Smart Shopping
The pros and cons of buying textbooks online
By Erin LaMourie
Features Editor

Ashley Schwab spent an hour in the TCU Bookstore looking for her classes’ textbooks and left empty handed. The search for the best deal on her textbooks was just beginning.

Schwab, a senior history major, compared prices and decided to purchase her textbooks online.

She said she used to spend an average of $600 on books each semester but saved about $100 when she bought them online in the fall 2001. She said she heard it was cheaper to buy textbooks online, so she compared prices on eCampus.com, VarsityBooks.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

Llisa Lewis,TCU Bookstore general manager, said the average student taking 12 to 15 hours should expect to spend about $350 to $400 on books.

She said the prices of new textbooks are set by publishers, but online companies save money because they do not have personnel or a store to maintain. Online bookstores will sell a few books for a cheaper rate but then many other books for higher prices, she said.

Lewis said when VarsityBooks.com advertised at TCU in the past many students bought books online, though she could not provide any exact figures.

“People actually got hurt because when they got the wrong book they couldn’t return it in time to get it for class,” she said. “If you can’t walk in and return and get the right one you can’t get your money.”

Schwab said buying her textbooks online required some work because she needed to go to the bookstore and write the names of all the textbooks she needed for classes.

“I think (it is worth it) because I saved so much money,” she said. “If I didn’t have as many books or found it wasn’t saving me much money I don’t know if it would be worth all the trouble.”

She said she found not all the books were cheaper online because of shipping cost, but Barnesandnoble.com had free shipping for two or more books.

“I still bought some (books) at the bookstore because they were cheaper or the same price,” she said. “It was easier to buy (those books) at the TCU Bookstore.”

Schwab said the books were shipped within a week of her order and she did not have any major problems.

“A couple of textbooks took longer to get but I didn’t need them right away anyway,” she said. “One (book) was wrong because it had the same name as another book but the bookstore did not have the book in to compare. If the bookstore doesn’t have the book it is harder to find it online. You can’t know if you have the right version.”

Schwab said she could return the book at any Barnes and Noble. However, Lewis said those books could not be returned to TCU’s Barnes and Noble bookstore. Jack Benson, vice president of operations for VarsityBooks.com, said VarsityBooks.com no longer focuses on offering discount books to students but instead serves as a bookstore for small colleges.

“In the past we sent people to campuses marketing the company but we no longer expend those areas,” he said.

Benson said though he is not sure of the number, many students still buy textbooks online because of the convenience of online shopping.

“Students have found the site easy to use and convenient,” he said. “Over the years students have associated our site with convenience and reliability and we hope that they will continue too.”

Brett Wilson, a freshman education major, said he thinks buying books online would be inconvenient because of the shipping time.

“I would want to be sure of the quality the book was in and would be afraid it wouldn’t get their on time,” Wilson said. “But I would be willing to try it if it was saving me money.”

Wilson said he spent about $200 on textbooks last semester and to save money he decided to sell a textbook on TCU Announce.

“I thought that I could get more money from a student and save them money also,” he said. Wilson said he decided to use TCU Announce when he saw other students selling books on it and said he ended up saving about $17.

BarnesandNoble.com and eCampus.com both offer buyback for textbooks and will sell them at used prices but VarsityBooks.com does not offer either service.

Swchab said she has not sold her textbooks from last semester yet, but is considering selling them back to BarnesandNoble.com

“I tried to sell them back to the (TCU) Bookstore but I would have gotten only $8,” she said.

Lewis said that though students may think they are not getting much money for buybacks, TCU has a higher buyback price for each student than any of the 480 Barnes and Noble college bookstores in the nation.

“We had about 70 percent of (professors’) book orders for the TCU campus at the end of the semester and many schools only have about 30 percent,” Lewis said. “If we don’t know what (professors) want for their classes, we cannot buy the books back.”

Lewis said students can order books online from the TCU Bookstore Web site (www.bkstore.com/tcu) and pick up a box from the bookstore with all the necessary books when the semester starts. Students submit class schedules and choose new or used books charged to a credit card or on send home. The cut off date for this semester was Jan. 1. Last fall semester, about 1,500 students, 900 of which were freshmen, ordered from the bookstore online, she said. Lewis said that only 110 ordered online this semester but she does not know if they were repeat customers.

Erin LaMourie
e.m.lamourie@student.tcu.edu

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