Forget taking out a loan for school — these days textbooks practically require mortgages.
Textbooks can be a very financially and emotionally stressful necessity for many students. Considering the exorbitant prices of most texts, it is a subject that fills most with dread or at least resent- ment. It is very important that students be aware of this near-racket
industry in order to prevent themselves from being taken advantage of by large companies.
“To me, it is important to take price into consideration when as- signing texts,” said Rebecca Collins, an Ohio University sociology professor. “I teach a lot of freshmen, and I feel that the whole thing is very unfair. The prices are just too high, and I worry that it even prevents some from pursuing their academic goals. I just think that you shouldn’t have to suffer fiscally for your education.” There are many options in town for students to buy books. One of those options, College Book Store, 50 S. Court St., is taking a different approach this year by offering buy-backs on all books. “We want to eliminate the idea of no-value textbooks,” said Scott Broadbent, the store’s textbook manager. Obviously they have value to the students who spent so much money on them, and we just
want to get rid of the whole worthless book idea altogether.”
Instead of the traditional buy-back approach, which can render textbooks less than 5% of their original price, the College Book Store plans to emphasize rentals this year in favor of the buy-back system and will offer to buy literally any books students wish to sell.
The rental system will allow students to pay a reduced cost for rental, and then return the book
without penalty no matter its condition.
The rental system is highly favorable as opposed to paying a high price for a new book, and then returning it for a fraction of the original price. It is also easier for the store to manage in terms of record-keeping, Broadbent said.
Besides buying books in per- son, there are myriad options online for students who prefer to compare many possibilities to find the best prices. Popular
sites include Chegg, Amazon and Bookfinder.
“I usually use online stores because there is more variety of pricing and rental options,” said Hannah Lewis, a junior studying nursing. “Chegg is my go-to, definitely, but there’s plenty of sites out there. I just really like to consider all my options, so it’s good to compare as many as possible to find the cheapest ones.”
SN002310@OHIOU.EDU
