Ordering used text books on Amazon??

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Has anyone done this instead of purchasing from the school. What was your experience? What would you think of purchasing the edition prior to the current one and saving a significant amount of money?

Specializes in Med-Surg, Oncology, Neurology, Rehab.
Has anyone done this instead of purchasing from the school. What was your experience? What would you think of purchasing the edition prior to the current one and saving a significant amount of money?

I graduated in the 90's and needed to get a med-surg book just for review(my orginal one is in another city and would have cost too much to send) I did not need a new one I bought one that was printed in 2010 and very very good condition for less than $15.00 with free shiping. There are many listed and you can choose from the list. I love Brunner and Sudarth. Most have the cd rom also in the back of the book.

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Specializes in Leadership, Psych, HomeCare, Amb. Care.
I wonder why a book sent media mail was a problem? I was under the impression that that's what media mail is for. .

I used to order books from Amazon, their booksellers, valorebooks.com, powells, etc. just google the ISDN code and you can find some great bargains.

Media rate is great, and cheap...but can be slow. You need to take into consideration transit times vs when the class starts. Either pay a little more for faster shipping, or order from a closer seller if you do use media mail rate.

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Specializes in Tele.

I honestly buy older editions all the time. I honestly really cannot afford to be buying new books right now. Plus, there is nothing worse than buying that book and they decide to go with a different book the next semester so the value is nothing when trying to resale back to the bookstore.

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I rent all of my books. The few things I did buy because it had a CD with it, we never used it and it wasn't required. Some classes I never even crack the book open. RENT RENT RENT. It's the best option. The changes from one edition to the next is likely minimal and you'll get the 'need to know' stuff from your professor.

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Specializes in Medical Oncology, Alzheimer/dementia.

I wouldn't have made it through nursing school or my natural science pre-reqs if it weren't for amazon.com. I paid for my schooling out of pocket, so I had to pinch pennies wherever I could.

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Thanks to you all for the wonderful responses! I posted another question about renting..... :)

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

I almost always order my textbooks from Amazon. If I don't get new or rent, I make sure that any used copy I get is at least in "very good" condition.

I would be very wary about ordering the prior edition to use for a class. You don't know what changes have been made, and your instructor may assign you something from the current edition that wasn't in the prior. Also, if you decide to argue a question using the textbook, your instructor may deny your request, telling you--and correctly so--that you're not using the class textbook.

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Specializes in ER, progressive care.

When I was in school I always ordered used textbooks from Amazon and I never had a problem. Doing that saved me a lot of $$$.

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I ordered most of my nursing textbooks via Amazon --previous edition. Never had a problem and saved much needed money!

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Specializes in Trauma, Orthopedics.
As someone who worked at her undergrad bookstore, while it seems this way, I almost guarantee you this is not the case. The bookstore has to charge MSRP, which is much higher than what Amazon. com and other online retailers charge due to discounts from bulk purchases.

On top of that, the bookstore has to recover the money they spent in shipping the books. My bookstore added $0.25 to every textbook that did not have a price listed on it. Even then, they were still losing money on textbooks.

All that's not to say that you should buy from your college bookstore. I'm just trying to give a different perspective on the price difference.

And yes, I buy from Amazon.com and will have saved almost $1,000 in my first semester alone. That's buying all new books from Amazon itself, not a merchant.

Maybe they're not, but the book companies sure do take advantage of us broke students, and it's hard denying that! They get representatives to come into our class and tell us the importance of the expensive practice question add ons and buying new over used....give me a break!

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Specializes in ONC, Med-Surg, Outpatient.

For online NP school I rented my textbooks until now; reached the NP core courses.

For ADN I bought all my books from Amazon. Plus Amazon has PRIME membership (free two day shipping); students first year is free. :)

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I used to buy my text book new, paid $150 for an A&P book, then saw the instructor using the 11 edition and we bought the 13th edition. Said it was because she had alll the key points highlighted in the old edition. Returned my new book to the school store and found the 11th edition for $20 on Amazon.

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