the main difference is the quality of the book (hard v. soft cover, nicer v. cheaper printing, etc…)

“International Editions/ Paperback Editions

Paperback versions of hardcover books are becoming quite common. The price of these “international editions” may be substantially less that the cost of a hardcover. These editions generally have the exact same content as your regular (and expensive) hardcover editions. However, the books may be printed in black and white (no color), use lower-quality paper, or have big words and an ugly border on the cover that says “International Edition.”” http://daviswiki.org/Cheap_Textbook_Guide

“While there may be a slight difference between an international edition and a US edition, the differences are usually cosmetic and the content remains almost identical. For example, an International edition may have a soft cover rather than a hard cover, or be entirely in black-and-white rather than having color images on the pages. You can search for International editions at places such as abebooks.com” http://www.pfadvice.com/2007/01/30/5-little-known-ways-to-drastically-cut-textbook-costs/

yes there is a difference, but ask your prof. to see if you can use another version. sometimes, there actually is addition material, but most of the time it’s just a section chopped out while the rest of the book is identical. Once in a while the school text includes an online resource or access to a class site that u’ll have to buy separately or see if the the bundle’s cheaper. As for editions, you can get away with older editions but you should double check the publishers to see if there were any major changes. Be very careful when you do this with math since it’s so important for the problems to the be the same. ‘ Sometimes you don’t even need to get the book.

Beware. The international edition is NOT exactly the same as the US version with only cosmetic differences. I ordered the international version of my physics textbook. It did not contain any of the problems at the end of the chapters, and obviously no solutions at the end of the book. Chapter 3 was completely missing, and in its place was a page that read “access this chapter from your ebook”. The missing content was supposed to be accessible online, but the username and password provided were invalid, and I was never able to access any of the online content. I only speak from my own experience, but I got burned. Money wasted.

Not much really, just sometimes a different cover and maybe more sections. I took Ecology and had the International version because I bought it from someone who took the class before, and the book was exactly the same in terms of page numbers and diagrams just the cover was a little differen

There usually is no difference, but because it was printed outside the U.S. (hence international version) the printers did not have to follow copywright laws. So all they have to do is recopy the book and sell it for MUCH cheaper.