That's pretty much been my rallying cry ever since my first semester freshman year. I was very naive then and ended up paying more than $400 for my classes. Four classes. As a freshman. Outrageous. Like they aren't sucking enough money out of me as it is.
At any rate, ever since then, I've been using half.com and amazon.com. Aside from the exorbitant price tags even on used books at the bookstore, the pathetic amounts they offer you to buy back your books is disgraceful. The $400 semester? They offered me around $75 to sell them back.
I'm not the only one starting to get angry. Calls for change are getting louder - ideas like renting books and offering electronic versions are gaining popularity. I think colleges need to cut out the middle man. The bookstore itself (Follett is ours and seems to be a popular culprit) is typically what determines the sale price and purchase price, and it needs to run a profit!!
I don't know how likely it would be for a school to drop its contract with Follett and sell directly to the students. But as more of us get angrier, more will look for other ways to save a few dollars, which usually happens by buying directly from another student, a la half.com.
Me? I've been able to actually run a profit some semesters by buying the cheapest book (in decent shape) I can find and selling it to the highest bidder.
Maybe I should drop out of school and become a book-peddler.
1 comment:
lol...i remember feeling the same way a few(cough..cough) years ago. I just realized that we had some things in common. My major was poli-sci and my minor was photo-journalism.
Best of luck to you in the future. those two will be a great benefit to you when you get an opportunity to combine both fields
have a great one and enjoy school and not thinking about book peddling...LOL!!!
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