At
about 4 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon, no-preference freshman
Laura Murthum stood stunned in a checkout line at the Student
Book Store.
"It was insane," Murthum said, describing the total price
of her bill: $389.
Before checking out at the store, 421 E. Grand River Ave.,
Murthum cruised the aisles for 20 minutes holding a green
shopping cart. In it, among notebooks and pencils, she had a
semester's worth of necessities - textbooks.
The cost of college textbooks is a growing expense for
students, and it's money some aren't thrilled with spending.
At the beginning of each semester, students like Murthum
search the shelves looking for class textbooks. Some students
will spend more than $100 for a single text, while some might
only spend $5.
On average, a student spends $300 for a semester's worth of
new and used textbooks, said Student Book Store Assistant
Manager Mike Wylie.
"It varies. Some spend $500 and some spend $200," Wylie
said. "For instance, I run register during book rush, and I
had one young lady that ran into the high $400s. She said 'oh
no,' but last semester she said she spent under $150."
But spending less than $150 wasn't the case for Murthum.
The freshman said she spent nearly $400 on used books for her
four classes: Psychology 236, Statistics 201, Economics 202
and Integrative Studies Biological 202.
"It seemed like a lot of little things added up into this
enormous bill," she said.
The first step in trimming the cost of textbooks is
purchasing used books, Wylie said. When students purchase used
books they save at least 25 percent off the original price, he
said.
"This particular university goes out and actively seeks as
many used books as possible," Wylie said.
At the Student Book Store, any used textbook has potential
to be sold at buyback time. However, books are usually only
bought back if the bookstore has a request on file for that
book for an upcoming term.
For example, Wylie said, when a professor submits a book
list for the upcoming semester, a specific number of those
used textbooks can be bought back. Most texts are bought back
at 50 percent of the book's wholesale price, he said.
Students often assume that college bookstores price the
textbooks within their store, but Wylie said prices are
decided by the publisher.
The cost of paper has risen during the past seven years and
has increased the cost of producing a textbook, Wylie said. He
added that he also has seen an increase in spiral notebooks
and filler paper.
"(Text)books tend to have more pictures, graphs and
charts," he said. "Which is more expensive from a printing
point of view than just words."
But Jay Ford, manager of Ned's Book Store, 135 E. Grand
River Ave., said the high prices of textbooks aren't only a
problem for students, but for his company, too. Ford said when
publishers create new textbook editions, it forces the older
versions off the shelves. Ned's had sold 17,485 books by
Friday and 70 percent were used, he said.
"It gets very frustrating since publishers are putting out
a new edition every year and a half," he said. "A lot of times
there is not a big change. There are some where literally they
change the order of the chapter, the font, or the order of
questions in the back."
Last week, The State News randomly selected two classes and
purchased books for each class to compare the cost of
textbooks. The classes selected were Writing, Rhetoric, and
American Culture 130 and Mathematics 103.
The State News found some of the textbooks for the selected
classes were priced higher at the Student Book Store than at
Ned's, The College Store, at 4790 S. Hagadorn Road, and
Spartan Bookstore, in the International Center. This wasn't
the case for all of the books selected.
"If it was up to us we would only sell used. There would
never be a new edition and there would never be this package
crap that you have to put together," Ford said.
Ford said Ned's, The College Store and Spartan Bookstore
usually have the same prices for textbooks because they are
owned by the same company, Nebraska Book Company.
Wylie said the Student Book Store does not purposely price
their texts higher than the other stores, but sometimes it
just happens.
"Ned's or The College Store may already have enough books
for a specific class enrollment," he said. "By natural
process, we keep our price where it was."
Just like a student hates to get stuck with a textbook, so
does the Student Book Store, he said.
"If there isn't a new edition coming out, and we know at
the end of the semester somebody may say, 'We need to lower
that book a few dollars so it gets out of there.'"
Because of costly prices, some students visit online stores
such as Amazon.com and BIGWORDS.com.
A privately held price comparison engine Web site,
BIGWORDS.com, allows students to compare prices and find the
cheapest textbooks. In addition, the site shows shipping
options, the condition of the books and whether there is sales
tax.
Jeff Sherwood, president and CEO of BIGWORDS.com, said
there are advantages and disadvantages of purchasing a
textbook online.
Sherwood said the company aims to give students the ability
to search a nationwide and global database for finding the
best price. But unlike local bookstores, his company doesn't
receive professors' book lists and might not have each text.
| BIGWORDS here... We DO compare prices on every book in print. What we meant was that we do not list the booklists because schools do not give us that info. |
As for Murthum, she said she is going to take her chances
and buy her textbooks online next semester. But for now - a
week into the semester - she said she is making good use of
her money.
"If I'm going to pay $120 for a book, I should hope to be
using it everyday," she said.
