[media-credit name=”Christopher Soto/Staff” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]When students at Southwestern College think of the words “buy back,” they see red — as in red ink. Students buying and selling textbooks should all get the old Hells Angels tattoo, “Born to lose.”
SWC’s bookstore contains loosely-stated criteria on its website regarding buy backs that gives students high hopes, only to be crushed once they reach the tiny window protecting the bearers of bad news.
Dreams of green become a reality of copper. Who said five-and-dime stores are dead?
Buyback criteria are simple. Buybacks must be a current edition that teachers expect to use again and in good shape. Maximum payout will be up to 50 percent of the new retail price, or so the website says. It is rare that students ever see that 50 percent. More common is 50 cents, and for a book that originally cost an arm and a leg, getting a toe back is insulting.
So why does it seem to be so complicated once students get to the window? Bookstore employees put the students through the wringer, finding any reason not to give back the money students invested in their textbooks. Common themes: too many highlights, too many bent pages, new editions and the classic plain old “no!”
Along with soaring enrollment fees, textbook costs are a major barrier to student success. They attend school because they want to further their education to make a better life through higher paying jobs. Book costs are at a tipping point and are scaring away potential students who can barely afford to keep their heads above water.
For many students just walking past the bookstore sends their blood pressure through the roof. Painful is the first week of school, when arms are piled high with expensive textbooks that seem to have a new edition and a new price every time students turn around. During finals week, students flock to the bookstore in the hopes that they can get a fraction of the price back, enough to buy lunch if they are lucky. Students who choose to use books for review and studying for finals have little to no chance of getting any cash if other students with the same book got there before them. The store limits how many copies it can “afford” to buy back, turning a majority of students away with empty pockets.
Despite the abuse wallets endure from publishers and bookstores, students are finding crafty ways around the red tape. Typical campus bookstores have a two-week return period for the start of the semester, this can be plenty of time.
Timing for buying textbooks can be tricky. Students who scramble the week before school buying books may not realize that the first day involves no real instruction or textbooks. Frugal students wait until professors let them know if they really need the textbooks. If the books are required shopping around online takes time, but can be worth it. Smart phone scanner applications come in handy as well. All textbooks have a barcode, which an application can upload on to the Internet, providing the best price of the textbook.
Students who have bought textbooks and cannot seem to get any cash from the bookstore can advertise and barter with other students seeking to enter the course.
Feeling the pinch of college cost does not have to leave such a permanent mark on students with crafty ways students can beat the odds.