The Barnes & Noble bookstore on campus is gearing up for the flood of students participating in the upcoming buy back period. At the end of each semester students begin to sell back old textbooks and buy new ones for the following semester.
Many students have wondered exactly what this process entails as well as if they are receiving a reasonable price for their textbooks.
According to Darlene Ciborowski, store manager, and Tim Fortner, textbook manager, Barnes & Noble begins preparation early in the semester in order to provide efficient service to students.
“We start preparing one month after the start of each semester. First, we send our textbook order forms to each professor who will be instructing a course during the upcoming semester. We ask them to return their orders around midterm break,” Ciborowski and Fortner said.
“Once the order has been entered into our computer system, we use methods available to us to purchase used books. Those methods are buyback, purchasing from our wholesaler and Textnet (the company’s internal ordering system),” he continued.
A number of times, a student will attempt to sell back a textbook only to find that he or she will only receive a small percentage of the original price. The return percentage depends on a number of variables that the managers of Barnes & Noble must take in consideration.
“If a book is being used during the upcoming semester, we will pay 50 percent of the price. If a book is not being used for the upcoming semester, we will pay the wholesale price, which is determined by national demand through a wholesaler,” Ciborowski said.
Other times, textbooks are not purchased back from the student by the bookstore. This is typically associated with some common reasons.
“We will not purchase a student’s book if the book is out of print or an old edition. Also, we do not buy back most workbooks. The past has shown that students cannot use workbooks that have been heavily marked in or have missing pages. Additionally, we do have to place limits on some of the books we buy back; those quantities are based on enrollment numbers,” Fortner said. “If a class is considerably smaller during an upcoming semester, we will only buyback the number we need to sufficiently fill the enrollment estimate. Finally, books are not bought back if we do not receive an order from the professor.”
According to research done by the Student Government Association for a previous bill, professors not turning in book orders can pose a problem for textbook purchases for the next semester. If a professor does not return this form, the textbooks cannot be purchased. According to the managers at Barnes & Noble, orders come from both the professors themselves and from the departments. In regards to the bill previously proposed by SGA to have deans collect order forms from professors, Ciborowski said, “We do not believe this will affect our operation.”
For struggling college students, spending money on textbooks represents a hardship. In terms of prices of new textbooks, Barnes & Noble considers itself to be comparable to other college bookstores. “Textbooks are priced using national pricing from the publisher as well as within the guidelines set up within our contract with the University,” Fortner said. The bookstore also strives to provide an adequate number of used books for student purchase. “We cannot control the number of used books; however, our goal is to provide the maximum number of used books to our students. Our number one source for used books is the students through buyback,” Ciborowski said.
Textbook buyback is always an anticipated time for students looking to make a few bucks from their books. Therefore, it is in the best interests of both the students and Barnes & Noble that everything goes smoothly during the transitions between semesters.
