If there’s one thing everyone’s been having a problem with lately, it’s money.
College students have always been pretty close to broke but in the current economic state it’s made things even harder.
Luckily there are many things students can do to make money for instance defrauding the financial aid system or playing the market on eBay.
Of course, what about all of those books that have accrued in your room or your car just sitting there? There are so many of them from all of the semesters you’ve been here at Antelope Valley College because you can’t get more than two or three classes at a time unless you’re lucky.
What if you could sell them back to someone else who might need them? Well the good news is, you can!
Just show up to the book buybacks and—oh wait that’s right, your books are considered out of date because there’s a new edition every year.
Even the books you have that aren’t out of date won’t fetch a good price; five or six bucks for most of them.
Whose fault is it that your books are outdated and practically worthless? Yours? Nope. The answer isn’t so easy but it has a lot to do with greedy publishers.
One student in particular is unhappy with the book buyback situation.
His name is Garrett Stoffel. “I have always hated the bookstore because their prices don't come with lube because they are a raping [me], but it’s the convenience that keeps me coming back.” Stoffel said.
This reflects a lot of student’s opinions unfortunately.
When asked about re-selling his books on the web, “My first semester I tried buying books online. I had three classes. One professor said that it’s an AVC copy of a book and needs to be bought here. The second book I tried buying online, they sent the wrong one which turned into a hassle, and ended with me buying from the campus bookstore, and the third book was my only lucky buy on half.com. I got the college algebra book that was selling in the bookstore for $160, for 12 bucks on half.com and the even more awesome part was it was the teacher’s edition. So for 12 bucks I got to learn AND know all the answers! I’ve used Amazon before, and they are only about 20 to 40 bucks cheaper, but then you have to wait for it to arrive which isn’t fun, and then the 10 books I have sitting here won’t sell on chegg.com or textbooksnow.com because they are old editions.” Stoffel said.
Are there ways we could change the format by which our books are sold?
We could rally the students to boycott books all together to send a message to congress that this is a horrible injustice and something needs to be done but unfortunately that’s just impractical.
So what should students do? What will finally save us from being even farther in the hole than we already are?
“I’m excited for the days of digital books. I would love to have my Macbook, or potential iPad, with the books right there [so that] I can take side notes right there, and then I wouldn’t have to lug half a tree around. For the bookstore in general, they have some awesome customer service. If you tell them what you need they get it for you, so it is quick, but 750 bucks for four classes worth of text books is insane.” Stoffel said.
There you have it, book buybacks aren’t helping and are in fact taking advantage of student’s financial situations.
- By Russell Spencer
