..buying used textbooks.

In university, lecturers will recommend certain text and references that is good and helps in understanding the module contents better. The sad thing is, whatever the lecturers recommend will go into the RBR section of the Central Library, a section in which books can only be borrowed for 2 hours or sth like that.

Hence, if you want to do reading at, let's say, in the middle of the night, you have no choice but to buy your own book. (I am not sure if RBR books can be borrowed overnight). But first hand textbooks are all very expensive, ranging from $40 - $60 or maybe more. Hence, used textbooks. ("second-hand" is a subset of "used")

There is a used textbooks forum online in which students can advertise and buy used textbooks. It should be very popular, especially after this week when lectures begin and lecturers give their wise advice on which books to read. Hence, used textbooks started getting real hot.

I myself have made some successful deals from this forum and coincidentally (or maybe purposely), all the sellers i bought from are girls. Maybe girls are more careful so their books should be in better condition? But wait, I am a guy. OK, maybe that doesnt work. Anyway, point is, I got some good deals, such as a lecture notes-cum-book which costs only $5 and it is in kind of a good condition (there are pencil scribblings and highlights at some parts) whereas a new one would cost $22.

If not, one can always try the BuyBack Asia Sale (sth along that lines) which is basically a used textbook sale. I personally don't recommend this though. A lot of used textbooks, but also awfully a lot of humans squeezing into the tiny (well, since there are a lot of people so the place looks relatively small) study lounge @ YIH. And it is basically like a warzone inside as people grab the books they want and if they decided that they dun need the book while trying to squeeze through the crowd or they got tired of waiting to pay they just throw it at the nearest table they see. So I can see some Physics books in the Chemistry section and so on. Sigh. Talk about university students. Prices are not exactly cheaper as well.

So after an unsuccessful outing to the sale, I reverted back to my initial method of sms-ing sellers from the forum, telling myself that I will sell it after I am done with it (most likely) and so this is actually just an investment and so I AM NOT SPENDING A LOT OF MONEY. Haih.

Labels: NUS