 "Photo: Jordan Gomez")
Hordes of cash-strapped students are expected to trade their books for money through multiple outlets at semester's end.
Some students are choosing to go to local textbook stores, but many are also seeking different avenues.
Beat the Bookstore, located in the Dobie Mall, is one of the two main physical stores where students can sell their books. The store is connected to a database that links its other nationwide franchises and checks listings on Amazon.com, said Cody Hoover, owner of Beat the Bookstore. He added that with the database, the store makes offers on most books - regardless of whether they are out of date or marked with notes - since someone else, somewhere could use it.
"If we can dispose of that book anywhere and make a teeny bit of money on it, we'll make the student an offer," Hoover said.
He added that the store has changed its policy to allow immediate cash-outs for books, instead of the old system of holding credit within the store for 30 days.
Beat the Bookstore is also holding a raffle in early January for three students that sold books to the store, which would pay for their books for the entire spring semester.
The University Co-op is the other main location for selling back books. Options available through the Co-op include an in-store buy-back system and online features such as quotes based on the national market value of the book using the book's International Standard Book Number and a used books classified listing.
"I sold four books and got $87.50," said Grace Tung, a biology senior who graduated Dec. 8. She added that she expected the amount after checking on the Co-op's Web site.
"Freecycling" is also offered by the Co-op for books that are not bought back. Students can pick up these books for free from a collection area in the store with the rest going to a recycler, said Co-op textbook buyer Chad Stith.
"What I would say to students is, 'Keep your books out of a landfill and let us use them again,'" Stith said. "If we can buy them back there will be more used books available next year for students, and if we can't, someone else can pick it up and enjoy it over the break."
Some students prefer to avoid the stores completely and sell and trade their books to friends. Biochemistry junior Ben Boral said he keeps his books or sells them to friends and has never bought or sold anything from the Co-op.
"Those people are shysters," Boral said after offering his $170 textbook to a friend for a third of the price.
Some publishers will make offers to students when their textbooks cannot be used again or are University-specific, like with the professional communication skills book returned by pre-journalism freshman Megan Jones. In exchange for the book, Pearson Custom Publishing offered a $25 gift card to the Co-op.
Publishers cannot make offers for all books, which leaves many students still spending more on their books than they get back at the end of the semester - like government senior Bryan
Richardson.
"I sold one book for $30," Richardson said at Beat the Bookstore. "But I probably had $300 worth of books this semester."
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