01/25/08
It’s a season that comes not once, but twice a year for college students. It’s book-buying season.
It’s the time to delve deep into pockets, empty piggy banks, borrow money from parents and make the trek across campus to the Baker University Bookstore and fork up the money for a semester’s supply of books.
However, not all students buy their books from the bookstore. Some students save money by purchasing books online at sites like half.com<a href="http://www.half.com/" target="_blank">half.com</a> and and amazon.com<a href="http://www.amazon.com/" target="_blank">amazon.com</a>.. half.com and amazon.com.
“I usually get my books from people who have had the classes before or I buy them online,” senior Steve Lovelady said.
However, Lovelady said he does occasionally buy books from the university bookstore.
“If it’s the better deal, which surprisingly sometimes it is, I will buy from the bookstore,” he said.
Lovelady said he believes students who buy books online get a fairer market value.
“Usually when you buy online you are buying from another college student who understands buying expensive books,” he said. “Plus, when you buy and sell online you can sometimes break even.”
Junior Nate Swihart has worked in the bookstore for nearly a year and said he understands students’ aggravations with high prices.
“A lot of people get frustrated by the high prices, and that’s completely understandable,” Swihart said.
He said there are a lot of factors that go into book prices.
“Our bookstore is actually owned by the Nebraska Book Company,” Swihart said. “We don’t get to choose the price. We order it and are told to put a certain percentage markup and that’s what we sell at.”
Bookstore manager Teresa Arnold said the publisher of each book affects the price.
“Publishers give us suggested retail prices,” she said. “They can also give us some discounts sometimes.”
Stephanie Green, who works for the bookstore, said that while some of the prices are higher, there are advantages to buying there.
“When buying online, I am assuming there are shipping costs,” Green said. “There aren’t here.”
Lovelady agreed that saving on shipping is the one of the biggest advantages to buying from the bookstore.
“You can save money without having to pay shipping costs, which are only going to get worse with rising fuel prices,” he said.
Green said some students have problems finding the right edition of books when they buy online.
“Some professors require certain editions of the books,” she said. “We try really hard to work with the instructors to get the right edition of each book.”
She said students who buy the wrong edition online cannot sell their books to the bookstore during buyback.
Swihart said one advantage of the bookstore is that it is convenient.
“Essentially, the bookstore’s greatest advantage is that we are a convenient service,” he said. “People who can’t buy books online can buy them here.”
The university bookstore usually has used books available at discounted rates, but Arnold said an increasing number of people are selling their used books online.
“With used textbooks, there is now the market to sell those on usedbooks.com and Amazon, so they’re getting harder to find,” she said.
Arnold also said it is increasingly difficult to find old editions of books when professors request them.
“It used to be old editions and old textbooks would sit in a warehouse, but now those books are going to the market and out the door via the Internet,” she said.
While Lovelady recognized the bookstore’s advantages, he said the main disadvantage is that the bookstore is a for-profit business.
“They are trying to make money, whereas when you are buying from students, they are just trying to break even and get rid of their books in the easiest way possible,” Lovelady said.