Bookstores keeping textbook prices low
Reducing theft and applying buyback programs may help students
- posted: 02 Oct. 2007
- scrollnews@byui.edu
With the rising prices of textbooks, university bookstores have noticed an increase in textbook theft.
Campus bookstores and university towns nationwide are initiating procedures that target textbook theft by complicating the process of textbook buyback, according to an article in USA Today.
While some schools require only photo ID, other schools, such as the University of Texas at Arlington, have begun to help students tag their textbooks with ink visible only under fluorescent lights. The bookstore then verifies used books from the markings.
At BYU-Idaho, many things are being done to help students and keep the bookstore safe.
“We’re tracking every book that goes in and out the door,” said Brett Cook, BYU-I Bookstore operations supervisor. “It’s not for our protection. It’s for [the students’] benefit. Everything we do is for the student.”
Because the bookstore wants to give a bit back to students who frequent the bookstore first, books purchased there are entered into a computer database, according to the BYU-I Textbook Loyalty Program. Records are kept to allow students who patronized the bookstore to have first choice in selling their books back.
“Our mark-up is competitive with other schools,” said Ches Blackham, BYU-I text buyer. “We try to keep it that way.”
While many students gripe about high textbook costs, most college stores make very little or no profit on textbooks, according to the National Association of College Stores.
“We’re not funded by the Church. We have to cover our costs, just like other businesses.”
McKay Anderson, a sophomore studying agricultural business, said, “I just got back from my mission. It was kind of shocking that [textbooks] were so expensive.”
Still, Anderson felt he got his money’s worth, “especially since I can sell them back,” Anderson said.
At the end of the semester, the bookstore is able to look at purchase records. Students who bought textbooks from the bookstore are able to sell their books back, and, according to demand, may receive up to 60 percent of the new book price, even if they bought the book used.
Most other colleges pay only 50 percent of the original textbook price, if even that much, according to the NACS.
Students who did not purchase textbooks from the bookstore must wait until the last day of buyback. If the store still has demand, these students can sell their books back at a much lower price. 
