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If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a thousand words worth?
By Teresa Dickert
Staff Writer
Finals loom and students frantically study, working on final projects and other assignments while wondering where their time went this semester. While pondering the importance of the words in $100 textbooks, students also question how they should rid themselves of these hefty and sometimes unnecessary items.
Think less, and read this. There are several ways to sell textbooks. Most obviously there is the Carroll College Bookstore. Advantages to selling to the bookstore are few, yet significant. It is convenient, and more importantly, it is the quickest way to make back some of those hard-earned dollars. The obvious downside is that the imbursement will hardly pad one's wallet. According to Michael O'Brien, Bookstore Manager, "The bookstore will pay 50 percent of the item's future resale price." More importantly, O'Brien states, "The number one factor (regarding resale value) is if the professor will be using the book in the spring." Bringing into view another burning question, "Should I sell my books before the end of semester so I can get some money back before the professor informs the store that the book I have will no longer be used in the future?"
If the textbook you want to sell is not being used the following semester, the bookstore will still take some of those weighty books off your back. O'Brien mentions that in this case, the buy-back price is set by the market value and determined by the Follett Higher Education Group (whom the college bookstore buys the books from). The price is based on the textbooks usage at other universities and the basic demand of the book among the other schools.
What does a well-aware Carroll student have to say about the bookstore's buy back policies? Senior, Jen Bufton, suggested the bookstore as the best way to sell back books because it is, "Easy... and you get money back right away." She stated that she usually sells her books back to the bookstore unless she thinks she will be using them again or will want to reference them in the future. If nothing else, she will let friends borrow them. "Why make them buy the book when I already own it?"
O'Brien gave a few suggestions to students selling back books: 1) It is always a better deal for a student to purchase a used book if available since the buy back value is the same whether or not it was purchased new. 2) The earlier one returns their books to sell, the more likely it is that the bookstore will buy them back since sometimes the store only has a demand for 6-7 more of that specific textbook. 3) The bookstore is available to purchase back your books EVERY DAY, not just at the end of the semester. The only time you need your receipt is when you are selling back a book for full price when you drop a course within a few weeks from its start.
Another popular method students try is to sell books on their own through word-of-mouth and posters on campus. Often this process will result in a good deal for both the seller and purchaser. The disadvantages include: taking time to create an advertisement, paying for copies, having to wait longer to sell since you have to wait for the right person to see your advertisement, and not having popular books for sale. This method is frequently used for selling books that are often used in FYS or LSP courses.
Though the aforementioned ways of selling books are often seen, there are other ways to sell. Online services such as Half.com (an Ebay.com partner site) and Amazon Marketplace (a part of Amazon.com) have become increasingly popular ways to connect both buyers and sellers. Payback is often as good, if not better, than advertising around campus. An added benefit to selling online is that you will have a lot more "traffic" or people seeing what you have for sale, which may quicken the selling process. Shipping costs can be seen as a disavantage to some people. However, since shipping is paid for by the buyer and (for many services of this nature) reimbursed to the seller by the online com- pany, some people even make a few cents on shipping. (Odd, but true.)
Once again, the main disadvantage is just waiting for that right person to come along and see it. Another disadvantage is that one may be "stuck" with the book through trying to sell online if the edition you're selling is no longer being used.
In any case, be sure to have that selling price at a reasonable level and you will be on your way to making back those dollars... just in time to buy some more books!
