Triangle college students racing to pick up textbooks this week are saving money through a number of alternatives to the old practice of buying new and used classroom tomes from campus bookstores.
Students are increasingly able to rent books for the semester at up to half the list price or to purchase electronic texts on devices such as Kindle, Nook or iPad. The expanded range of options comes after the National Association of College Stores predicted each student would pay an average of $667 in textbook costs this school year.
Alternatives such as these are a departure from the days when students would spend hundreds on a book and take their chances selling it back for a small fraction of the cost after exams.
"It used to be between new and used book sales," said association spokesman Charles Schmidt. "Different people study in different ways. Now it is a choice of new, used, rental or e-book sales."
This year's average textbook bill is down from 2009's $702 average bite. A big reason for this, Schmidt said, is increased used textbook sales in college bookstores. The association is hoping to drive costs down even further for students, he said, by renting texts for a semester at a fraction of the book's original cost. The group estimates 1,500 of its 3,000 member stores will offer the service, up from 300 in 2009.
BackPackers Student Bookstores also features textbook rentals. The chain's three Raleigh stores serve N.C. State University, and its new rental policy saves students up to 60 percent off the list price of textbooks, depending on the likelihood of the book getting resold later. Students pay the rental price and keep the books for the semester, turning them in after exams. There are no refunds like those of a buyback sale, but the initial cost of getting the text is less.
Rent is cheap
Renting books usually brings bigger savings for students, said Rodger Berg, BackPacker's textbook manager, as students pay less for rentals than new books without the worry of a tiny refund at a buyback. Citing a new financial management text costing $155.65, he said the same book costs $63.80 when rented.
"This will be significantly cheaper for students," said Berg. "At the end of the year, you can turn your books in and not have your hopes and dreams crushed by buyback."
Duke University is experimenting with a limited textbook rental program, offering 11 course books for larger classes at 50 percent of their initial cost this semester. Despite this, the school's focus remains on its buyback program. Bob Walker, Duke's general manager of retail and book operations, said his bookstore tries getting faculty as early as possible to make the most of student returns on texts purchased for class.
"Students are the best source of saving money on textbooks," he said. "They can buy used books and sell them back for more students to buy right down the line."
UNC-Chapel Hill is taking another approach. The university is teaming with N.C. State and East Carolina University in a multicampus buyback sale. The program will expand students' buyback options, letting them sell a text not needed at one campus to textbook stores at one of the other two schools.
"We can pay students more for books and other schools get more copies cheaper," said Anthony Sanders, NCSU's book division manager. "It is win-win."
E-books are easy
Each institution is also entering the emerging arena of e-books. Products such as the Amazon Kindle, the Barnes and Noble Nook and the Apple iPad let students download texts at costs 30 percent to 40 percent less than hardcovers, on average. UNC's course materials manager, Kelly Hanner, said her school began offering electronic books in 2008, a move which has seen purchases slowly but steadily increase. E-book sales rose to 247 purchases in spring 2010, she said, up from 232 in fall 2009. UNC offered 65 e-book titles in fall 2009 before adding 16 more last spring. So far, Hanner said, the e-book phenomenon hasn't reached its potential.
"It is a very new medium," said Hanner of the e-book statistics. "There's still a lot of comfort having a textbook in your hand."
Schmidt, spokesman for the national college stores organization, said e-reader technology hasn't revolutionized textbook retail but that it would eventually. Two or 3 percent of NACS textbook sales this year were electronic, he said, and the group is forecasting electronic texts to make up 10 to 15 percent of its 2012 total sales.
"I think students will have more choice in course format than ever before," Schmidt said. "Hopefully it will better match their learning needs and pocketbooks."
