What did YOU pay for your Nursing Books for school??

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Just curious as to what other schools are making students pay for books.. I just paid over $500.00 for books!! :crying2: That is also trying to find the BEST price.. searched everywhere.. Ebay,Amazon, Barnes and Nobles.. I could go on.. I was just wondering what everyone else has paid for their books.. Would be nice to know that I am not alone!!..

Specializes in Telemetry/Med Surg.

I'm going into my senior year and just got the booklist for Fall 2005 (Parent Child Health Nursing). Shopped around, ordered them. $200.00 just for this semester coming up. arrggghhh

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Specializes in ICU, psych, corrections.
The worst thing is that when the book company comes to buy back the books they offer 5-15 dollars and that is it

Do what I do...sell them online. I would pay $50 for a book, then sell it for around $40. A lot of books I actually sold for MORE than I paid for them! http://www.half.com is a great place to get started.

Melanie = )

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The books cost me a little over a 1,000 dollars for the entire proram. OUCH!

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I had 14 books to buy for the first semester and paid around $500 on barnesandnoble.com - I bought the membership for $25, and that has been well worth it. I paid no shipping, no sales tax. I heard the books run right around $1,000 at the college rip-off, I mean bookstore.

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Do what I do...sell them online. I would pay $50 for a book, then sell it for around $40. A lot of books I actually sold for MORE than I paid for them! http://www.half.com is a great place to get started.

Melanie = )

What condition are they in when you sell them? I am the type that will have the WHOLE book highlighted and marked.. Does that matter much when selling? It would matter to me that is why I don't buy used books, but does some people buy books that are all marked on?

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Specializes in Emergency Dept, M/S.

I spent about $650 my first semester in nursing school.

Then I got smart, and figured, the bookstore buys backs books, but for such a low price, and then resells them at an astronomical one, so I have a classmate that is one semester above me. She sells her books (and sometimes notes or syllabus) to me for more than the bookstore would give her, and less than I would pay for used books. She takes great notes, so it all works out well. So maybe find an upper-classman willing to sell you their books, so both of you can profit, and then maybe you can re-sell to an under-classman.

Of course, there are some books you do want to keep, but for the ones you don't, it works great.

I've also found that even though the syllabus may say you need the newest edition of a book, the instructor more often than not doesn't have it (because they make notes in their's, and don't want the newer ones) and the newer editions more often than not just have a new cover, and the page numbers change a bit from where things were before. I never had a problem with an "older" edition of any text (exception is the Drug Guide).

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Specializes in ICU, psych, corrections.
What condition are they in when you sell them? I am the type that will have the WHOLE book highlighted and marked.. Does that matter much when selling? It would matter to me that is why I don't buy used books, but does some people buy books that are all marked on?

I don't use much highlighter/pen/pencil in my books so it makes it easy for me to resell them. In fact, my psych book was hardly opened my last semester of school and there was no writing. I purchased it brand new, online for about $80 and resold it last week for $80 (brand new price was well above $100).

As for buying books with highlighting, most of the books I buy online have hardly, if any, writing in them. They will list the description in the item listing and it should say how much writing or highlighting is in them. I look for books that are listed as "Brand New", "Like New" or "Very Good" condition....and I've never had a problem.

Melanie = )

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No matter how you read it, the dang things cost too much! :chuckle

I believe my books totaled $900 for 3 semesters of finishing up my BSN.

Luckily, my Med/Surg book was "good" for 2 years.....and the "new" book that replaced it is now due to be replaced! :p I figure I will replace every 3 years or so.....A cousin in Alaska does the same thing......

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My wonderful mom (a retired RN) has started giving me her med/surg books. Unfortunately, they're probably hopelessly out of date but I think that they are a good starting point in my reading anyway.

She is also letting me use her stethoscope, too, for the first few semesters until I decide what I need in a stethoscope (might work in NICU, Mother/Baby so an infant stethoscope might be needed at some point).

I Love my mom! :kiss

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