Graduate student Lindsey Duncan shelled out almost $400 for books and she’s not too happy about it. She said she’d rather spend that money on skiing supplies.
Duncan vents the frustration that most students have about textbooks. There are too many to buy and they’re too expensive.
Last week students flooded the DU Bookstore, dug into their wallets, charged their credit cards and bought books for the first week of classes. They will continue to do the same this week as students finalize their schedules.
“I feel ridiculous (for spending so much),” Duncan said.
But what most students don’t know is that their money pays for more than just knowledge.
Tristy Rudebusch, director of the DU Bookstore, said students pay for several production costs. Those costs range from the printing of the textbook to marketing and shipping costs.
So if you enrolled in Natural Science 1221, otherwise known as From Molecules to Humankind, the $106.50 you spent on Mader’s Biology will pay for several things.
Right off the bat, about $79.87 pays for the publisher’s manufacturing costs that can include editing, paper costs, publisher’s offices and even book storage.
According to the National Association of College Stores, the rest of the money a student spends will be divided into eight other categories. They include authors’ royalties, marketing, the publisher’s profits and even shipping.
The students’ dollars also go toward paying for the bookstore’s operations, employee salaries and federal and local taxes.
The last category belongs to the bookstore. It receives about 4.7 cents in profit for every dollar spent on a textbook.
But not everyone is getting rich off the $5-billion-a-year textbook business. Rudebusch said authors have to write several books before they make a good profit. College bookstores like the DU Bookstore make about a five percent profit on textbooks and relies on their clothing line and other merchandise to boost earnings. For last fiscal year, Rudebusch said the bookstore made about a seven percent profit.
Rudebusch said students will be glad to know that the bookstore’s earnings go to DU’s general fund and are later used for university projects, financial aid and construction.
Still, that’s not good news for sophomore Lauren Buchsbaum. She spent about $400 on books last quarter and almost $200 this quarter.
“I know I’ll get a better education with these books,” she said, “but I think it’s a little too much.”
Another difficulty students face is selling their books back to the bookstore.
In the fall, Duncan said she spent about $650 on books and when she sold them back, she received about $65.
Rudebusch said the bookstore pays about 50 percent of a new textbook’s price, when a student tries to sell it back. Sometimes that amount is less depending on the book’s market value and shelf life. If the book is in demand, students can it sell back for more.
But other factors come into play. Rudebusch said that publishers sometimes issue new editions of textbooks, making old editions obsolete. This also makes it difficult for the bookstore to carry more used books.
At the same time, if the faculty does not adopt a textbook for the next quarter or the following year, the book will have no resale value.While students might feel cheated, they don’t have to turn to the DU bookstore to buy and sell their books.
In the last 10 years, online bookstores came into existence, including online vendors like Amazon.com and eCampus.com, that offer cheaper prices, speedier delivery and buy books back for more money.
The biology textbook can be found on eCampus.com for $58.66 plus shipping and handling. The book is brand new and ships within 24 hours.Students taking Advanced Web Site Building and Site Management, (DMST 3502) can buy their required book for $26.99 on Buy.com, as opposed to the bookstore’s price of $44.99.
The book qualifies for free shipping and ships within 48 hours.
Cheaper alternatives exist.
DU student Alex Nazarov offers a textbook lending program similar to a library. Students neither sell nor buy books, but instead, exchange them over the Web.
Sometimes the traditional library comes in handy.
But while these cheaper alternatives compete with the campus bookstore, Rudebusch said students aren’t flocking to online bookstores.
She said there has been no decline in sales for the DU Bookstore because of online bookstores. She also warns that shipping and handling fees can eat away savings.
Duncan said she’s never browsed online bookstores, but if she knew she could save money, she’d probably try it.
