[MUGETSU]

Has anyone here bought international editions of textbooks?

There are a ton of them on eBay and I'm considering buying them because they are significantly less expensive.

Are they really the same quality with color pages with everything like it would be in a US edition? The only different is that the international edition is softcover and has a different ISBN number.

Thanks.

I just started classes again on Monday...yea I had a long break. haha

[kOoHII]

yea they're the same thing...international versions are usually sold for less because US textbooks are ridiculously expensive relative to everywhere else. I studied in economics...has to do with people who live there or living standards or something like that

[Shorti Inji]

yes sometimes you can get those in Inda or China..

anyway i'd buy them.

[mistapooh]

Hell yah, all of my texts are that version. All I've noticed so far is a warning label on the cover !

[Trungy]

The international edition has the exactly same content of those published in the US. The pages are exactly the same, and typically, the quality of paper is also the same (but that really depends).

I have bought two international edition books. One book is just as good as the US edition (except for the fact that it is paperback instead of hardcover). The other book is also paperback instead of hardcover, but the quality of paper is much lower.

In'tl books are good buys, in my opinion. If you can shave off 40%-60% of the purchase price, then by all means, go right ahead!

[dutsukyampu]

i bought one for my accounting class off ebay.
was exactly the same except for the homework questions which were using different numbers than the us version.
so, if you have to do hw out of the book i suggest NOT to buy one.
got a full refund and was able to keep the book anyways.

[jahmez]

If you can get the international editions then go for it. It's the exact same as the US counter parts, but a lot cheaper. The bad thing is the quality of the international editions can vary greatly. One book I bought was hardcover exactly, like the US, but with a sticker in the front saying it was international. Another one was like the US edition, same paper quality, but just a soft cover. This one book I bought for my vibrations course had a generic pink papercover, and the inside pages were printed on newspaper quality paper. The pages tore easily and you could faintly see what was written on the backside of them. Heck, for a fourth of the price of the US edition textbook, I wasn't complaining.

[justwildbeat]

i bought one for my accounting class off ebay.
was exactly the same except for the homework questions which were using different numbers than the us version.
so, if you have to do hw out of the book i suggest NOT to buy one.
got a full refund and was able to keep the book anyways.

Many of my friends have done this, buying the international edition but having problems doing hw. It became a huge hassle for them to ask other friends/classmates to copy down the questions from their book because the numbering or the questions sets were different. So if you are just using this as a resource (reading etc) then it's okay but make sure you don't have to do homework directly from it.

[MUGETSU]

^^ oh mani hope that doesn't happen.

anyway i already bought some international editions from ebay.

luckily my psychology teacher doesnt require written homework so ill be reading from that, but my organic chemistry teacher does collect homework. i hope its the same problems!

thanks.

[8318]

the only problem is, the bookstores here don't buy them back.
so if you're willing to sell your international editions, your only choice is online such as ebay..which i'm too lazy for.

[immaperson]

My school's bookstore wont buy back my psyc textbooks even when i sell them right after the term's over cuz they're constantly updating the editions. So, i'll say that if you can get your hands on an international version, then do so. In terms of different hwk problems and such, just go to your school's library to see the textbook for your class. Most schools have those textbooks on reserve and will loan it out to students for 2-3 hrs at a time, depending on the demand and such.

[birthdaycakes]

I bought my o-chem textbook international edition. It's fine. The only differences are the cover design, thinner pages, no colors. There's actually even a bit more material in my edition which is odd, but that's ok with me. =D I got it for about 50% of the cost of what it would have been new, US version.