A familiar scene greets students like clockwork each time a new semester rolls around. Hoards crowd the University bookstore, scouring the shelves in an often vain attempt to spot that last elusive book with the neon "used" stamp on its binding. Typically, the previously owned (read: discounted) books are gone instantaneously, leaving later waves of customers to fork over the full price for cellophane-wrapped new textbooks.
University bookstore manager Ron Gill contends that students subscribe to many misconceptions about the bookstore's textbook buy back program. These misconceptions, according to Gill, make the book-buying process more difficult for students.
"We hope to work hand-in-hand with students and faculty and educate them [about the buy back system]," Gill said. "Everyone benefits if the process is working at its optimal level."
Why then do University students typically feel that the bookstore's high prices on books are not made up at book buy back time? Already paying over $37,000 in tuition annually, students are typically cash-strapped by the end of each semester. Many feel they are not given enough reparations for their bought back textbooks.
According to the bookstore website, buy back pricing is based on two criteria: if the professor will be using the book again the following term and if the bookstore requires more to meet demand. If a book can match these criteria then the student can receive 50 percent of the original selling price of the book.
If students are contemplating reselling their books, Gill recommends doing so immediately after finals of that semester. If cash is needed sooner, however, the bookstore will buy back books at any time.
Gill states that potential success of the buy back system is contingent upon two things: professors placing their orders for the following semester as soon as possible, and students selling back that books that are in demand.
"The buy back program could save the University millions and meanwhile give money back to the students, if only more people took advantage of it," Gill said.
Students, however, disagree, saying that the money from selling back books doesn't compare to the prices for used books.
"I think the bookstore charges way too much for used books, because when you sell a book back they give you so little compared to the amount it's resold for," freshman Yujia Xia said, adding that "[it]'s pure profit for them."
Freshman Alec Orienstein also expressed reservations about supporting the bookstore and its methods. "The bookstore has, essentially, an on-campus monopoly. They must be making so much money, considering everything in there is overpriced."
However, according to the National Association of College Stores, the Bookstore reroutes nine percent of each book's ticket price "towards Tufts programs, student activities, capital improvements, systems automation, and/or reduction of school operating."
In addition, Gill notes that what students find to be high prices are "an industry standard."
Some students prefer to not only buy, but also sell back, their textbooks to places other than the University store in an effort to make a few extra bucks.
"It's better to go ecampus.com or some other online bookseller," Orienstein said.
Purchasing textbooks online may be a viable solution if students don't procrastinate regarding book purchasing. Online booksellers such as eampus.com have shipping rates starting at $2.98, but charges increase substantially if one can't afford to wait up to 14 business days for a book. Taking the early initiative is often difficult however as the first two weeks of each semester students are in the process of dropping and adding courses. Having added a course to his schedule a week into the semester, a student may discover that he or she is already significantly behind in the reading and homework.
For this reason, the University bookstore is a more efficient, albeit more expensive, option than making online purchases.
Selling books online is an entirely different matter, as students can sell books through websites like Ebay and half.com as their schedule permits. Other Internet options include popular sites such as campusbooks.com and textbookhound.com.
Online booksellers and book buyers have a minimal affect on bookstore sales according to Gill. In his experience, online ordering is far from perfect and students have had problems with slow shipping, exorbitant shipping rates, and receiving the wrong edition of the books ordered.
"I'd rather be able to have my books right away," Xia said. "It's too much effort to order them online, have to wait for them to arrive, and then drag [myself] to mail services and pick them up."
The immediate convenience of on-campus purchasing is enough to keep a large portion of Tufts students from utilizing other purchasing or reselling options.
"The books needed for class are constantly changing in editions, so my problem has always been not knowing which books I need til I actually get to the Bookstore," sophomore Javier Perez-Giz said. As a result, he has "never gone anywhere else for [his] books."
Perez-Giz is not alone in his reliance on the Bookstore. Despite their complaints about campus bookstore pricing, the majority of students interviewed have never gone elsewhere when it came time to sell their textbooks.
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