Jim Ellis
Published: April 13 2004
The rising cost of textbooks has some financially strapped college students looking outside the traditional walk-in retailer, and online bookstores are willing to meet that need.
The Corsair recently compared the prices of several core textbooks at local and online bookstores (including the PJC Bookstore and Lemox Book Co.) and found that used books online are sometimes substantially lower.
For example, “Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama” (8th Edition) cost $61 used at the PJC Bookstore, but that same book was only $28.45 at half.com.
One website, campusi.com, acts as a virtual online book exchange. A student can search more than 60 online bookstores by keyword, title, author, or International Standard Book Number (ISBN). The ISBN is a 10-digit number usually found on the book above the UPC code.
The site then lists results in ascending order with lowest prices first.
Students can also sell books at the site. The student only needs to type in the ISBN number, and campusi.com finds the store that will give the best price.
While more and more students are flocking to campusi.com and other websites like it, there is a downside.
One point is that students cannot inspect a used book’s condition before purchasing it. Also, grants and scholarships cannot be used.
Additionally, a student may have a wait time of two to three weeks for shipping. Finally, students do not have a sales clerk making sure they buy the right book.
Marcia Massie, a PJC student, finds the downsides “minor inconveniences” and says the substantial savings far outweigh the bad.
“A student just needs to get the ISBN number of the textbook from the instructor or the PJC bookstore, and then there is no way they can get the wrong book,” she said.
Eunice Carr, manager of the PJC Bookstore, admits that while the college’s student body has grown over the last few years, profits have not. She says this could be due to online sales.
Some colleges and universities like Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., allow campus book exchanges, which bypass the book retailers. Often students can buy used books for less or sell their old books for more at an exchange.
Carr points out, however, that PJC is bound by a contract with the bookstore that forbids any college-endorsed book exchanges.
According to a field publisher with the McGraw-Hill company, who asked not to be identified, textbook publishers have found ways around the growing used textbook market.
“When a used book is sold in the bookstore or online, we don’t make a dime,” he said.
The representative for McGraw-Hill admitted that “bundling” is becoming more and more popular. “Bundling” means that a publisher adds a “value- added element” to a textbook.
For example, a CD-Rom or a study guide sold with a textbook is known as “bundling.”
Carr says that a student may buy a “bundle” and then, if the study guide is used, for example, the bookstore may be unable to buy the “bundle” back. The student suffers from not being able to recoup his or her costs, and other students then suffer because there are fewer used “bundles” available, said Carr.
Troy Adams, manager of the Lemox bookstore, says used book sales make up 70 percent of overall sales there. Adams says that he shops around at several book wholesalers to find the best prices to pass on to the customers, but “bundles” can only be purchased brand new from the publisher.
Another motive to “bundling,” said the field publisher from McGraw-Hill, is to stop professors that are given complimentary copies of textbooks from selling them to bookstores. If the bookstores are selling “bundles” then the professors cannot sell their complimentary textbook.
“It is really troubling when a textbook has never initially been sold new, cutting out our profits altogether,” he said.
He attributes a majority of increased pricing to rising paper and printing costs, but notes that used book sales ultimately hurts the student.
According to the publishing representative, a highly scientific book like “Biology: Life on Earth” has to be precise, and a new edition may be in production for five years.
“A publisher invests in marketing reviewers, authors, use of copywritten material, text reviewers, printing, and production. A wholesaler who just distributes the book doesn’t have any of these costs,” he said.
He went on to say that publishers have to recoup their investments and since they don’t profit from the sale of used textbooks, the result is increased pricing on new textbooks.
Lemox’s Adams said publishers are rendering textbooks obsolete sooner than was done years ago.
“When I started in this business in 1987, a core textbook had a lifespan of 3.5 years. Right now it is about a year and a half,” he said.
Bob Lambrisky, former Florida State University instructor, said that “Deutsch Heute,” a German textbook, changed three times in four years between 1998 and 2002.
Some classes are only taught once a year, and when the life cycle of a textbook is just over a year, the chance that the book becomes obsolete before you can sell it back becomes much greater, he said.
Oregon Congressman David Wu, a member of the House Education Committee, introduced a bill in November to explore the business practices of the textbook industry.
He said in his statement to Congress, “The pricing practices of the college textbook industry defy common sense, and today I am announcing legislation to get to the bottom of it.”