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A recent episode of Marketplace on CBC featured cellphone customers who claimed to have Canada’s worst cellphone bills (you can watch it here). Cellphone customers had racked up thousands of dollars in charges either in air time, texting or, what appears to be fairly common, roaming charges while traveling abroad.
The typical phone horror story [...]

CBC’s Canada’s Worst Cellphone Bill is brought to you by Canadian Capitalist — Helping you to invest & prosper.

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My husband and I both have a gym membership. We pay a combined $50 a month to our local gym.
I’m a fan of daily fitness so I will be the first to tell you, if having a gym membership is the only way you will exercise, spend the money. The monthly gym fees [...]

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A collection of links to free educational material online. The amount of information available online is expanding so fast, you can at least explore a new direction without leaving your house.

University-Specific

• MIT OpenCourseware – Free lecture notes, exams, and videos from almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.
• Webcast.Berkeley – Free podcasts and webcasts of University of California Berkeley current and archived courses.
• Harvard@Home – Selected lectures and videos.
• OpenYale – Access to a selection of introductory courses.
• Indian Institutes of Technology – YouTube videos from courses in Engineering.

Collections

• AcademicEarth – More lectures from various universities.
• YouTube EDU – Includes a variety of content from universities including UCLA, Case Western, and Oklahoma State.
• iTunes U – Includes audio/video from universities from around the world, National Public Radio stations, and famous museums. Many of the more popular ones are language courses.

Open Culture.com is a blog about free educational and cultural materials on the web. Here are some highlights (some posts are older):

• 250 Free Online Courses from Top Universities
• Free Foreign Language Lessons
• Free AudioBooks

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My sister is visiting from Kansas City with her husband and four kids for the next two weeks. I’d love the fact that she visits more if she wasn’t… so… well…
Perfect.
She’s debt free other than her mortgage – and even then, she’s paying it aggressively. I’d love to tell you that her husband [...]

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The other site I used when selling back my old textbooks online was and SellBackYourBook.com. All the websites I used did indeed eventually pay me for my books.

Reviews on the Web
I did not spend more than couple minutes on this, but a quick search did not find any claims of non-payment or scam reports on SellBackYourBook.com.

I found two Better Business Bureau listings for this site. One gave No Rating and the other gave an A- rating. SellBackYourBook.com does advertise that it is an BBB Accredited Business, so if you do have issues I would file a complaint.

My Personal Experience
After typing in my ISBN numbers into BigWords.com, SellBackYourBook was the highest bidder for certain textbooks. Although I found their site lacking polish, I went ahead and agreed to their price and terms, and they provided me with a printable packing slip and prepaid shipping label. Here’s part of the email sent to me:

This confirms that your order has been placed with Sell Back Your Book. Please print a copy of your packing slip and include a copy of it in the box with your books. A link to print your packing slip can be found at the bottom of this email. Please mark your order number on the outside of your box so that we can quickly check in your books and pay you (order number is listed below).

It took me a couple of days to get around to going to the post office, and mail it out via USPS Media Mail (formerly known as Book Rate). 20 days later, I received a confirmation email, partial text below. There was no 2nd email confirming payment was sent.

Thank you for your order. We have received your books and payment will be processed with in three business days.

A check was made the same day, and three days later it was in my mailbox for the exact amount the promised me for my books. It was from “Ez Book Recycle Inc.”, for which SellBackYourBook.com is the sourcing arm. In total, 23 days went by from mailing out to receiving the check.

Summary Timeline

Day 1 – Sent out book via USPS Media Mail

Day 20 – Email confirmation of arrival

Day 20 – Check printed and mailed out

Day 23 – Check received successfully

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