I walk in with a book I bought brand new and paid $80 for at the beginning of the semester. Knowing I’m walking into a traditional college town bookstore, figuring they won’t give me close to the price I paid for it. So I figured they wouldn’t give much more than $50 for something I paid $80, and barely used. “About fifty right?” I ask as the guy behind the counter scans the book. “Well…” he pages through the book to find the CD which was untouched in the back of the book “with the CD I can give you twelve dollars.” I say “thanks”, quickly grab my book and walk off, as he politely says “have a nice day.” I wanted to tell him, “so you guys like raping college students of their money don’t you?” I’d rather tell that to the owner of the bookstore, but I’m sure he’s sitting in his multi-million dollar house somewhere. After all he makes so much money off books from poor college students.
Every semester we have stupid poor college students rushing to the bookstores here on campus and giving them their books. Notice I didn’t say ‘sell’ books back, because you aren’t selling them, your giving them away. You know, they would cover up that $80 price tag on my book and put a $65 price tag on it because, well, it is used. So they would make a 542% profit on the book I basically gave them.
So what to do? Don’t give them to the bookstore, sell it on Half.com. It’s simple; I mean they have step by step instructions. “That takes too much time, it’s too hard” you say? Ok, contact me, I’ll take your book and sell it for you. Just don’t take it to the bookstore, bring it here instead. Along with selling books, half is a good place to buy as well, I usually save about $300 a semester. Yes, $300. Last semester my books were $700 at the bookstore. No, I’m not an advertisement for half.com, I’m just trying to spread a good word, hope it helps.
-
Archives
- March 2014
- April 2011
- December 2010
- November 2009
- June 2009
- February 2009
- December 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- March 2008
- January 2008
- November 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
-
Meta
Selling my books back always pissed me off. After I graduated from NIU my first job was at Follett as a developer on their website, eFollett.com. Most NIU students aren’t aware of Follett becase the NIU bookstores are independent. Follett is the nations largest retailers of college books and they run the bookstores at over a thousand univesities. Anyways, what I found out is that the bookstores make verry little profit selling new books. In fact, the overwhelming majority of their revenue comes from resales and general merchandise.
You can call it a ripoff, but it’s not like the bookstore owners are making billions off poor college students. What I learned from Follett is that the majority of their revenue comes from used books, but after you pay the employees, buy the new books and deal with the old stock, there’s not much left over. In fact, for having a lock on just about all the major university bookstores, Follett is a pretty mediocre business. At least, I wasn’t impressed. So yes, it really seems like exploitation from the student perspective, but at least these days there are a lot more options. Too bad for Follett.
Yea, i suppose, i still avoid them. most things in dekalb specially NIU just try to get money out of poor college students, so i try to watch who i’ll give money to. plus i’m stingy.
Phil, while I understand your anger at not getting money for books, I am extremely disappointed and outraged at your use of words to describe it. Rape is the complete wrong word for this occasion. In case you do not realize, I will let you know, Rape is when someone takes control and forces you to do something that is so awful you become a victim. It also makes that victim powerless in society until they can solve all the problems that rape occurred. I don’t care what excuse or what you say, rape is a violation of a human being. Nothing you compare it to, especially a bookstore and its schemes can compare…and don’t try to tell me otherwise because I experienced it first hand as do 1 out of 4 women between the ages of 18-24
In defense of Phil, Emily, he obviously wasn’t using it in the context that you were using it, and he knew he wasn’t either. There was no need to patronize or display any subtle victim elitism on this ocassion. I am very sincerely sorry for your horrible experience but let’s be adults here and have the strength to laugh at things.
Emily, your description pretty much describes how I feel about some of the fees and things we have to pay as students/DeKalb citizens. So yes, in a different context, me getting ‘raped’ by NIU/DeKalb/the bookstore is ‘taking control and forces me to do something that is so awful I am a victim’. I apologize if my use of the word offends you, but I’m purely looking at it from a different point of view. I’m sorry if you can’t realize that, but just remember everyone has their own opinion. We’re not talking the front page of the New York Times here; we’re talking a simple website by a NIU student. It’s fun, I like when people have their opinion, I feed on that. I’m glad you shared you opinion and I’m sure you aren’t the only one with that opinion. However, I cannot please everyone and something I say may offend someone, so sorry ahead of time, but we need to pick our battles wisely, and share our opinions, not attack someone.
lmflynn.com lol that’s hilarious
I am just sorry that you and Pete are so ignorant….It is because of people like you in our society that help perpetuate this problem…I am just sorry that you tow find this acceptable and that you aren’t eve open to changing your mind or your wording. I feel bad for the women in your life because you may be hurting a loved one by using words or actions that show your closed-minded ignorance. Good Luck, closed minds only lead to many closed doors.
Perpetuate what problem? Using words in a different tense? Emily, it seems you’re the only one who such a huge problem with this. Others of us realize I’m not out to get anyone, I’m not trying to talk bad about anyone, and me using this strong word, it only to try and show how strong I feel about this. So I gather from what you’re saying, we’ve closed the doors to you, because you’re the only one who seems to have such a big problem with this. It seems my last comment explained that I’m not close minded, and I said sorry for your experiences, but I thought you could gather I’m not using the word in the same tense. Saying that, it seems you are the one who is closed minded in this. I already apologized and stated it was a matter of opinion. I really can’t explain myself much more, and I see that you’ve resorted to name calling.
God, I remember the rape of college textbook stores. Back then, I didn’t know about half.com, although today I use it frequently (though not for textbooks, since I’m not in school). There were several books I just kept, not because I really thought I’d look at them again, but because they were worth so little in resale that I thought on the incredibly slim CHANCE I’d ever crack them open again, I might as well keep them. And naturally, I never did crack them open again, and eventually just got rid of them.
Yea I imagine I’ll toss my books after so long, but I figure if I ever did need them, they’d be there.