In an environment where students pay over $15,000 a semester for a premier undergraduate education, the facilities are top-notch and professors are among the best in the country, the cost of textbooks is still a burden. Where is a student to turn in the face of this necessary evil?
Around town
The Jeffery Amherst College Store (JACS) offers a convenient, if not entirely cost effective, means of obtaining books. As a standard book retailer, JACS sells the majority of its textbooks at the Manufacturer's Standard Retail Price (MSRP), offering few, if any, discounts on new books.
In past years, JACS has experienced varying degrees of competition from web vendors. According to proprietor Howard Gersten, "Amazon and others used to offer discounts, but have since reduced them to turn a profit. They have also raised the cost of shipping." Of the 22 textbooks available both at JACS and VarsityBooks.com for five randomly selected classes from a wide range of departments-Biochemistry, English 12, English 34, Murder (LJST 20) and Physics 10-the average savings on VarsityBooks.com was only $1.53 per book when shipped individually.
However, all of the books for Murder were priced exactly the same at both venues, while the text for Biochemistry was $14.60 less expensive at VarsityBooks.com. UPS Ground Shipping costs to Massachusetts run about $4.95 an order, negating the savings of many of the books on VarsityBooks and making the wait for delivery even less appealing.
Indeed, as discounts have diminished and shipping costs have grown steeper, JACS has seen a rebound in sales. Gersten acknowledged that sales "were to some degree impacted a couple years ago when the Internet became prominent, but the impact has waned now because of the problems on the Internet." In addition to the wait time inherent in online purchasing, Gersten declares "there are so many other problems. It's a pain to return [a book]. Here, all a student has to do is bring it back. Also, students want to see the books. Sometimes they decide what courses to take based on them."
Certainly there is something to be said for the convenience of purchasing books at Jeffery Amherst, but what about the price?
Typically marked at 75 percent of MSRP, used textbooks represent a very viable money-saving option. But does Jeffery Amherst offer enough used copies to make them a feasible option for all courses? "We are buying more and more used books to keep costs down for students, and we encourage selling back books," said Gersten. However, of the 23 titles at JACS for the above classes, both new and used copies were available in only 11 titles.
Option offers
If you want to see the books, shop for the best price and directly help fellow students, look no further than the student-run Option. According to Tom Kingsley '01, one of the managers, "almost all of our books are 40 to 60 percent off." Although ordering books from the comfort of one's dorm room is quite convenient and relatively inexpensive, Kingsley asserts, "When it comes to getting surprisingly inexpensive books, all organized for Amherst College classes-meaning no ISBNs to look up, etc.-the Option is super cheap." Probably the biggest draw to the Option is the combination of these "super cheap" books and the feeling of helping a fellow student. "The Option is a special place for Amherst book buying, not just because it's the cheapest, but because we are all thoroughly involved in Amherst as a community," says Kingsley.
Super savings
One online source for buying used books is UsedBookBroker.com, which is run by Clay Kallman '00. According to Kallman, retailers typically buy back used books for 10-30 percent MSRP, leaving the used-book seller with a fairly hefty net profit. No surprise, then, that JACS encourages selling back books.
In most circumstances, the retailer does not absorb all of the difference between the 10-30 percent MSRP buyback price and the 75 percent MSRP resale price. "Bookstores buy used books and keep some in stock for direct sales, but sell most
to wholesale with a five percent markup," said Kallman. "Wholesale then sells these books back to other bookstores at 50 percent of the retail price, and these other bookstores sell them at 75 percent. But bookstores have very little wiggle room, and a 25 percent markup is not unreasonable." Like anything else in business, used booksellers could cut costs by eliminating the middleman.
Kallman confirms "a huge inequity in buying and selling. I
knew the Internet could make it
better, and I knew we had the talents in the area, so we went with it."
Kallman and his co-founders designed UsedBookBroker.com, a website he believes will revolutionize the used book industry.
The site operates under the simple premise of facilitating direct exchange between buyer and seller. A seller opens an account with UsedBookBroker, posts his or her merchandise online via ISBN, and must make sure that the book adheres to various quality controls delineated on the website and that it is included in one of the 15,000 titles listed in the website's directory. After the buyer selects three potential sellers from whom he or she wishes to buy, the seller has one day to respond to an email from UsedBookBroker to confirm his or her interest in selling.
The first seller to respond gets the deal and is then required to ship his or her book via USPS within a day. After delivery, the buyer has three days during which he or she can decide whether or not to keep the book.
The eight used titles common to both JACS and UsedBookBroker averaged $2.02 per book cheaper on UsedBookbroker, and ranged from the same price on both to $8.59 cheaper on UsedBookBroker. How can the site afford this? "We survive by charging a three dollar commission on every book sold, and the buyer pays that. But the buyer gets free shipping," Kallman reports, "You can use a book for an entire semester for eight or nine dollars, assuming you resell it." The low use cost is certainly a tremendous asset, but Kallman admits that "the only disadvantage is the wait if you want to save money." In other words, online buying still significantly hinders using a ruler to pick classes.
Where a search on sites such as UsedBookBroker.com and VarsittyBooks.com generates only prices for the specific company, a search on the site www.mysimon.com generates a list of the cheapest used and new rates for a specific book across all internet book sellers. MySimon is a one-stop new and used book search engine that includes the shipping cost in its final price calculation. This allows for comparison shopping at one site, saving students
For the best prices, move your tail and shop around. Prices are generally close for most items, but, as always, a thorough search will be the most fruitful. A reasonably priced book is only a click of the mouse away, but in this fast-paced internet age, maybe we could all stand to stretch our legs, head down to Garman and sniff out at least a few of our books before we buy them. If you are willing the few days for a book to be shipped, take the plunge and order online.