(@) Textbooks

[bootsie]

I have to take a few classes to renew my personal trainer certification.

One of the classes requires 5 books and based on the prices I've seen they will run about $700.

Anyone have first hand experience with "international editions"? Seems too good to be true.

[Meganne]

I've bought a few for my son who is in college and they have been exactly the same.
Sometimes there is feedback on the books sold and the responses have noted that the book is the same. You might want to look for that or try to google some info on the international version.

[bootsie]

The table of contents appear to be the same.

Meganne, is there a particular seller or website that you have used?

I'm shocked at the price difference:
US version (new): $190
US version (used) $167
International: $32 (and no tax and free shipping to boot)

[Meganne]

I've used several sites - albiris, textbooksrus, and abebooks.

I teach at a community college although for some reason I have not had any students use the international editions but that is probably because nearly all my students are on book vouchers from financial aid & have to get their books from the bookstore.

I do recall asking one of the book reps I work with about the international editions and she told me there isn't any difference. I just dont' want to steer you wrong in case yours happens to be different.

[Meganne]

Just did a quick research on this and found this from textbooksrus.

www.textbooksrus.com/books/information/ieinformation.aspx

[curmudgeon]

May 14, 2012 19:32:04 GMT -5 bootsie said:

I'm shocked at the price difference:
US version (new): $190
US version (used) $167
International: $32 (and no tax and free shipping to boot)

Oh, I wish I was shocked

[stephogirl]

I used to be in the textbook business - here's what I know.

The pages tend to be thinner. Pictures tend to be black and white. You can't sell them back at college bookstores and "officially" you aren't supposed to sell or buy them on Amazon, per their policy - though I did see a lot of them on there. They usually have a different ISBN than the US version.

The info does tend to be the same and they are hellz of a lot cheaper. I would try it if I were you. The quality isn't as good and you might have a hard time selling them, but you'll most likely still be up money from the cheap original price. Make sure, though, that your prof doesn't require some kind of access code for the class, though. These can only be used once and tend to be packaged with new textbooks by the publishers. They usually don't sell them separately. If they do, it's nearly the same price as the book with the access code. If this is the case, and the copyright date on the book is new (like 2012 or 2013 - textbook now have an average shelf life of 18 months for an edition) you may be better off buying the package and getting a buyback on the book alone.

GL!

[emilyj]

I bought international versions of several textbooks when I was in grad school. Ditto the above poster on the differences in page quality, black and white photos, etc., but the content was always identical to the US versions.

I had a grad student of mine this past semester buy an international version of a stats textbook and we found the content to be identical as well.

If you can check the table of contents in any way, I'd suggest that just for good measure, but my bet is you'll be fine.

[bootsie]

Thanks so much for the responses. Very helpful. Thanks for the access code reminder; two of the books require them. I'm going to give the int'l version a shot for the books that are almost $200 each.