You can hear the moans and groans all over campus...
Credit card bills are arriving, and many of them reflect similar purchase:
“Scribner Bookstore: $352.88”
“Scribner Bookstore $299.46”
“Scribner Bookstore $496.12”
Even those that didn’t pay with credit cards can quickly recall the
pain and torture involved in shelling out hundreds of dollars to have the
books required for the classes that you’ve already paid thousands of dollars
to take.
If you’re lucky enough to discover that each of your classes only requires
one book, you’re probably looking at spending no less than $250.
That doesn’t account for anybody taking math, science or business (generally
more expensive). This also doesn’t take into account teachers that
expect you to read two, three, four or even more books in one semester.
Throw into the mix a couple handout books, notebooks, pens, computer
disks and paper and the gallons of coffee you’ll need to keep you awake
long enough to actually read all those books, and it’s a major investment
every semester.
Fast-forward to the end of the semester. Those brightly colored,
eye-catching posters begin to appear, inviting everyone to sell back their
books. You wait in incredibly long lines, but finally you reach that
unsturdy folding table and plop down the back-breaking stack of texts that
cost you more than your first car.
“I can give you twelve dollars and 19 cents,” the salesman tells you.
Twelve dollars and 19 cents?? That’s not even 10% of what you
originally paid. While you’restill recovering from that shock, he
lays another one on you.
“Oh, this book is discontinued. There’s a new edition coming
out in the fall,” he says with a maniacal grin.
You just want to fall down and cry. What is wrong with this picture?
Why is this such an unjust world? What can defenseless students do
about it? For now, not much.
But you think redemption is coming a semester later. You need
to buy a book you know one of your best buds sold back for a mere $2.50.
It’s gonna be a cheap book, for once.
Oh no, no, no...you end up paying $25. That is, if you get there
soon enough to get one of the three used books hidden in the stack of 50
other brand new books that retail for $50.
And you’re not even sure it’s worth it when you begin to inspect the
used books. There’s multi-color highlighting, random notes and, mysteriously,
every tenth page is missing.
So as you sign another credit card slip for another $379.85 you think
that the textbook business must be one of the most profitable scams ever
perpetuated on college students. That and those high-interest credit
cards, just like the one you’re paying for your books with...seems they’ve
got you screwed both ways.
Ah, but there are few (okay, a very few) ways to cheat the system.
The Internet is a great source of used book sites; you can also try
one of the online bookstores. Even places like Barnes and Noble will
probably have fiction novels cheaper than you can get them at the campus
bookstore.
Also network with friends and fellow major students. Maybe somebody
took the same class last semester, and would be willing to loan the text
to you. Don’t let new “editions” of a book fool you. It may
only mean a new title page or different page numbers. Sometimes fellow
students will advertise books that they’re selling for substantially less
than what you would pay, so keep an eye out for the flyers.
If you’re really hard up for cash, split the cost of a book with a
fellow classmate. One warning, however: it may take a lawyer to work
out the custody arrangement!
In the end, though, there doesn’t seem to be much hope. Textbook
companies seem to have a monopoly and until we figure out a way to publish
our own texts, I guess we’re just out of luck...and money.
