Our society has many taboos; one of the more prevalent taboos, one that has emerged due to the affluence of our society is that used is worst than new. For example, kids whose parents cannot afford new clothes are ridiculed at school. Despite this, there is almost always an advantage to having a used textbook over a new one.
Most importantly, used textbooks are always cheaper, significantly cheaper; buying a used textbook you are likely to save 50%-80% off the cost of the same textbook new. Other advantages of used textbooks are not monetary but still more interesting. As I have mentioned many times before, students often highlight and underline important information in the text so that they can study from that information in the future. This is useful to you because you can more easily locate useful information within the text, saving time in addition to money. That is, if the previous student did a good job and was thorough enough; otherwise you might end up missing crucial information exactly like the previous owner.
However there are downsides to used books. One of them is that sometimes the book condition of is very bad, making it almost useless. I would warn against purchasing used textbooks online when the condition of the book is marked as bad or unknown. Most vendors have a strict policy for book conditions so if you buy a book and it is not in the condition advertised, you should definitely contact the vendor or the store.
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