With the holidays quickly approaching, one word is ringing in the ears of college students everywhere: gifts. But with that delightful wonder, students also come to the realization that in order to receive gifts, they need to give them. In order to give them, they need to buy them. And reality hits: In order to purchase them, you must have money.
It’s the end of first semester. All the earnings that many students made working tirelessly at their summer jobs has been depleted quickly because of late-night pizza orders, expensive dates and other weekend entertainments. How in the world can Saint Louis University students earn fast cash?
For freshman Danny McCarthy, he wasted little time when brainstorming an idea. McCarthy decided to sell his used books back to the bookstore. Unlike most students who plan on waiting until after exams, McCarthy decided to beat the rush because “half the teachers don’t even use the books–I get along fine without most of the textbooks. It’s a personal decision; some say they want to keep the books so they can refer to them later in life. I say, ‘I’m broke, I need the cash.'”
McCarthy was shocked when the cashier informed him that he would be receiving only $75 back. Although more than willing to accept the money, it was only a small proportion of the amount he had paid at the beginning of the semester: $500. Temporarily frustrated, McCarthy realized that the little amount was better than nothing.
“There’s nothing I can do about it. It’s better than nothing. I was happy when I learned I could get cash for it; they could just credit it back to our parents if they wanted to, but I’m glad they don’t,” McCarthy said.
Darlene Ciborowski, manager of the SLU Bookstore, when asked why students received such a small amount of money in return for mint-condition books replied, “The process for book buyback starts with the book order from the professor. If they use the same book for the following semester, we will purchase that book from the student for 50 percent of what they paid for it until we reach our limit.”
However, if the professor uses a different book the following semester or the bookstore reaches its limit, “We may be able to recycle your textbook into the national used-book distribution market.” If able to recycle the book in the used-distribution market, the bookstore will “pay you the current price the market (wholesaler) is paying for that title.”
When buying books for second semester, it is important for students to keep in mind that “all used textbooks are priced 25 percent less than the price of a new textbook.”
Finally, Ciborowski said, “By offering the service of buyback, it is beneficial to the students. It allows the bookstore to pay students money for textbooks they have used and allows us to immediately have the book the professor orders in stock for the next term.”
