students still pay an insanely inflated cost for them. We all know the feeling when the cashier says the final cost:
The fight for used textbooks.
Trying to get to those used textbooks first like:
Even if there are used textbooks, they’re still expensive.
I’ve seen used textbook prices that are only a $2.00 difference from the new copies. The worst part is, they probably bought the book for 75% cheaper than the regular price.
Buy Backs are a total rip off.
Oh, you spent $300 on this textbook? Here’s $20 for that.
Change in professor, change in textbooks.
Maybe profs do this on purpose. Either way, no one wants to buy your textbooks, obviously.
A one or two-page difference in editions.
Naturally, no one wants to buy a textbook that’s even slightly different from the required edition.
Stuck with textbooks for courses offered every other year.
And by the time it’s offered again, the textbook list has changed. Now, you’re sitting on a heaping pile of books you never wanted in the first place.
Depending on your major, the textbooks can be useless.
Which means you’ve dropped hundreds of dollars for nothing.