While the bookstore is paying them for their textbooks, students say that they feel as if they were cheated and weren’t getting their full money’s worth.

“The price that they charge and the amount that they give back to you for your textbooks is ridiculous,” said Kayla Sexton, a senior majoring in Health and Physical Education.

Having always bought her books through the campus bookstore, Sexton says that it’s like returning a book that you paid $145 for and getting only $50 for it. “Your best bet would be renting them because you’re buying the books anyway and it’s a lot cheaper,” she explained.

Olivia Chapman, a sophomore majoring in Political Science, also said that “textbook buyback feels like a rip-off.” For example, she said that she had bought a psychology communication book and wasn’t able to sell it back.

“You never get all of your money back and it does seem kind of unfair,” agreed Brett Beshero, a senior majoring in Print Making.

“I really only need two books this semester, so it’s not too bad buying them from the bookstore, but I normally end up using Chegg or Amazon.”

Raymond Fisher, the manager at EUP’s campus bookstore, says that he understands where a lot of the confusion comes from.

“It used to be very cut and dry,” he said. If there were a book that we could re-sell for next semester, we would pay the student half of the new book price.

A factor in the process that is a major influence on the buyback cost is the wholesale companies, like Missouri Book Systems (MBS). Fisher explained that these companies take the books that the bookstore doesn’t need and distributes them to other colleges all across the country.

“The price that the wholesaler pays [for the textbooks] is flat out supply and demand,” said Fisher. “The confusing part is that a lot of people think we buy back books for $10 and then turn around and throw them on the shelf and sell them for $75. That’s not what happens.”

Fisher explained that the school does buy back a certain number of books for resale.

“You can well imagine the confusion that occurs when you as a student come in and I say, ‘I’ll give you $8 for that book,’ and you say, ‘My roommate sold that book back to you guys for $20. How come I’m only going to get $8?’ Then comes the explanation: ‘Okay, I needed 10 books and we were paying $20 for them. Once we hit the limit at 10, the book now goes wholesale [which is only paying $8 for that book],’” explained Fisher.

The money students get back for their textbooks also depends on whether or not the bookstore had purchased those books from a cheaper source online.

Verba Software, which is the new comparison tool available on the website, has two parts to it: the comparison component, which allows students to see prices from the campus bookstore as well as from Amazon, Half.com, and other sources, and a back office program, which allows Fisher to buy books from cheaper sources.

Verba Software has helped to increase Fisher’s online sales because he has been able to use it to compare prices of other online vendors and then align his prices with theirs. 

Plus, now that the bookstore is renting more books instead of selling them, buyback is a lot smaller than it used to be, said Fisher.

The influence of renting books can be seen in a comparison of book buybacks from year to year, Fisher said. 

In the most recent buyback, which was December 16, 2011, the store bought back 9,300 textbooks. In 2010, 10,000 were bought back.

Last semester, the bookstore rented out 1,440 books and those books are paid for upfront by students at the beginning of the semester and then returned at the end. 

Fisher factors in what the book will be worth by the end of the semester into the rental price, so students only have to pay one solid price.

“[Book buyback] is really waning,” Fisher explained. “It’s more about rentals now. It’s more about price comparisons. It’s more about lowering your prices and making it as close to the market price as you possibly can. By default, students are going to deal with us because we offer convenience. You can come in here and get all of your books at one time.”

 – Anna Tielmann (Taken from The Spectator Vol. 3, Issue 15, February 9, 2012)

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