The textbook buy back battle

Linda (left) and Jessica Wonenberg wait for students to bring books into the UMC bookstore to sell on Thursday. (CU Independent/Lee Pruitt)

As finals kick in and the fall semester wraps up, the University and local businesses work to provide students with competitive prices for their used textbooks, said Jason Katzman, the assistant director for academic resource through the CU Book Store.

“Most students think book buy-backs are a rip off but we honestly do the best we can to put the most money in their pockets as we can,” Katzman said. “We take our obligations to the students seriously.”

Some students like Meghan Williams feel they are not receiving the money they deserve for their used books.

“I feel like you barely get anything back compared to the amount you have to pay in the beginning of the semester,” Williams said about the buy-back process.

Williams, a 20-year-old sophomore communication major, said she hopes to receive more money this year than she has in the past.

“The CU Book Store is not a for-profit organization but do we sell books for more than we buy them for? Yes, because we have operating costs,” Katzman said. “We try to offer the highest price and still maintain a healthy business,” he said about buy-backs.

Operating costs include employee salaries and building rent, Katzman said.

He added that despite the operating costs, the CU Book Store is still the premium competitor.

“We buy more books back than any other place and we pay higher prices than any other place,” Katzman said. “All our competition is private business and they have no particular reason to serve the students other than for business competition.”

Bill Shrum, manager of Shipping on the Hill, said that the private local business considers its buy-back prices on a national scale that is linked with the Amazon.com database. He added that the used books are sold to nearly 200 colleges nationwide.

“It is rare that we run out of a need for books because we have so many affiliates whereas local bookstores do,” Strum said. “We don’t do that game at all.”

Strum added that Shipping on the Hill cannot buy back a textbook when it is printed specifically for a CU class.

“If it’s not something that can be bought on Amazon then it’s not something we can take,” Strum said.

While the CU Book Store can buy back books printed specifically for a CU class, they are unable to buy back books that have advanced to updated editions, Katzman said.

“Every semester there are expensive books we cannot buy back because they’ve gone to a new edition, but that’s not our choice,” Katzman said. “It’s the way the publishing industry works. They try to kill the used book market so that limits what we can buy back.”

Katzman added that the ongoing production of new editions may be the result of the publishing industry’s need to maintain enough profit to stay in business.

The CU Book Store will be buying used textbooks from Dec. 7 through Dec. 18 and Shipping on the Hill buys back books year round.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Kylie Horner at Kylie.horner@colorado.edu.