Online or In Line?

Dishing out money for textbooks is about as painful as root canal surgery– minus the gratification of Novocaine. Sometimes it’s just not enough to look for that tiny "used" sticker. Sometimes the kids playing frisbee outside seem to be taunting you, as you wait in the bookstore line. This time the Internet has an answer.

With the increasing popularity of electronic shopping, college textbooks are becoming more readily available online. Through sites that help you find and order your books, students are finding ways to save money and time before the new semester even begins. These middleman sites work between the buyer and the publisher(s), in an effort to find the best deals.

Best Web Buys is a Web site devoted to helping people find the best deals on a variety of products. Best Book Buys, the first specialized category to arise from the company, was launched in 1997 by president and webmaster Steve Loyola. Using the site, students can save 30 percent on new books, and as much as 75 percent on used books. The quality of the book will often determine the price, especially when buying international editions.

“These [editions] are sometimes lower quality (paperback versus hardcover) versions that contain the same content as the U.S. edition but can often be found at a third the price," Loyola said.

With the prospect of saving some percentage of their wallets, students from more than 1,500 colleges have ordered books from Best Web Buys.

“Online college textbook purchasing has been around long enough that most students know about it, even though not all have tried it yet," Loyola said. “As their friends see the time and money these students saved, it will only grow in popularity."

But is this method flawless? One of the more common complaints from the site’s users is that textbooks arrive late. Books arrive after the start of classes either because the publisher ran out of stock or because the student procrastinated in ordering.

“Students should place their orders as early as possible for two reasons: they increase the chances of getting their book in time, and the lowest used textbook prices obviously disappear first," Loyola said.

Other sites, such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com, have a very similar system. Andrew Sanfratello, a junior at SUNY Binghamton University, used Amazon.com freshman year and was generally pleased with the experience.

He said buying books on the campus as a hit-or-miss situation. Because Binghamton didn’t have two of his books available, an online purchase seemed like a good idea. He ended up saving $50.

“It wouldn't be so bad about the textbook thing if you could sell them for closer to the original prices back to the bookstore, but they give you next to nothing," Sanfratello said. “They make profits on the same book five or six times. That's unless the book comes out with the 4,000th edition and the 3,999th edition isn't good enough for the teacher."

Evan Perriello and Patrick Wells, sophomores and roommates at Ithaca College, placed orders for all of their books this year at Half.com, which is an offshoot of eBay. The site claimed that the books would arrive in 10 to 12 days—they arrived in a week. One of Wells’ books was out of stock and needed to be reordered, but even then it still arrived on time; this is because Half.com ordered the books through a store in Ithaca.

“If you’re going to order books later, order books you know you’re not going to need right away," Perriello said.

Both students said they would use the service again.

But Perriello and Wells both had the same complaint. Nearly all sites like Half.com now provide a search engine for a textbook’s ISBN—a code individual to each book; however, this feature was unavailable to them because Ithaca College’s Bookstore Web site does not provide their books’ ISBN codes. Mike Bovi, director of the Bookstore, said there were no plans to provide the ISBNs online.

Bovi was accepting of the fact that online ordering is an increasingly viable alternative, citing that students are consumers and have the freedom to shop where they want. Ithaca College takes this option into account with every semester’s order of textbooks. Based on which book is being considered, the seating capacity and registration of the class and how many students purchased the book-in-question last semester, the Bookstore judges how many copies of a book not to order.

Bovi said a large reason for predicting exactly how many books are needed is because of publisher policies. Most publishers charge a fee for returned books, and some allow only 10 percent of the original order to be returned.

“So that means the college would eat those [excess] books, so we have to be very, very careful when we make those decisions." Bovi said.

He also suggested that students ordering online should be absolutely sure to purchase the same package as requested by their teachers.

“We are finding that students are buying books online and are getting the wrong edition," Bovi said. “They’re not getting the whole package. They’re not getting the workbook, the infotrac, or the CD."

But with the usefulness and cost-effectiveness of the net becoming more and more clear, some schools are beginning to offer their own online service. Ashley Wool, a freshman at SUNY Geneseo College, ordered her textbooks online through an independent outlet called Sundance, which supplied books to only Geneseo students. Wool typed in her classes and the Web site put together a package for her at no additional cost. However, that is all the site did; she still had to pick up the books from the Sundance warehouse.

“When I went to school I figured that those who had pre-ordered books would be able to get their books first. Not the case." Wool said.

When it came time to pick up her books, Wool waited in line at the Sundance warehouse for an hour. She received her package to find that two of her books were the wrong ones. Wool then had to pick the right ones out individually before getting back on line.

“At Geneseo, we pretty much have to order from Sundance because most of the professors write their own textbooks and use them in their classes," Wool said. “Also because it's just an easier system for the school.

After tuition and room costs, some students’ heads might spin at the idea of another hefty purchase. Perhaps as more students become accustomed to sites like Amazon.com or Half.com, there will still be money leftover for dinner outside the dining hall.