And thus ends all the free formal education you will receive for the rest of your life. Welcome to college where knowledge has its price. And that price can be $150 for new, and $65 for used if you can find it.
The first week of the semester students will drop an obscene amount of money on text books while losing themselves in the nostalgia of their high school days where books were loaned out for free. Well, those days are dead.
“One semester I had to buy 12 books for two classes and none were taken back. I spent $400 and when I went to sell them back I got back maybe $20,” said Latoya Davis, a liberal arts graduate student.
Today, comparing book prices is as necessary as comparing food prices. Fortunately, we have options.
Locally, there is the LSU Bookstore in the Union, Chimes Textbook Exchange on Chimes Street, College Supply on Chimes Street, and the Co-Op Bookstore on Burbank Drive. But in recent years, the Internet has opened more doors with Amazon.com, Half.com and eBay.
According to Rudy Samalot, a communication studies graduate student working in the LSU Bookstore, they have the “best prices in town.”
The LSU Bookstore has a price matching policy that guarantees if a student brings in a book from a local competitor that is cheaper than what they are selling the book for, they will match it, Samalot said.
Additionally, if the student uses Tigercash to purchase books they will receive 5 percent off.
However, according to Phillip Taylor, a psychology senior and manager of Chimes Textbook Exchange, the LSU Bookstore will only match the prices of the books until other stores run out of stock.
“If we’re selling a book for $50 and they’re selling the book for $60, they’ll match us until we run out of stock on the book. Then they’ll go back to selling it for $60,” Taylor said.
Amber Cagle, a philosophy junior working at College Supply said that they have cheaper prices because it is a small family-owned business more concerned about students.
Co-Op Bookstore, however, is unconcerned about the competition.
“It’s foolish to go around checking the prices of our competitors because if one book is cheaper, they may have jacked the price up on another book to compensate. It’s impossible to compare the prices of every book in stock,” said Bob Prescott, Co-Op Store Manager.
An example of a typical freshman class is Math 1021. The text book it will use this year is “Algebra and Trigonometry”, by Michael Sullivan, 7th edition. At LSU Bookstore this book is $81.75 for used, and $118.70 for new. At Chimes Textbook Exchange it is only available used and is $79.99. At College Supply where it is also only available used, it is $87, and at Co-Op it is $89 for used and $118.65 for new.
While in this example Co-Op is the most expensive, the store boasts that it has more opportunities for book buy-backs than the competition because it deals with 10 different wholesalers.
Students often become frustrated when they go to sell their books back at the end of semester only to find out that the store will not repurchase them. This happens when teachers stop using that particular book or are using new edition. .
“We buy from a wholesaler, and if they’re overstocked in one book we can’t buy that book back from students anymore. We can only buy from them what our wholesaler will buy back from us,” Cagle said.
Since the Co-Op Bookstore has multiple wholesalers that it answers to, when one is overstocked, they can move to another where there may be a demand for the book. Also, “if one wholesaler is offering $5 to buy back a book, and one is offering $10, we can go with the one that is offering $10,” said Prescott.
Chimes Text Book Exchange and College Supply may be favored by inexperienced freshman who can give their class schedules to the workers who bring them all the books on their list rather than having to search for the books themselves.
“It’s less chaos, especially for freshman. You just give us your
schedule and we get you your books,” Cagle said.
Patient students, willing to wait a week or more for their books to be sent by the mail, are apt to find cheaper books online.
Currently, Sullivan’s Algebra and Trigonometry, 7th edition is available on Ebay.com for $46. On Half.com for $61.88, and Amazon.com for $73. The shipping ranges from $3.25-$4 and the shipping time ranges from three to 14 days.
“I only buy books online now, because it’s cheaper,” said Greg Hanner, an ISDS senior.
According to Dean Slama, a Chemistry sophomore, his grades suffered because of a book that he needed and bought online took two weeks to receive.
Campusi.com is a Web site where students can enter in the title or author of a book which will generate a list of all the places online where the book is being offered for easy price comparison.
These are the options while you are still excited and eager enough to be in college, go to class, and buy your books. Sooner or later you will come to terms with the fact that it’s cheaper to share with friends or go to the library.
 
Contact Rebekah Allen at rallen@lsureveille.com