...but this is what happens in the current system:

3 arrested in college book-selling scam

Police said they would either shoplift the books or write bad checks and then return the books to other stores for a cash refund....

...The total loss incurred by the three bookstores and the bank was $15,823.76.

I looked around for stats on textbook shoplifting, but couldn't find any meaningful numbers. I imagine, with the cost of books, that there is a lot of loss that bookstores have to pick up due to poor students swiping books.

Labels: college bookstores, crime, textbooks

I don't want to throw around the word epidemic, but something has to be done soon.

From thecolonialist.com:

I decided to sell to the cart outside of Kogan on H St. I buy coffee from the guy twice a week and he always seemed to be a fair man. I gave him five books to scan, and he did so with out speaking a word. After a few moments he said, “five dollars.”

Now, I’ve been screwed on books before, but one dollar a book seemed a little irrational. I told him that I was going to take the books over to the bookstore, but I’m confident he had lower prices, so I’d be back. The following is a transcript of our actual conversation:

Coffee Guy: If you come back, I’ll only give you fifty cents for each of these books. $2.50 then, instead of $5.
Travis: What? Why would you do that?
Coffee Guy: Because I control the prices.

That pretty much sums it up. College kids - buy all your books online, then sell them online when you're done. Professors - don't require the latest edition of a textbook when the last edition has all the same information. Take away their control. Help stop the epidemic.

Labels: book buyback, college bookstores, reselling, textbooks