Text book center
Textbooks are not included in the sticker price of a college education, but they cost the average student at a four-year public institution more than $1,000 a year.
Rising textbook prices have inspired University Bookstore and Tech Bookstore to search for new ways of lowering students’ financial burden.
According to the College Board’s 2009 report on Trends in College Pricing, books and supplies cost students at four-year public schools $1,122 per year on average, or $561 per semester.
The Southern Regional Education Board, which is the accrediting body for Virginia universities, published an article on rising textbook prices titled, “Focus on Rising College Textbook Prices.”
The article said college textbook prices increased almost twice as quickly as the overall rate of inflation from 1986-2004.
Local textbook retailers are working to offer more affordable prices, mainly using two strategies: an increased availability of used books and textbook rental programs.
Dave Wilson, associate director for University Bookstore, acknowledges prices have increased. The University Bookstore, which is located on campus near Newman Library, and Volume Two Bookstore are both owned by Virginia Tech Services, Inc.
“Yes, prices have gone up,” Wilson said. “Publishers tend to increase prices yearly.”
Wilson said his bookstore has been testing a textbook rental program. He said about 30 titles have been available to rent at the University Bookstore, and said plans are in place to expand the program in the fall.
The independent Tech Bookstore, on South Main Street, already has a rental program in place for the spring 2010 semester.
Its program requires the student to pay 50 percent of the book’s price and return it by the last day of exams. If the book is not returned, they will be charged for the rest of the book.
Currently, Tech Bookstore offers rentals on more than 300 books.
Internet startups are jumping on the rental bandwagon, too.
A California-based company called Chegg lets students order textbooks online and have them shipped via UPS. The four-year-old company has rented more than 1.5 million textbooks this year.
So many sites have popped up it’s hard to keep them straight: BookRenter.com, CampusBookRentals.com and TextBookRentals.com are just a few.
Not every textbook can be rented. Experts say books need to have a decent shelf life so they can be rented several times. A bookstore won’t recoup its costs if the fourth edition of a book is quickly replaced by the fifth.
A 2005 federal study reported that publishers revise textbooks every three or four years.
Nor does renting always make sense. Students who need their books beyond one semester class are better off buying. If a student needs a book immediately, waiting for books from Amazon.com and Half.com might not be possible.
Consumer advocates say textbook rental programs help by offering more choices.
The University Bookstore is currently offering rentals on only 30 titles. He said certain books couldn’t be offered to rent.
“I have to rule out any books that come bundled with online access codes,” Wilson said.
The SREB report listed bundling as a major factor of the increase.
Bundling is the practice of packaging supporting materials such as supplemental guides or online log-ins, along with the books.
Books up for rental are usually books that can be reused.
Wilson said University Bookstore also discounts its textbooks.
“We actually discount our books by up to 10 percent,” Wilson said. “We just decided we would be efficient — to make a little less profit than other university bookstores.”
Wilson said that while the University Bookstore is Tech’s official on-campus bookstore, it does not receive any university funding.
SREB lists rental programs and used books as effective strategies for lowering costs.
“We’re very aggressive in searching for used books,” Wilson said. “We’ve developed a relationship with used book companies around the country.”
Virginia requires faculty members to confirm all bundled materials will be used in class.
The state also mandates universities to provide a list of required textbooks be made available to students. The SREB report, however, states Virginia does not specify when the list must be available.
nrv news editor zach crizer contributed to this story
Leave a comment 19 Comments Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.
My first semester at this university had me paying the average $561 a semester ordeal. The bookstore and its prices are a complete nightmare, paying so much money on books I use one semester and then giving me 15% back when I'm done IF I'm lucky.
I now stay away from the bookstore at all costs and do all my textbook buying online for 40% the price.
If you want to quit paying so much, take a look at www.bigwords.com and have them do the work for you and find the lowest price online. They also automatically search for all coupons and apply them at checkout for you. Then you can use bigwords to sell your books back when you are done and find the highest sellback price.
This semester, I spent about $160 on 5 textbooks that would have costed me $400 all used or $550 all new.
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I have found the below strategy to save me the most money on my textbooks. Buy the "Guaranteed Repurchase Price" books from Textbooks.com (best prices I have found) and Rent all other textbooks from Chegg.com (best rental site I have found)! This strategy has saved me the most $$$ on my textbooks! Use coupon code CC107838 at Chegg.com to save an extra 5% off total order or extra $5 back on buybacks! Give this a try and compare prices using this strategy! It is a no-brainer to me and provides me with the biggest savings on my textbook needs! Remember the extra savings at Chegg.com with coupon code CC107838! I have used both sites for 5 semesters
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Book prices are NOT set by Universities or their book retail outlets.
Prices are set by the publishers...and all I can say is that when I was a student from 1979-1982 this issues was exactly the same...you are paying for an object that you need in order to successfully attend school.
The only thing universities can do is to band together and work directly with book vendors to secure lower prices.
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last year i was sold a book for about $54, the actual retail price $22. this semester i was sold a book that was used as new. they exchanged the book for a new one. i just don't like the bookstore too much.
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In order to help curb the cost of textbooks, check out http://www.BookDealFinder.com where you can find the best deal on all your textbook needs!
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The real issue to me is why professors are not evaluated on which textbooks they require. In half of my classes, (including graduate), the textbook was just a background reference that the professor occasionally referred to. You cannot tell me that if all sociology, (for example), professors used the same book for a decade or longer that the price would not be $30 versus $100. Also, too many professors write a book and then require it in their class. This is effectively forcing purchases of their own book by consumers at whatever price, (and profit) the writer wants to set.
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"Books" is correct; prices are set by the publishers.
And this is how they milk money from you: every 3 years they come out with a new edition for a textbook. This means that the old editions become worthless, and the students are forced to buy new books, or newer books than what would be the case otherwise. There is less competition from used books. That increases profits for publishers, and empties the wallets of parents and students.
But usually when publishers change the editions, the books are mostly the same.
Now, the student is mostly concerned about the assigned problems in the text. Usually, the same problems are in there, but the numberings are different. Sometimes the problems are slightly modified also. As an instructor, what I do if I have time, is I look thru the problems and give the numberings for the problems in the new and old editions. This allows the students to purchase the old edition, which sometimes may be as cheap as 65 cents.
So if you are professor, this is something you can do for your students: allow them to use the old edition, and make it easier for them to do so!
But please, please do not complain about it to the government and say that they must do something about it! You don't want the government's help; the government will just make the situation worse!
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I wish more professors were like this. I noticed in a lot of my engineering textbooks, the information, problem sets, and example were exactly the same, just with different orderings. And this was with editions going back as far as 15 years (check out the old editions of text books in the library to see for yourself). There is absolutely no need to purchase a "new" edition of a text every year or two, especially if it's in a fundamental field which is unlikely to change or have any kind of theoretical breakthrough.
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Try buying and selling your textbooks with other Tech students on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. Meet the seller in a public place such as Squires Student Center and exchange cash for books. Sellers receive more money than they would from bookstore buyback programs, and buyers spend less than they would at the bookstore or on-line (no shipping costs).
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I actually have an ap on my phone which can take a picture of the barcode of a textbook (or any item) and search for that ISBN online at multiple sites and find the lowest prices. It can also set up alerts so if a price appears below a certain level you get notified.
I used this and shopping around to save $370 dollars off the cost of the textbooks at the Bookstore for just this semester. Bookstore is just ridiculous.
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I've been a part time book buyer for Sterling media (Amtext) for 20 years. They supply books to the Missouri Book Company (Largest Wholesaler) The more used books out there (Including professoral "Free" copies) the better for students
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Great info I would also suggest using GreenTextbooks.org
Save Money, Save The Planet
GreenTextbooks.org specializes in the recycling of textbooks, DVDs, CDs. Buying used textbooks not only saves you money, but cuts down on greenhouse gases caused by the manufacturing of new textbooks.
With GreenTextbooks.org you're not only saving trees, you are saving some green. http://www.GreenTextbooks.org
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Agreed, the cost of books, education and supplies in general are rising. At bookrenter.com we strive to offer the lowest textbook rentals possible. I am always happy to help students directly. Feel free to reach out to me at @bookrenter on twitter
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We love using Chegg to rent textbooks which saves a lot of money. I wanted to share a code that your readers can use to get a discount on their text order. Put in the code when ordering and hit the "apply" button. The code also gives you back an additional $5 when selling Chegg your used texts.
The code does not have an expiration date so it can be used with every order. Here it is:
CC123047
Feel free to share the code with friends.
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When I am looking to <a href="http://www.collegebookrenter.com">Rent Textbooks</a>:I use http://wwww.collegebookrenter.com they are a great online resource for Renting, Selling, and Searching Text books online. One of the largest wholesalers of college textbooks
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I have purchased a book from www.ergodebooks.com for semester and they provide book me quickly in very good condition at low price. So I am happy with their quick service. This site is very user friendly, I will purchase again more books from them.
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good article, i wanted to suggest Cheapest Textbooks i buy and sell <a href="http://www.cheapesttextbooks.com/">used textbooks online</a> there. they saved me a lot of money with their coupons and they pay for shipping
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