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SUSAN TOMPOR: Shop beyond the bookstore
Students find good deals online
August 17, 2005
BY SUSAN TOMPOR
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Shanta Anderson-Williams spent about $750 for books at the
bookstore for her first semester of law school last year.
By the
second semester, she got a lesson in campus economics that helped
her hold onto hundreds of dollars. She learned that she could buy
her textbooks online.
The skinny from Textbooks 101: Nobody has to
shop exclusively at the student bookstore anymore. Price-conscious
students can easily go online to dig up super low prices for new and
used textbooks.
It's a smart back-to-school strategy that some students use. And
even though online textbook purchasing has been around for a few
years, everyone isn't aware of it. Some college freshmen still think
the only place to buy books is on campus. And many baby boomer and
Gen X parents think the same, as they remember their trips to the
student bookstore.
To be sure, students have coped with high textbook prices for
generations. You still hear stories about how students network with
each other to share the costs of expensive textbooks. But going
online is especially savvy now, as textbook prices, the cost of
college tuition and prices at the gas pump are all skyrocketing.
College textbook prices have risen at twice the rate of annual
inflation in the last two decades, according to a report by the U.S.
Government Accountability Office. Textbook prices went up 186% from
December 1986 to December 2004, according to the report. Tuition and
fees went up 240%. Overall prices grew 72%.
Saving by the hundreds
We're not talking about saving $5 or $10 on a book.
During her second semester at Wayne State University Law School,
Anderson-Williams, 26, estimates she saved $300 to $400 by buying
her books online.
So far this year, she bought seven out of 10 books online. She
paid about $250 for those seven books. For three books, she couldn't
find used ones. So she paid $165 for three new books at the
bookstore.
"Everything is online -- even law school CDs," said
Anderson-Williams of Dearborn. "It's definitely worth looking into."
Books are often the next biggest expense for a college education
-- after tuition and room and board.
"Textbook publishers use all sorts of gimmicks to artificially
inflate the cost of textbooks," said Dave Rosenfeld, program
director for the Student Public Interest Research Groups in
Portland, Ore.
The consumer organization charges that unnecessary new editions
-- and adding on workbooks and CD-ROMs to textbooks -- only drive up
prices.
Nearly $900 for books
The GAO report noted that the average estimated cost of textbooks
and supplies would amount to 26% of tuition and fees for a full-time
student at a four-year public university.
The average estimated cost of books and supplies for first-time,
full-time students was $898 in the 2003-04 academic year, according
to the report.
"You soon realize you can't drop $400 or $500 each semester for
books," said Ben Dempsey-Klott, 21, a sophomore at Wayne State
University.
Dempsey-Klott, 21, and his brother Nick Dempsey-Klott, 19,
visited the Barnes & Noble at Wayne State last week to jot down
the prices for books. Their classes start Sept. 6.
So they've got time for shopping -- and shipping.
Once they've got a price at the bookstore, they go online.
"We feel kind of cheap about doing it," said Ben Dempsey-Klott of
Center Line.
But Ben priced one used biology book at $115 at the bookstore.
He's seen that same book online for $75.
In recent years, more students are talking about Web sites --
from http://www.half.ebay.com/ to http://www.abebooks.com/ -- that specialize in
selling textbooks.
"It's being cheap, really. And books are really crazy expensive,"
said Carolyn Tompsett, 28, a graduate student in psychology at Wayne
State.
"The only drawback is you have to know a couple weeks before the
semester what your books are," said Tompsett, who lives in
Farmington Hills and has bought books online.
Steve Loyala, president of Best Web Buys in La Canada, Calif.,
says students might save 30% or more by going online instead of
going to the campus store. His site is http://www.bestbookbuys.com/.
This year, he shopped online for textbooks for his son who is in
the sixth grade and attends a private school. He says he would have
paid $340 for the books at the store but instead paid $260 online.
Martin Droze, 16, a junior at St. Mary's Preparatory in Orchard
Lake, spent last Saturday ordering six books online -- even though
he went back to school for the first half-day Friday. He paid extra
money for expedited shipping and expects the books by today.
Droze and his father first went to http://www.bigwords.com/ to compare prices at
different online booksellers. They ordered the books at http://www.half.ebay.com/.
Total price: $206 with shipping.
Laura Droze, Martin's mother, estimates that the family would
have paid at least $400 if they simply bought books at the
bookstore.
Her son James, 18, will order his books online for his freshman
year at Central Michigan University.
How did she find out about the online deals?
The Northville mother noticed textbook deals when she bought
videos on eBay.
Surprisingly, Martin Droze says none of his friends knew about
online shopping for textbooks, but he's been spreading the word.
"The prices are great. It's amazing," he said.
It's a strategy that gets an A+ for coping with crazy costs. It
beats handing a college student a credit card -- and saying "Buy
what you need."
And for students who grumble that they're too busy to shop? Well,
let's look at it this way: If you can save $40 or $50 on one book,
you've just saved enough money to fill up the gas tank one more
time.
Contact SUSAN TOMPOR at
313-222-8876 or tompor@freepress.com.
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