Thursday, August 14, 2008

I've Seen the Light

Last year, I was stupid enough to think that I needed new (or newish) textbooks from the law school bookstore. Each semester I was spending about $600 on books. This year, I've seen the light: Amazon, eBay, and other websites that save students from wasting their money in college and grad school bookstores. I bought all my books this time for under $250, including shipping.

Yesterday, I also listed some of my old textbooks on Amazon. I've tried to sell old textbooks before, but I always used eBay, which charges you just for listing an item and takes forever to set up a listing. Amazon is my new favorite internet store. It takes maybe 2 minutes to list a book, and they only charge you if your item sells. I listed 6 books yesterday, and by this morning 5 of them had sold. While I may have been able to sell them back to the law school bookstore for $50 (total), I just made $300 overnight.

I highly recommend this to incoming law students.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I prefer to donate my old textbooks, there are many charities that collect textbooks for impovirshed nations, like Malawi or Kenya. I used to think they only had a need for grade school, high school, and undergrad books but they actually need all kinds of graduate school textbooks as well (law, medicine, accounting, etc.).

Unless you are desperate for the money yourself, I think this is a much better option, if people are interested I can leave some links of organizations that make it really easy to donate.

Sharon said...

That's a great idea for anyone who can afford it.

Anonymous said...

As someone who graduated with 150K in student loans, I say go ahead and eat the 600 dollar loss per semester. In the end, it's going to pale in comparison to your huge loan pile anyway.

So, get some utility out of your books and keep them. Then, later, when you are working in a law firm, you can stack your bookshelves with them and look like a big nerd. You will feel smart and haughty. You will be superior to your other first year associates.

It'll take you about 6 months before you have enough paper, redwelds, and files in your office to need to empty out your textbooks from your bookshelves. Then, you can take your books home and use them as firewood in a magnificent bonfire. It's great to burn books. Makes you feel alive. I do that sometimes. That and shots of Patron.

signed,
bitter biglaw associate