<p>I think this is agreat idea- I don't know why they haven't done it before.
One of my daughters freshman year classes required 18 books! true we got virtually all of them used, but still.</p>
<p>Heard about that on NPR this morning. It is interesting. I do note that the cost is still about what it takes to buy a foreign version of most textbooks online, though I imagine you get the full color version and you don't have to worry about whether your professor was or knows one of the authors.</p>
<p>Wonder how that rental price compares with the traditional approach of minimizing cost simply buying used and reselling.</p>
<p>Appalachian State University also has a rental textbook program for undergrads. I think the rental fee is included as a part of student fees, and the average student saves over $350 a semester. Students probably still have to buy some supplemental books.</p>
<p>The key is the profs' commitment to use the same edition for several years.</p>
<p>When S took an intro bio course, the prof said the 6th edition of the textbook only contained one new chapter but the order of the exercises had been changed and he did not have the patience to do a comparison between the two editions. So the students ended up having to buy the newest edition, which cost over $100k.</p>
<p>The few times I have tried to resell a book I might have bought it for $150, and was lucky if I was able to sell it for $35.
Additionally since you can't sell the book back unless the prof has already indicated that they will be using the identical text again, many books you can't sell back because there is a new edition, because that class is only offered spring quarter or what seems like the whim of store staff.
Since some schools don't indicate to students which text they will be using far enough ahead to give them time to search for a cheaper copy, and since students may change their course schedule too close to beginning of semester, I still think that rentals will save students a lot of money and grief.
For example my daughter is a science major, she has very expensive textbooks- although she often gets them used. Her OChem text was so expensive that she opted not to purchase it ( we were out of the loop- I would have told her to buy it), resulting in using the book at the library and occasionally borrowing others books, unfortunately she didn't pass spring semester of Ochem and had to take an entire year off to get back on track again, and I wonder how much not having regular access to the textbook played in that.</p>
<p>^THAT is why you don't buy new textbooks. We buy ALL of our textbooks used online on either amazon.com or half.com, and then resell them back on these websites at the end of the year/semester. Sometimes we even make a profit!</p>
<p>We were able to get most of the books used online after comparing prices, (sometimes Amazon was cheaper, sometimes half.com) but we really were scalped with my D's German textbook with software, etc., which was nowhere to be found but at the college bookstore - $300+!!!!!! But at least she used it for 2 semesters. Oh, well... She will resell it at the end of the year to the bookstore, so we will get some of it back.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Since some schools don't indicate to students which text they will be using far enough ahead to give them time to search for a cheaper copy, and since students may change their course schedule too close to beginning of semester...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My S reports that students at his school are getting around that by buying the books from the bookstore and returning them when their online purchases get in. That won't last long, of course.</p>
<p>We're fortunate enough that we can usually determine which books have been used in the past and get a general sense of whether there's likely to a new edition, etc. online. And his school puts the books they're going to use online earlier than the bookstore does. We're lucky to get a little more lead time for most of his books.</p>
<p>It does take a little time and is still a bit risky, but we've saved some substantial money even if I've only used the international, black and white only option once. BTW, there are times when even the text is pretty darned expensive online.</p>
<p>I'd have to see more of the economics of rentals to be willing to consider that option. I also note this is community college. I assume the real textbook costs kick in when you get into upper and graduate level courses that have much smaller print runs. I'd assume that the schools would have to respond with correspondingly higher rental fees for that kind of book to break even.</p>
<p>I only bought one book this quarter. I usually share with someone or i just check the book out at the library (for classes that don't require much reading). Textbooks are ridiculously expensive and what's even more B.S is that sometimes the bookstores don't take back the books because a new version came out...</p>
<p>we have been very lucky in that my daughter attends school in the same town as the largest independent new & used bookstore "in the world". So many of the books she had for her hum110 class ( total for the year about 31 required texts) they had instock- and even if it wasn't the identical translation as the class was using, she still got by.
Some of her books the school bookstore actually had for a very good price, and some books even the ones that her profs * wrote* she was able to find used if not through Powells, then bestbookbuys.</p>