Caveat Emptor

I'm rather pissed off right now because I may have been gypped 60 bucks from a guy at half.com. I was looking for a certain textbook and he was selling it the cheapest. He had the picture of the book right and all but when it got to me it was the old edition. Fuck. I've contacted him and I'm waiting for a response from him before I leave him any negative feedback (ebay etiquette). I'm giving him a week to at least respond. I suppose it was equally my fault since i failed to make sure which edition I needed, but him being the experienced seller that he is should have made sure that he put up the proper picture of the book. Also, in my defence, he had 2003 listed as the year of the book, which is the year i need. He just had the wrong edition.
So I decided to buy the correct book from another seller this time for 70 bucks, and this time I made sure I had the right edition and all. So all in all if the first guy does rip me off, then that's 130 bucks for the book, right? It seems like a lot, I know, but my school bookstore is selling it for 150 bucks so I still save. How fucked-up is that?

Having worked in a college bookstore, I can tell you first hand that those places rip students off. They buy the books wholesale really cheap and then the markup is extraordinary! Then if you want to sell your books back it's more likely you'll get back a tenth of what you originally payed for the book than the promised maximum of half, that is if they buy your book back at all. That said, don't take it out on the employees! It's not their fault that the books are that expensive or that they're not buying your books back. They're just doing their jobs. The bookstore has to make money and book buyback is dictated by whether there is on-campus or national demand for the book you're trying to get rid of.

The smartest way to go that I so far know of is to get your books through the miracle of the internet. It's cheap and you don't have to leave the house. Keep the title of this blog in mind though: caveat emptor! I had to learn that the hard way!