Broke on Textbooks
Getting money back for textbooks seems to be something of a fantasy idea for me. It has always been amazing how I can spend $50….$80……$100 on a textbook, and then get offered a couple dollars in return when I try and take it back, or get refused re-sale entirely because a new edition just happened to have come out (which happens much too often). What’s the deal with these bookstores? Do they really need 150% profit off of what they sell?
The textbook issue appears to be becoming more and more of an issue as the bookstores focus more on profit and less on actually helping any of the students. It’s just too bad that students have to go broke in the process of getting an education! Certainly there is a middle ground…but what is it?
Unfortunately I don’t see the bookstores changing any time soon. I mean, why would they? They have the sweetest setup they could pretty much provide for themselves. Instead, I think that students should bypass the bookstores as much as possible, and stick to book exchanges between students. If I learned anything from American Heritage my Freshman year it’s that having a middleman ALWAYS exponentially skyrockets the cost. So get rid of the middle man! Perhaps if we stopped playing into their schemes they would finally get the message and behave more reasonably in the future.