Introduction: We specialize in the buying and selling of used books and we spend a tremendous amount of time searching the country for used copies of textbooks, just to help save you money.  Once we are satisfied that we have found all the used books we can, only then do we purchase textbooks new from the publishers.  Even then, we do the best we can to have our prices as low as we can.

Facts About Textbook Prices

bulletPublishers charge more for textbooks than they do "general" books.
bulletBetween 75% and 80% of what you pay for a new textbook goes to publishers.
bulletOut of what remains, the bookstore must pay for freight, rent, and operating costs.
bulletWhat then remains for the bookstore is less than 5%. (pre-tax)

Just because textbook prices are high, doesn't mean that bookstores are rolling in dough.  Publishers take the biggest bite out of your textbook dollar.

 

What can be done about textbook prices at CCSU?
Competition - USED Books - Faculty

 

Competition
 

If you were the only kid on the block selling lemonade, would you really be that concerned about what you charged for a cold glass of lemonade on a hot summer day?  What if the kid across the street from you opened up a stand?  You would certainly be more concerned about your prices and the quality of your service.

Moral:  Competition good, Monopoly bad.

We've done the hard part and opened up a bookstore that competes with Barnes & Noble (Yes, the CCSU Bookstore is a Barnes & Noble).  Now it's up to faculty members and students to support competition. Vist BOTH stores, check the prices, check the service check for Used Books, Check for FREE Notebooks & Giveaways.

 

USED Textbooks
 
Used textbooks cost students about 25% less than new textbooks.   By purchasing used textbooks, students can save over $100/year.

Where do USED Textbooks come from?  You.  By selling your textbooks back to us when you're through with them, you help support the used book industry.
Some people like to hang onto their books thinking that they might come in handy someday.  This might be true about books for your major, but most times your other books will just become worthless paperweights.  I've seen it a thousand times over the past 13 years, people holding on to their books and then a year later they realize they don't need them, and by then the books are worth nothing, or almost nothing, on the used book market. 

bulletSell your books as soon as you're done with them.  They're worth more the sooner you get rid of them.  (Right before finals is the best time to sell.)
bulletKeep books for your major only if you like them.
bulletThere are very few industries that allow you to sell back an item shortly after using it.  Take advantage of it.

 

The most important factor:  Faculty!
Most Faculty probably don't know it, but they have the biggest influence on the price of books, and the on the used book market.  All they have to do is 2 things:
 
  1. Support the competitive book market by placing their orders with us in addition to the campus store.
  2. Place their orders for the following semester BEFORE finals.

It's that simple.

By placing their order with us:

bulletEnsures competitive pricing on both New & Used books.
bulletIncreases the buyback prices paid to you when you sell your books to us.
bulletEnsures you receive the best customer service.
bulletHelps avoid there not being enough books for everyone.

By placing their order BEFORE finals:

bulletSignificantly increase the chances of finding USED copies of the books they need.  Remember there are thousands of bookstores looking for used copies.  The sooner we know about what to order, the better chance we have at getting used copies before some store in Arizona does.
bulletAllows us to pay you up to half of what you paid for the book during buyback.  If we know we will be selling the same book the following semester, we can give out a greater amount during buyback because we save on shipping costs as well as the higher costs of purchasing new books from publishers.

Please encourage your professors to place their book orders with us.   Everyone benefits.

 

 

Info on "Clickers"
The following are excerpts are from a great paper written by by Tom Stone from Ohio State University about "Clickers".

Audience response stations, or “clickers” have returned to the educational
technology stage as a great tool for tracking student knowledge as well as
their misconceptions. Ohio State University instructional designer Tom
Stone considers their costs and benefits from a campus-wide perspective.
They're clicking with faculty and gaining popularity quickly. But they
also have the potential to create expensive burdens on both students and
those who support instructional technology for classrooms on campus.
Thousands of classes nationally began using "Ask the Audience" classroom
response systems last year. Each student in a classroom uses a device
resembling a TV remote control with several numbers and/or letters on the
keypad to enter responses to a question displayed on a screen….

About a year ago, a major textbook publisher began a full-court-press
marketing plan -- offering professors the systems at no cost, in exchange
for requiring students to buy one of their textbooks bundled with a “free”
clicker.

However, these systems come with many hidden costs, both for students and
for those supporting their use in the classroom. There are time-consuming
issues (and therefore costs) in terms of installing the receivers and
software in a classroom, training the faculty member to use the software,
and supporting students who have trouble "activating" or "reactivating"
their clicker. As multiple brands (typically not interoperable) yoked to
different textbooks are adopted on a single campus, the costs and
headaches multiply.

Textbook publishers have found that offering these systems to a professor
can help “sweeten the deal” to get a new textbook adopted and reduce the
sales of used copies of their books. Adding the clicker as a required
supplement bundled with the new textbook not only helps sell new texts, it
stifles sales of used copies that take away from publisher revenues.
Students pay immediately in terms of the difference in cost between the
used textbook and the new one that has the “free” clicker and an
activation code bundled with it. For example, an $80 new book would cost
about $60 used. Buying the used book in a class requiring the response
system would add a separate clicker payment (about $5) and activation code
(an additional $15). Those economics favor the purchase of the new book,
and reduce the sell-back price of the used book to the student. Further,
clickers provided by most publishers won't work without activation, so the
used clicker has little market value. Finally, who is going to pay for all
of those batteries and absorb the costs of damaged clickers?

Click here for a link to the full article.

 

 

 

 

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