Students can expect better deals at bookstore
By Rachel Schwartz
Recent changes in the bookstore's buyback system will enable students to sell their course materials for more money and make it easier to buy used books for upcoming classes, store management said.
In the fall, faculty were asked to submit their book requests for the following quarter much earlier than usual. Textbook Manager Jarrod Parrish and Store Manager Deborah Kendall noted this change in an e-mail sent out to faculty and staff last month. This allowed the bookstore to pay students more than $160,000 in December when buying back books, a $66,000 increase over last year.
Also, a greater availability of used books led to students saving over $100,000 when it came time to buying books for next quarter, Parrish and Kendall said.
The difference, bookstore management said, was faculty getting their book requests in earlier
"We probably bought back close to 10,000 books," Parrish said.
The buyback process may seem simple: students pay top dollar for textbooks only to have the school buy them back for rock-bottom prices.
"It's usually just enough to go to the bar with," said senior Emily Johnson.
But it's actually a complex process of teacher requests, textbook quotas and wholesale prices combined to determine what students are given for books at the end of the quarter.
If a book is being used the following quarter, the bookstore will pay students half of the original price for the book. If the book has not been requested by an instructor, the bookstore offers the wholesale price of the book, usually less than ten dollars.
Early on in the quarter, Parrish sends out textbook request forms to departments for the following quarter. Instructors then decide what texts they will be using. The bookstore compares the requests to the texts used in previous quarters, determining how many books to order.
Just before or during finals is the best time to try to sell back books, said Parrish. He also said that since most yearlong class series end in the spring and begin again in the fall, the end of spring quarter is the best time of the year for buyback.
In recent years, other methods for purchasing textbooks have become available. Internet sites like amazon.com or half.com offer textbooks at rates lower than most campus bookstores. Parrish welcomes students to use whatever method that works best for them, but he warns that most sites go through third-party sellers, meaning little or no guarantee on the condition of the book or that it will be the right book at all.
"People will go where they want to buy books," he said. "But remember the hazards of the situation."
Third-party sellers can also be slow to ship books to students who need them for the start of classes.