Does your college bookstore rip you off too?

Question

There's 2 bookstores at my college. New textbooks can run anywhere between $120 to $180. Used textbooks are usually about $70 to $150. When you go to sell them back at the end of the semester you usually get one of these responses:
1) We can only give you $5 bucks back for that (original price $100)
2) We have met our quota of that book, try back next semester
3) This book isn't being used next year, sorry.

I've wasted thousands of dollars, and yes I mean thousands, on textbooks that I got no money back for or was only offered 5 dollars. Is this a crisis at every school or just mine? These bookstores are making PURE profits. It's sad.

Answer 1

Yes that happens at every school. Have you tried looking for your books online? Amazon and Half.com are godsends. Example: I got my oceanography book for $0.96. My idiot friend who went to the bookstore paid $100. Everytime I go into the bookstore for non-book things, I am amazed at how many people in there are wasting their money. And you can sell your book back for much, much more online. The internet can be a beautiful place!

Answer 2

I should probably not say anything since I teach at a university, but.....yes, I agree, its a rip-off of the highest order. And here's what is really sad - most of the books are written by professors at other schools or maybe even your own - they only get about a whopping $4-6 out of the total cost. The remainder goes to the publisher and the bookstore.

Here's a couple of tips: if you know far enough in advance, order the books on-line - best places, Amazon.com and Half.com. You'll save plenty. Then, at the end of the year, instead of selling it to the college bookstore, if you have independent bookstores in the area, take them there - they should give you more. Or, you can sell them yourself at Amazon.com - the listing is free, but they take a percentage of the sale amount. The only real pain is in packaging and shipping them out.

Some - but not all - Barnes and Noble stores will buy back used textbooks. If you have a B&N where you live - give them a call and ask. Again, you'll get more.

Also, most textbook changes are cosmetic - new cover, new photos inside - for many courses. If its something like a law book buying an old edition won't help, but if its a course like - Englilsh grammar and comp, or public speaking - those don't change - what was being done 100 years ago is still being done. You might check into purchasing the previous edition.

You did not get this information from a faculty member, ok?

Answer 3

I've got a great solution... don't buy your textbooks at a college bookstore (trust me I had the same problem, until I found a better place to go).

I purchase my books two weeks in advance of class online at BN.com... which has used copies of almost everything, significantly lower than the original price, let alone the college bookstore price. Also, they have free 3-day shipping. And, if you buy enough textbooks, they also have the $25 a year membership so you can get an additional 10% off every textbook you buy for the year (not to mention anything else you get at BN.com or at Barnes & Noble).

The last benefit to them is that you can sell your textbooks back to them, they even pay for shipping on it. I usually get between $10 & $20+ for every book returned and spend $30 - $60 on books that are normally $70-$100+.

Good luck!

Answer 4

They're all like that. I've been to a community college and am in a university now, and both schools rip students off. You think $180 is bad? I paid over $200 for my German texts alone. This semester I have spent almost $400 dollars on five classes. It's cheaper to sell your books to someone else yourself charging less than the bookstore's price but higher than their buyback price.

Answer 5

every college bookstore rips you off! I was dumb. In freshman year, I bought every single book for my classes, some I didn't even need such as the optional ones and I spent $1000 since I took math and chemistry. Then after that semester, I've limited myself to a $200 budget on books. I usually go buy the book from the bookstore, the used ones, then go photocopy the pages that I have to read after I get the syllabus and then I return it. I get used ones so I don't crease the new ones. I know it's infringing on the person's copyright but I CAN NOT afford all those books! But first I check the library, all the libraries, if they don't have it, then I photocopy them.

Answer 6

The price paid for writing, editing, proofing, setting up print, printing, and selling textbooks in college bookstores has increased phenomenally. Then the cost of the textbook is then passed along to the college students who must by the textbooks. Some professors across the country do not use textbooks. Some students by one textbook and xerox other copies, but that is illegal. Some students get together and share the cost and the use of the single textbook, but that gets a little cumbersome because assigned readings come fast and furiously. However, in some classes, particularly freshman classes, students are still equired to have a textbook. Good luck.

Answer 7

Its not the bookstore, Its the university. the very same BS happened to me. i started getting smart. i try to find someone else that took the class or i have a used bookstore and sells it to me for under 100. The even better thing is that i can still sell it back for a little, but at least i did not pay an arm and a leg. All higher institutions are businesses first.

Answer 8

I go to a JC, and they do this here too, just not as bad as yours. Our new books cost anywhere from $50 to $130 at the most for one book, and at the beginning of the next semester, you think you can use that book and you can't because the publisher put out a new one with like, 3 new pages in it. Wow. And they will only give you a third of the cost of the book back when you CAN sell it back. I would like to personally do something about the waste of paper and money that goes on with this when they only thing that's changed in the book is about 12 words and 3 extra pages. They hike up prices just for this???

Malarky.

Answer 9

They all do that, it's quite unfortunate. I've gotten lucky with a few textbooks, but they sell them back at such a higher price than they gave you for them. On my campus, it's better for the students to buy their books at one bookstore and then sell them back to the other (two different companies) and they'll make more money. I bought my last batch of textbooks on-line and saved more than $100 on them, so hopefully, when I sell them back to my own bookstore, it will be a little more worth it.

Answer 10

Publishers recieve 67% of all that money you spend! Not counting the author... . Ways to save:
- Concider getting etext books (go to publisher's website, it is conciderably cheaper. Print yourself, or just use online.
- Look online for book swapping -other students are pissed too. Basically, you trade your book for thiers.
- Don't buy the book if your library has it; check it out or make copies or read it in the library.

Other things to do:
- Write a pissy letter to the publishers.
- 11 States are concidering legislation to lower book prices - let your STATE representative know you care, otherwise the publisher's lobby will pay them (excuse me: "give a donation").