5 ms·
Certainly. My two annoying experiences from college where buying the used text book for Biology which was a 2nd edition and about 5 years old for probably $80.
by esaym 3y ago
Certainly. My two annoying experiences from college where buying the used text book for Biology which was a 2nd edition and about 5 years old for probably $80. Then a couple of years later I was in Calculus I and the syllabus listed Thomas' Calculus (12th Edition) as the book. It was brand new just released so no used copies. Bookstore had it for $220 and the 11th edition for much cheaper. I took the risk and bought the 11th edition. I mean after 11 editions how different could the 12th edition be?? On the first day of class noticed the person next to me has the 12th edition, I asked to see it to compare and to my horror it was completely different. Not wanting to get behind in class, I quickly found it on amazon for $140 and I had just got the student version of Prime for like $25 per year so got free 2 day shipping. Ultimately, never used the book for the calculus class. Teacher either gave us a printout of homework problems or wrote the problems on the board for us to copy. Auctioned it on Ebay after the class. The seller then filed a claim against me:
"Hello, I received this book today and it is definitely not in "like new" condition; the eBay condition definition for "like new" states that the "cover has no visible wear", but this textbook's cover is very worn on both front and back. The cover corners are bent inward, there are scuffs on the upper edges like it had been dragged upside down, and there's even a tear on the bottom of the back cover! It's incomprehensible how you could list this book as "like new," according to eBay's definitions, this book is closer to "Very Good", or even "Good" condition."
Note the "damage" they speak of came from amazon shipping it to me and it sliding around in the box. I responded:
"Sorry for the misrepresentation of the book. $71 is a very good price for the book. I was hoping to get above $110 for it. Because of the great deal you have gotten, I hesitate to offer a partial refund for the book. Will a partial refund be necessary? Otherwise, I will be more careful next time."
Lame.
The point about the biology book though, I just find it ironic that biology is always changing, but the Biology book was old and never updated while a math book seems to get re-written in a different permutation every two years.
- melagonster 3y agoThe latest Campbell biology is 13th edition, published at 2020. the older version (12) published at 2016.
- account42 3y agoShipping damage != like new. The ebay buyer was right to complain and that the damage came from Amazon and not you is irrelevant to the buyer. Would you be happy about undisclosed defects on a $71 purchase?
- nicoburns 3y agoRequiring an up to date textbook for math is just absurd. Pretty much anything you learn on an undergraduate math course hasn't changed for 100 years (and that's definitely true of Calculus I material).
- Riseed 3y agoMy math profs warned us that, while the overall contents and concepts included were the same, the different editions of the textbook sometimes had chapters in a slightly different order and problems slightly rearranged. This meant it was possible to learn from any edition, but only the required edition was guaranteed to work for assigned problem sets.
- drowsspa 3y agoWhy didn't he just scan at least the assigned problem sets into a PDF? Do they require you to buy a brand new book just so the question numbers they pass match?
- nicoburns 3y agoIn that case, why not standardise the course on an older edition?
- account42 3y agoI'd bet publishers won't do additional print runs on those and might even recall copies not yet sold when the new edition comes out so availability of those will go down (and prices up) if they are made the desirable edition. Really the prof should just make his own assignments (or rather have his underlings do it). At least that's how it works on this side of the pond. In any case, requiring additional purchases of educational material when students are already paying tuition is absurd.
- renewiltord 3y agoI just talked to other kids and we pooled money to buy the book and then photocopy it. It was rampant piracy. I think we might have then either sold the book (likely) or returned it (unlikely) after photocopying it. It taught me that there are limits to my ethics. Knowing full well that I am violating a social contract that many others are abiding by, I still did it. If I can act on this particular line, then it's just a matter of degree between me and those who more egregiously violate our shared rules. After all, we had a massive advantage against kids who worked hard to afford the books. Even if they made $15/hr (outrageous), they would still have spent 10 hours on that book alone.
- nicoburns 3y agoViolating shared rules does not necessarily make one less ethical. If the rule itself is unethical then it can even make one more ethical.
- gglitch 3y agoI'm not sure whether I agree or not, but as a reference point, Socrates comes to mind - should he have stolen off with Crito instead of taking the hemlock? https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-ethics-shorter/#12 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-ethics-shorter/#12