Each year the cost of textbooks is a burden felt by every ETSU student. According to ETSU’s website a full-time student should factor in $1,090 per year for what they refer to as “Books/Supplies.”With costs of textbooks so substantial and new editions coming out every few semesters, it’s not hard to see why many students opt not to buy some of the books required for their classes.

“Textbooks have always tended to be a little ridiculously over-priced,” said ETSU graduate student Emily Carmichael. “This has gotten less problematic since there are more online sources, but if I could avoid buying a textbook I always have because of the prices.”

The ETSU bookstore and The College Store (both owned by the Nebraska Book Co.) and Student Book Exchange (SBX, owned by Barnes and Noble) offer textbook rental programs. These programs allow students to rent the textbook with a valid debit or credit card for a greatly reduced price on the condition that they must return the book in good condition at the end of the semester. SBX’s website (sbx.bncollege.com) claims that you can save over 50 percent compared to new books. For example, one book, “The Why, Who and How of the Editorial Page” by Kenneth Rystrom, sells for $71.55 new, $53.65 used, and you can rent it for $34.35. However, if you want to keep the textbook you rented at SBX you must return it to the store, and then you may purchase it at the used price.

Buying used textbooks from a bookstore may seem like a great way to save some cash on much needed books, but there is some controversy over this practice. “The high price of textbooks is the direct result of the used book market,” said Henry L. Roediger III, professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis in an article for the APS Science Observer. “A textbook is customarily used for one semester . students rarely keep their books now but sell them back to the bookstore . Therefore, the same text might be used by three to four students, but the textbook company and author profit the first time the book is sold and not thereafter.”

Roediger also criticizes the companies that own the bookstores on many college campuses. “After universities relinquished their hold on bookstores, the bookstores aggressively raised the percentage markup,” Roediger said the standard markup 30 years ago was 20 percent. “Publishing companies now sell the bookstore the books based on a net price, often marking up 30 to 40 percent in the process.”

Susan Redman with the Nebraska Book Co. says the company follows the industry standard of 20 to 25 percent markup, “but that is really dictated by the individual contract with the school.”

ETSU French professor Karen Harrington who coauthored the textbook “Faisons le point! Discussion et refléxion,” said that she does not believe textbooks are overpriced given the amount of work and time that goes into them. “Not only does it take a lot of time, it takes a lot of money that the publishers don’t necessarily pay,” she said. Harrington said she has a coauthor who lives in France, and they have to pay their own travel expenses when they want to get together to work on the textbook. “I can understand where others may think that prices may be a little bit high,” she said. “I wouldn’t necessarily see it that way from the point of view of somebody writing the textbook.”

Carmichael said she believes the work that goes into creating a textbook might be worth the high price, “but I think the real problem comes down to creating new editions that require students to have the most current version, and make it impossible to get used books. There are some classes where this happens every year. You can compare editions and not really see much of a difference, but page numbers are different and they’ll get you into trouble if you use the wrong edition.”

Selling used textbooks back to bookstores often causes frustration and disappointment, and often only $1 can be given in exchange for a used textbook.

Oftentimes books that are unbound, such as the one required in probability and statistics classes ($73.30), cannot be sold back to the ETSU bookstore. Redman says if the book is registered as being used the next semester by a professor, it will fetch a higher buyback price than if the book is not being used at that school but is needed by another school.

Selling and buying your used textbooks online is considered by many of today’s students to be the best way to minimize textbook costs.

For example, “The Conscious Reader” 11th edition by Caroline F. Shrodes, Michael F. Shugrue, Mark F. DiPaola and Christian Matushek (the standard text for English 1010 at ETSU) is available from the ETSU Bookstore used for $53.70 and new for $71.60. It can also be rented for $36. The store’s website offers a tool that estimates that the book can be sold back for $20, but it cautions, “Buyback prices above are an estimate of the potential price and are not guaranteed.” The same book can be bought on Amazon.com new from $49.99 and can be bought and sold used from $32.

“I’ve paid an absolute fraction of what I’ve paid in a bookstore online,” said Carmichael. “I use the bookstore tool (the textbook search on the ETSU bookstore website) to look up text books before classes even begin. I’ve had them in class for the first day of class, and I’ve bought a textbook that sold for 70 or more dollars for $2 online.”

Harrington said she completely understands the need for buying and selling used textbooks. “Honestly, I didn’t go into this with the idea that I was going to make a lot of money,” she said.

Programs exist on campus that can help with the expense of textbooks such as the athletic scholarships. ETSU softball player Shelby Morris said she gets funding for textbooks through an athletic scholarship combined with an academic scholarship. She said that if she didn’t have her scholarships she probably wouldn’t buy all of the textbooks for her classes. “I would probably just do as most students do, and just buy them if a needed them,” she said

A nice thing about shopping at bookstores for textbooks is return policies, The ETSU Bookstore website offers a full refund for a product returned in its original condition within 14 days from the purchase date.

The SBX will give a full refund during the first week of classes with a sales receipt, and within the first 30 days with proof of schedule change. The College Store requires that all people wishing to sell their textbooks present their photo I.D. in case the textbooks have been stolen.

Carmichael said that she hasn’t used many of the textbooks that she was required to buy for classes. “I’ve started the semester reading a few chapters, and quickly figured out it’s a waste of my time,” she said. “I’ve abandoned them in favor of just going to lectures. The PowerPoints and the lectures contain all the information we need, and the textbooks are just there to make in seem more official . but I’ve never referenced these books again.

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