The Real Thiefs (1037 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.1 on 16 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Bob Polly <tpx187.at.hotmail.com> (View user info) at 2003-04-29 17:30:04 EDT
You wanna talk about file sharing and the money the music industry rakes in? Fine. But I am gonna tell you about some real thiefs. The publishers of college books.
At the beginning of this semester I bought 500$ worth of books. 500!!! You know how much shit I coulda bought with that? Also I had an 89$ book from the previous semester that I was gonna turn in for cash today. Well the publisher released a new copy this semester, so now I am stuck with it. I am also stuck with 4 other books that I bought for over 200. I recived 60 bucks for the 500 I paid at the beginning of the semester. SIXTY FUCKIN DOLLARS! I used 5 of my 10 books once. Each book was used for one paper I had to write. SIXTY FUCKIN DOLLARS IS ALL I GOT BACK! What the fuck man. This is absoult BS. I still have 3 books I need to use for finals, but I proally wont get any money for those books cause I have to study then I am gonna try and turn the books back in, but by then the book store is already gonna have its quota so I proally wont get shit in return. What a fuckin racket. I sell back my books for half of the price and then the bookstore is gonna turn around sell them back for about a 50% profit. This is fuckin ludacrious (sp? fuck it i dont give a fuck)
SIXTY FUCKIN DOLLARS FOR FIVE HUNDO! WHAT A FUCKIN COUNRTY! HIGHER EDUCATION AT ITS BEST! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Bobbs
User Reviews
Submitted by jjgoreha (user info) at 2003-04-30 16:05:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Yeah, I feel pretty violated by my university too. They 50 and 500 dollar-ed me to death. Most of my books will be useful in my field of work when I'm done school, but they still cost me a lot. Some of them I just didn't get, and am looking for online because I still want them.
If you have friends in the same classes, go 50/50 on a book and share it.
Submitted by BerZerK (user info) at 2003-04-30 16:05:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
It's really sick.
Seriously.
Hey Bob, start making calls to the media. It is a horrible, horrible thing that they
are monopolizing these poor students.
I'm sure some investigative reporter could use her vehicle of speech to some end?
Submitted by pimpbuster (user info) at 2003-04-30 15:56:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Somebody set up a small internet site where you could post books you wanted to sell and people would respond like they would a classified ad. It was nice for the few who found out about it but then Barnes & Noble (the thieves with lawyers who run the campus bookstore) SUED the guy for STEALING FROM THEM!!! They seriously thought they were ENTITLED to all profits from books bought and sold on campus. Needless to say the site was closed to avoid further legal issues and the charges dropped. The trick? Hang out outside the class you'll be taking the next semester and have a sign saying "I want to buy your book for this much $" or something to that effect. It usually works for most people. Being in engineering school our books were rotated more often than anyone cared to manage, but for the most part you could still get away with it. Most students are so demoralized that if you offer $20 for what was a $150 book you'll get it, and the seller would be getting more money than they would from the bookstore.
Submitted by tpx187 (user info) at 2003-04-30 13:30:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Blah Blah Blah Blah, thifes, thieves, who gives a shit? Oh yea... You. Blow me.
Bobbs
Submitted by Quartermain (user info) at 2003-04-30 12:21:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Shouldn't the title read 'The Real Thieves'? Nice to know you're getting your money's worth out of that college education.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2003-04-30 11:59:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I had a professor for Econ who was a total prick as in he used his Ferrari key as a pointer on the overheads. He also wrote the book that he used for his classes. Not only that, but every year he would change the order of the chapters and update the dates in the problems and then sell it as a new edition just to inflate sales. It was commonly known that the thing to do was take that class in the fall so you could sell it to someone taking it in the spring and they would be the one stuck with it.
Submitted by catscradle (user info) at 2003-04-30 11:44:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
You know, your professor gets a chunk of that money. Whenever you buy a book for a class, the publisher gives part to the professor. Not a huge percentage, but when you're dealing with 300 dollar books and classes with over a hundred people, it starts to add up. Hence the incentive for certain professors to choose certain books for their classes.
Submitted by BerZerK at 2003-04-29 22:28:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
holy crap geno..
i guess that's the american way..
sucks for the little guy..
oh well.. dare to dream bob..
dare to dream..
Submitted by tpx187 (user info) at 2003-04-29 20:30:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Thats what I like to hear GT take is to the fuckin man!
Bobbs
Submitted by GenocideTickles (user info) at 2003-04-29 20:23:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
There used to be a great website for doing this and on a national level. It was called Half.com. The original idea was to sell books at half or much less than half of their retail value and that once you bought the book and finished reading it you could sell it on the site for essentially what you paid for it. It was a great idea until a few years ago when Ebay bought it out.
Under Ebay's ownership it has gone to shit. First of all they allows mass sellers, such as book stores with huge inventories to participate - this pushes all of the small guy's listings off the first page of books for sale (and most people don't look past that first page - fuck most people don't even know there is more than one page). Also they added tons more products. Electronics, computers, peripherals, etc. In the beginning it was DVDs, Videos, Video Games, and Books. Now there is all this other shit (which are essentially Ebay items).
And worst of all, they went away from the entire idea behind the name "Half.com." As the name implies and as I said, everything had to be sold at or below half of the retail price of the item. So this means if you wanted a copy of a 50 dollar text book, it was going to cost you a maximum of 25 dollars, but you could usually get it for 20, 10, or even 5 for a beat up copy.
Now Half.com (under Ebay's ownership) allows sellers to sell books for more than half of retail. Worst of all, its not even like people are listing things at like 40% off, or even 25% off retail, the vast majority are selling it at retail or a measley 10% below retail. The icing on the cake is that some sellers even have the audacity to sell books at a price higher than list. I noticed this trend this past semester when searching for a book I needed for an Italian class "Racconti di Oggi." My campus bookstore wanted 30 bucks for this 80 page or so fully black and white "pamphlet" style book of 8 short stories in Italian. I said fuck that.
I went to Half.com, thinking I'd at least get it for 20 - what I saw made me shit. Half.com has the list price set at 29.95, and everyone of the sellers was listing it at 30, even 35+ dollars. I checked this again today to see if the situation got any better. The list price is still 29.95 and there are two books for sale one for $30.33 ($33.12 with shipping) and one for $34.95 ($37.74 with shipping) - and both of these books, you would expect would be brand fucking new, considering they are being offered above their list price. No - both are used, and the more expensive on is more heavily used. I guess you pay more cause its broken in.
I hate cool websites that sell out. Still waiting for the banners and monthly membership fee on ubersite.
P.S. The school bookstore wants to give me 4.25 for this book back (they sold it to me used for 25.50). I am keeping it, out of spite. And I took a shit on the floor of their bathroom - the carpetted entry area, out of equal parts spite and necessity (the toilet seats were well pissed on, because with all the money that they spend gouging poor students, they can't afford a fucking janitor).
Submitted by BerZerK at 2003-04-29 18:45:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
rock on turtle.. thats the american way!
Submitted by beer-turtle (user info) at 2003-04-29 18:37:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
That's pretty much what my friends and I did back in college. We would hit the freshman orientation and jump them with our discounted like new books.
-Turtle
Submitted by streetpunk (user info) at 2003-04-29 17:41:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
That's a good idea berzerk...hmmm.....
Submitted by tpx187 (user info) at 2003-04-29 17:40:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Sorry about the long "whooooooooooooo" but I am not happy. But I have thought about starting
selling books back to the other people. But that would be to hard since they get new books
every semester and keepin up with all the new copies would be too hard.
The school set up a website where you could sell your books to other people at school, i tried
this last semester but no one particapted in it. So I got stuck with the books I was tryin to sell.
Fuckin school sucks a fat fuckin cock. Fuck school.
Bobbs
Submitted by BerZerK at 2003-04-29 17:36:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I hear ya Bob..
ever thought about underminding the whole lot of them?
this is what you do..
place ads and flyers up around campus to buy used books from students.. then turn around and re-sell the books back to new students at an inflated rate (but not as inflated as the bookstore)
youd make a fortune if you could get the capital to start it..
and you would stick it right to the people who are charging so much for the books..
Submitted by Crash3087 (user info) at 2003-04-29 17:33:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yeah man. Its fuckin wrong.
Knowledge should be free. What is America turning into.
Once I go back to college I'm going to go into classes with a binder. A binder with the book photocopied into it.