Should I buy used books?

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Hi,

What a great web site!!! So glad I found it.

I start nursing school in the fall. Has anyone purchased used nursing school books on line?

Looks tempting, but I'm skeptical. Let me know your experience and where you bought them from.

Thanks!!;)

Specializes in Med/Surge, Private Duty Peds.
i have bought many used books online and saved tons of money! i have used half.com and amazon.com marketplace. i also check other sites and have used valore books with great success.

i did have one problem getting a biology lab book completely filled in and unusable but half.com did refund the money without problems but it took a bit of time. i understand since that incident (about 2 years ago) they have made their refund policy more user friendly and speedier. i also have purchased about 50 books from them since without problems.

there was a time when i was worried i may be getting addicted to amazon marketplace as i was buying so many books and saving so much money i just could not stop buying! i have a great collection of nursing books worth thousands and paid a fraction of their cost for them!

same here, my dear hubby says i can no longer visit ebay!! yes, used books can be bought and saves lots of $'s. keep in mind that when it comes to nursing fundamentals, they very rarely change, the new editions may have more colored pictures, but for the most part the same, the way pt's are moved, bathed, certain skills like foleys, iv's etc remain the same no matter which nursing book you use.

example, when in school the newest edition (2004)of our fundamentals book cost 119.00, i got the same book, only the edition from the year (2002) before off of ebay for 15.00, that included s&h charges. the only thing changes where more colored pics and the page numbers.

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I buy all my nursing books from amazon and I also buy earlier editions. I bought all my books for about $3 each and they are the exact same as the newer editions except for maybe 2 or 3 words. I laugh when I see students paying $110 for a book that I paid $3 for.

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Huge fan of half.com here. I've bought books for way less then the school bookstore (who sell crappy, highlighted used books for practically full price). While everyone is waiting for new books to come in because the school bookstore has run out (as they inevitably do), I've been getting mine quickly on-line, and paying way less. I've also been buying books like the Nursing Made Incredibly Easy series to help with difficult concepts - those books new are like $40 a pop - I've been buying them for around $15 or so. I just bought the Saunders Q & A Nclex review book (2005 ed) for $20 bucks- it's in perfect condition, with an unopened CD, and I received it in less than a week! (it retails for $38). I've also used half to sell used pre-req books - I think I actually made a profit on one of them. (The only problem with selling is you really only make sales in the spring or in the fall.) I can't imagine buying any other way. :D

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
I have bought many used books online and saved TONS of money! I have used half.com and amazon.com marketplace. I

There was a time when I was worried I may be getting addicted to Amazon marketplace as I was buying so many books and saving so much money I just could not stop buying! I have a GREAT collection of nursing books worth thousands and paid a fraction of their cost for them!

You, too?? I thought I was the only one! I graduated and took the boards since last year, but I still order used books that look interesting. Also, I noticed that I would find some brand new books that would be just one edition behind and in crisp, clean condition!

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
I buy all my nursing books from amazon and I also buy earlier editions. I bought all my books for about $3 each and they are the exact same as the newer editions except for maybe 2 or 3 words. I laugh when I see students paying $110 for a book that I paid $3 for.

Once, I got a microbiology textbook for 0.33 cents. That had people PISSED!

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Specializes in LVN, Phlebotomy, CNA.

It saved me tons! I am in my second level of LVN school and so far have spent over 600 dollars on USED books, study guides, and manuals. If I had bought them at the schools bookstore it would have cost over 1000. Most of them were purchased on EBAY, AMAZON, and I never had any problems. I was able to get books on ebay for like 1/10 the list price GREAT since there are so many I needed to buy. Good luck to you

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Specializes in Med/Surg ICU, NICU.

I too buy all of my books for school online. I have not had a problem yet. I tend to only buy from those that have 100% approval rating or I will look at the seller's feedback to see what people are saying....sometimes they are given unfair ratings by people that just don't read the description of the product. Amazon.com has become my favorite site to use and have never found another site that can beat their price.

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when i had a&p, the bundle from the school that they laughingly labeled "economy pack" was $402. when i found out at the first class that the instructor didn't mind if we used older editions, because only the page numbers changed, i returned my books (unopened) to the desk after class.

i came home, pulled up half.com and paid $37 for all of my books (textbook, lab manuals, lab atlas and flashcards) four other people did the same thing when i told them what i had found.

publishers make a mint off of universities then whatever the school tacks on when they bundle these things are just the gravy. trust sellers with a lot of good feedback. there's one seller on half.com (betterworldbooks) that has had every single book i've needed and never a problem with shipping.

my husband thinks i should buy brand new books for nursing school, he's craaaaaaaaaaaazy. i'll be buying used and if they're in good shape i'll be getting them unbinded.

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Specializes in Oncology, Emergency Department.

Definately! They save you alot of money, just a word of caution, some schools update the books to new editions each and every year. Make sure you have the edition that your class is using.

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If I had to do it all over again, I would buy all used books. The differences are minor. The savings are great.

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Specializes in Oncology, Emergency Department.

Sorry for my typo...your humiliation tactic "definitely" worked.

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I have always purchased used books thru ebay, Amazon or half.com and have never been disappointed. Why pay $1000+ on books for nursing school when you can get them for less than half used? Honestly, I hardly used my nursing textbooks - I mainly studied using the NCLEX exam review book by Saunders - for me the information was straight to the point.

I also have never had any problems selling my books thru any of these web sites. Right now, I have all of my textbooks listed on Amazon and have sold about of a third of them and have made close to $300.

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