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Domain: bigwords.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to bigwords.com.

Comments · 7

  1. Scam or no scam, you still have to have textbooks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on We Rent Movies, So Why Not Textbooks?

    If textbooks are a scam perpetrated against students by forcing out new unneeded editions, then it is on the part of the textbook publishers and not the institutions that utilized the books. The schools don't want a college education to be any more cost prohibitive than it already is. I think that renting textbooks is a fine way to combat this purported scam, and a wonderful way to save a little extra doe in college. Naturally there may be some textbooks you want to keep for reference and some you will not, but either way there are cheaper places to get them than your campus bookstore. Such a place is http://www.bigwords.com/ They are a price comparison textbook search engine, and they give you the option of searching for books to rent or buy. You can even sell back ones that you have bought using their site. Let this be yet another weapon in your arsenal to use against the exorbitant prices of college these days.

  2. Re:Many a foolish man has crossed Houghton Mifflin by moosesocks · · Score: 1 · on Open-Source College Textbooks Gaining Mindshare

    *Just paid $200 for a "new" Calc. book*

    Bigwords is your friend.

    I'd also write the prof, and demand that he accomodate older editions of the book with his course, considering that he probably taught to the old edition the previous semester.

    Although there are a small number of professors who are outright bastards, most are pretty sympathetic. Previous-edition books are also absurdly cheap on the used market, considering that the supply is huge and the demand nil.*

    *Coincidentally, I have a pile of used economics texts listed on half.com for a buck a piece.

  3. Re:ISBNDB by spiffyman · · Score: 1 · on Don't Take Notes In the Bookstore

    You wouldn't have to go look up numbers in-person Nice tip. But you still might want to have a look at the actual bookstore to be sure you've got the right edition. In the past, my professors have seemingly enjoyed putting titles and authors on syllabi without the ISBN or edition numbers, leading to hassle just a couple weeks in.

    What shocks me about this story - and I've confirmed this by visiting the Coop's site - is that they don't offer online textbook purchases. I'll readily grant that the Coop is a pleasant store to walk into and spend money at, but at the beginning of the term, I like to get my books and go home. My school's Co-Op offers this service, and I use it to hunt down the ISBNs and then use bigwords.com or something similar. This semester I saved over $150 that way.

    On the other hand, UT's Co-Op is student-owned, supposedly, so I don't feel bad taking advantage of their services without paying. If the Coop in Cambridge is privately held, the people at Crimson Reading might be treading on thin ethical ice.
  4. Re:Unfortunately by SuperDuG · · Score: 1 · on Ripoff 101: Gouging Students for Textbooks
    BigWords.com

    Geared more towards textbooks.

  5. Re:Unfortunately by kommakazi · · Score: 2, Informative · on Ripoff 101: Gouging Students for Textbooks

    I bought my books like the day after classes started. I only have 3 classes and only needed 3 books. Went to the damn bookstore, paid $202! For 3 books! And one of them, my Honors Calculus 2 'book' was only $13 cuz it's just a cheap plasic bound stack of paper. My CompSci book was $86 and my Physics book was $93. Did I mention that I got a used copy of the Physics book? Today I got smart though, I went online and I found my CompSci book for only $49 shipped to my house, and my Physics book for only $63 shipped to my house. So I ordered them and promtly returned the ones I bought at my friendly campus bookstore. I saved $67! That just goes to show how bloated the prices are at least here. When it comes to selling your books back...well...i equate it with bending over and letting the university stick their proverbial cock up your ass just a bit farther. Last semester I just bought my books at the campus bookstore (not knowing better) and spent about $250. I got $47 back when I sold them. All my book buying is going to be online from now on unless it's something I can only get at the bookstore like my honors calc book was. For those of you who also need to buy textbooks, try BigWords.com. It searches a whole bunch of online book sellers and calculates the lowest possible price including shipping for you. I even got a promotion code from them to save an extra $5 on my CompSci book that I ordered from Barnes and Noble.

  6. Textbooks by Giordana_01 · · Score: 1 · on Where Did All The Online Bargains Go?

    I'm going back to school in a few days. I found great textbook deals at Barnes and Noble and Big Words, including used books I could only get new at my school's bookstore (major city, 13,000 students).

  7. So what? by generic-man · · Score: 3 · on Yahoo Geographically Targeting Users

    When I'm at school, advertisers from many companies including Yahoo! see that I'm on a .edu domain, and send me ads for things like textbooks and music. Seeing that I'm 19, when I use Yahoo! chat rooms I'm constantly pitched ads for Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears web sites and merchandise. (Fortunately, they can be moved off-screen for want of Junkbuster.) Seeing that I'm from New York (and I've said so in my Yahoo! profile), I often see ads for local businesses or web sites.

    Targeted advertising isn't all bad, as long as it's targeted correctly. I, for one, am NOT interested in boy-bands or crappy fucked textbook companies.