Do any of you buy International Edition Textbooks?

General Discussion
1

I’m going back to college next week and I still haven’t gotten my books yet. I was shopping around for the best deal online.

I used to just buy from Amazon and Half.com. Thanks to me taking more classes this semester, the books for this semester are looking to total close to 700 bucks even if I shop at those places. However, I’ve been recently hearing things about international editions. How they’re cheaper than the American editions, but most of the time have the exact same material. Abebooks.com is looking mighty tempting right now, but I’ll end up paying more than I would have in the store if I get screwed with a book vastly different in content from the one the class is using.

So, my question is: If any of you guys ever bought an International Edition textbook, did it screw you over? Was material significantly different than in the American version, leaving you to bum problems from class mates? Or, was it the same except for the cover and ISBN? Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer this.

2

i’ve gotten like 3 and never had a problem with them.

3

What were the subjects? My classes vary. I have a biology class and a bunch of information system classes.

4

they were all math classes but i’ve seen people use international editions for other classes and they didn’t have any problems. also the professor usually puts a textbook or two in reserve at the library if you do encounter any problems.

5

I got one before from some guy in China. It was a math book and as far as I know it’s exactly the same as the American one. The paper is a little thinner, like maybe halfway between tracing paper and regular textbook paper, but I used it quite a bit and it’s still in good condition after 4 years.

You might also want to get a previous edition or even a completely different book. If it’s like first semester bio I doubt it’s changed much in the last 5 or 10 years. Anything older than that might be outdated though. I’m completely guessing about the dates btw. I’m spoiled because I can get a $15 Dover math book from decades ago and almost be guaranteed that it’s better than a current one. I doubt that would work for bio.

6

Some friends of mine used to buy books from India. It’s usually a paperback of low quality (like newspaper quality), but it’s way cheaper.

I’ll send some e-mails to find the name of the website, if you want.

Name of the site: abebooks.

7

yea back in 2002 i bought all my international editions. they’re just the american text books with some chinese covers

8

never heard of international text books before.

9

I bought some text books from India, the only difference was it had a softcover and paper was not as white. The only thing that matters is that it is the same edition. It was $15 vs $120 new.
I bought some off of ebay, and some off of amazon.

10

I’ve had the experience of an International student bumming problems from me since her book was slightly different.

Does anyone here buy digital textbooks? Are there ways to convert them to PDF files to keep forever?

11

Generally, differences in texts are insignificant. I have been buying internation editions and one edition back for a few quarters and not encountered any real difficulty. I’ve als osaved nearly a thousand dollars. Definitely check up on the reserve copy, that can be a good one for some classes.