Blackwells Books

jenny_f

See if the uni has a second hand bookshop, ours does (York) and i got all mine from there. The prices vary depending on condition but even the most expensive ones are cheap and look like new. Great if you only need them for one year.

Also check out http://www.sellstudentbooks.co.uk/ I found it the other day, but haven't used it as yet.

Savvy_Sue

NOWSE wrote:

About 6 weeks ago my daughter and I went through her text book/reading list to order the books on the internet. A number of books came up as unavailable at all the sites we looked at and so she is going to discuss these with her tutors. Of the ones that we were able to order we found www.amazon.co.uk to be most likely to have them available, (at usually the best price), with Blackwells failing to stock the majority of the required books.

Well done her! My son only owned up to having been sent a reading list two days before he left! At which point packing and tidying his room seemed a higher priority than panicking about a reading list!

megsykins

Two words:
eBay
amazon

Particularly if the books aren't brand new editions, ex-students will be flogging theirs to make a bit of cash! The Amazon.co.uk 'new and used' is particularly good, I've just paid £15 inc P&P for a slightly used copy of a textbook Waterstone's wanted £35+ for!!

Depending on your course, you might find that older editions don't change so much, and you can always get the latest ed from your uni / local library and cross check. Unfortunatly I chose Law and Politics so books go out-of-date v quickly!!

Also keep an eye out for posters round campus flogging 2nd hand textbooks, although these are usually best for undergrads.

http://www.alibris.com/ is another 2nd-hand book website recommended by my tutors, although I've not used it myself.

HTH and enjoy your course!
Megs x :j

Barcode

See if the uni has a second hand bookshop, ours does (York) and i got all mine from there.

I find YUSU books rather expensive, or maybe it's just my topic. A few examples, what will cost me 20 pounds in Blackwell's will tend to cost me about 16 pounds in the campus bookshop. And the campus ones tend to have too much highlighting, other people's notes etc.

There is also the 20% student discount thing at Border's on certain days I believe.

Be like me, get yourself a disability and then get the LEA to refund all your costs lol.

Could always try requesting on the university classified ads if the uni has a thing where students can post what they have for sale. The York one is quite good.

bluesnice

theres also http://www.academicbooktrade.co.uk/

I've never bought but am going to post my books for sale on the site for free!

student100

hjb123 wrote:

When I was in a Borders Store the other day they were going to be having student days where students get a discount. The days were 7th and 22nd October.

H

Yep, these normally happen at the start of every term and are great for saving money.

Borders in Bristol is doing 20% student discount every day until this Thursday (20/10/05)!

AndyR_3

Barcode wrote:

And the campus ones tend to have too much highlighting, other people's notes etc.

I found that to be a benefit - it saves you reading the text, you can just use their notes

LumpyBumpy

I have actually just sold alot of my books to students by sending an email around advertising them and putting up notices around the university. I recommend, like Wirenth, contacting students in the above years and keeping an eye on notice boards and reading any emails you get about books for sale-not only will you save yourself lots of money but also the student will probably be glad to get rid of them! We also had Blackwells at uni and they were really expensive and half the time couldn't get the books for a few weeks-not to mention the huge queues within the first few weeks! Also beware of buying the second hand books from the book shops because they aren't always as cheap as they appear, if I remember rightly they buy the books back for a third of the original price and then sell them for 2 thirds, depending on the price of the book its not always such a great deal.

donna-j_2

Karnam wrote:

blackwells and borders are owned by the same people, blackwells being supposedly the academic branch and borders are the more casual branch. blackwells are HORRENDOUS!

Sorry, this is nonsense. Blackwells are owned by the Blackwell family.

Karnam

i think you'll find they also own borders. Charing cross branch borders explained this to me as to why i could 'order' in a book from Blackwells down the road.