New Virginia Tech students will quickly learn where a good chunk of their money will go at the beginning of each semester - textbooks.
Fortunately for them, internet sales and four local bookstores give students a range of options that store managers claim keep prices competitive. Tech students can choose from one of two university-owned bookstores or two private bookstores downtown, Tech Bookstore and BookHolders.
The original University Bookstore, at its present location since 1975, is located on campus across from Newman Library and contains three levels of textbooks commercial books, snacks, Tech gear, and souvenirs. Incorporated in 1968 by the Tech Board of Visitors, the University Bookstore's purpose is to provide financial revenue for university expenditures such as scholarships, building improvements, and reduction of student fees. "Our sole mission is to do nothing but support Virginia Tech and its mission in academics," said Assistant Director for Virginia Tech Services Steve Glosh. "We're going to order everything. ... Our job is not to run out of stuff."
In 1993, the University Bookstore's off-campus branch, Volume Two, opened in University Mall, primarily meant to serve the growing number of students residing off-campus.
Glosh says the University Bookstore and Volume Two have contributed over $42 million to the university for student-related activities. "Our downtown competitors, they have a corporation they send their money to, or if they're private, they keep their money. Our money goes right back to Virginia Tech."
One of those competitors is Tech Bookstore, nestled in the middle of downtown Blacksburg at 118 S. Main St. Opened in March of 1986 by retiring Manager Jerry Diffell, Tech Bookstore is owned by the Nebraska Book Company, which specializes in used books. According to Diffell, buyback policy at the store is to purchase used books from students at 50 percent of the new price and resell at 75 percent.
"We are owned by the largest used book company in the country," Diffell said. "So I think we are able to provide more used books. ... If a book wasn't used here, maybe it was used somewhere else in the country. ... We get a lot of used books that were discontinued at another school."
Tech Bookstore is a full-service store also providing Tech athletic gear, clothing, office supplies, and commercial books. The store has expanded three times in the past 15 years to accommodate growing business, Diffell said. "Since we've been around for 24 years, we seem to have done pretty well. ... And I hope we're around another 25 years."
But traditional bookstores like University Bookstore and Tech Bookstore face a new type of market as peer-to-peer internet selling has become more widespread. "It used to be my competition was any other bookstore in town," Diffell said. Now, he says, his competitor is "a student with a laptop and a textbook."
The latest addition to Blacksburg bookstores acts as a middleman in the internet textbook market. BookHolders, which set up in a small space at 125 N. Main St. in December 2008, is the third store in a young chain started in College Park, Md. The Blacksburg location is currently managed by two 2008 Tech graduates, T.J. Moore and Brian Allen.
Through the use of its Web site, BookHolders.com, BookHolders offers students relatively lucrative buyback deals - so long as they're willing to wait. With the Cash Now program, students can turn in their books at the end of a semester for the standard buyback price. The Advantage Plan allows sellers to wait for BookHolders to sell the book at 85 percent the original price online. The student seller is informed via e-mail to pick up a check after each sale.
"The student is assuming some of the risk of whether or not we'll be able to sell that book," Allen said. "But they are reaping a larger reward when that book does sell."
Through the Web site, "students have complete control over their books," Moore said. "They can change the prices of their books to make them more competitive and sell their books faster."
Stores like BookHolders, fusing Web and on-site sales, represent the changes on the horizon of the textbook market. In response to the popularity of used books and peer-to-peer sales, publishers are finding new ways to maximize profit margins. E-books with Kindle applications are becoming more popular with publishers profit margins. E-books with Kindle applications are becoming more popular with publishers and bundled software, purchased once a semester, is also becoming more common.
When all else has been tried, textbook publishers have a tried-and-true approach.
"The publishers' response ... is to revise a book every two years, which is crazy," Diffell said. "But the reason they do that, by and large, is to kill the used book business. ... I would rather buy and sell used books, absolutely."
Moore, who remembers what it is like to try and get good deals on textbooks, echos his sentiments.
"It's ludicrous, man. It's horrible," Moore said. "Think about physics and calculus. ... Does the information ever really change? They just change a couple of questions at the end of the chapter and say you need to get a whole entire new book and spend another 150 bucks."
Allen said BookHolders breaks up software bundles and sells older editions of books to save students money.
In the face of a tough textbook market, bookstore managers like Glosh offer advice to those buying books on a budget.
"I'd shop. I'd start early. And be very smart," he said, adding that students should be "very good consumers. ... They're going to find a book here and a book there ... Look and see what's out there and where they're going to get the best deal."