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(U-WIRE) UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY—Used textbook sales are growing rapidly, outpacing the demand for expensive new books, according to bookstore employees.
Because of competition, marketing and the need for profit, book publishers raise the prices of new textbooks each year. As a result, many college students go to great lengths to avoid buying new, higher-priced books — especially with ever-increasing housing and food expenses already bearing a lot of weight in student's budgets.
It has even become increasingly common for students to go to such extreme measures as using books on reserve at campus libraries or even choosing not to buy the required book for class.
Bookstores purchase their used textbooks from wholesalers, individual book buyers and students and sell them for 25 percent less than a new book.
"There has definitely been more of an emphasis on used books with the prices of textbooks going up so high," said Joe Moore, a manager at Campus Textbook Exchange. "A recent trend in buying books has been the Internet, where students can buy directly from the distributor. Sometimes it's cheaper, and sometimes it isn't."
Sometimes students eliminate the costs of buying new books by sharing or selling their books among each other.
"There is a lot of informal bookselling or book-passing going around inthis campus, more so than I've seen at others," said Walter Day, the ASUC director of books and academic services. "Our sales in engineering books are relatively low, and that's because they are very expensive, so some students buy them together and share them."
In response to the rising demand for used books, publishers have foundvarious ways to eliminate used textbooks from the market.
"Publishers will put together two books in a package and sell them at a price less than the two books separately," said Fred Shure, co-owner of Ned's Bookstore, one of the major booksellers for [Berkeley] students. "They will put out new editions, which often do not contain that much new material."
Recently, publishers have begun to bundle supplemental material such as CD-ROMs, magazines and study guides along with the required textbook, to discourage students from buying textbooks used.
Day added that used books have played a part in the increasing costs of new books.
"One of the best ways to stay in business and to make a profit is by buying used books, because the profit margins on used books are a little bit higher," he said. "Also, publishers who lose money from used-book sales need to get enough investment to cover their losses, and recoup this amount by raising new textbook prices."
Susanna Ali, a junior [at UCB], said she goes out of her way to find used books.
"I prefer used books; if worst comes to worst, I'll buy the new ones, but right now they don't even have those," said Ali. "The high price of books is always a problem, but then, the bookstore has to make money."
For Susan Kim, also a junior, buying textbooks and balancing her budget usually proves to be a difficult task each semester.
"I usually go through all the bookstores to find the lowest price for a particular book," said Kim. "For me, there's usually one book I have to wait for, and I end up falling behind in class just because I can't buy a required book."
Even photocopied classroom readers, which some consider an alternative to books, are becoming increasingly expensive because of rising copyright costs. Bookstores also do not buy back readers, making it hard for students to get back some of the money they put in.
"The reader sounds like a good idea because you can put something together that is more suitable to the class," Shure said. "But the trouble is that readers are being affected by copyright holder fees, which will make readers more expensive in the future."