It's everyone's favorite time of the year, the end of the semester. Unfortunately for you, that's when your campus bookstore comes out of the woodwork to gyp you out of cash. Don't be fooled by the convenient buyback tents all over campus; you DO NOT want to sell your books back to them.

To be fair, you probably don't want to buy any books in the first place but assuming you already did and never used them and are looking to sell them back, here is a preview of what you can expect. Say you bought a brand new book in August and didn't touch it all semester:

Scenario 1: You'll try to sell it back in it's perfect condition only to find that you'll be getting back 40% of what you paid for, despite the fact that the bookstore will probably sell it again in the spring as a new book to some other poor bastard.

Scenario 2: You'll try to sell it back, only to find that none of the campus professors have requested it for the next semester, so the value of your book is now exactly $2.16. 

Scenario 3: You'll try to sell it back, only to find that  there is a new edition that just came out that has exactly the same content except for a few fixed typos and a new cover. All old editions are now worth exactly $2.16. 

The lesson here is, never ever attempt to sell your book back to your campus bookstores. For more effective ways to get your money's worth, try half.com or Facebook Marketplace, where you can sell locally.

If you really can't pawn off your old ripped up book by graduation, then you're better off throwing it away because at least the dumpster doesn't condescendingly pretend like it's saving you money.