Students weigh in on whether book rentals save money
November 18, 2010
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College students feel the crunch every semester when purchasing new
textbooks for school. Hoping to ease the usual $600-900 cost of
purchasing new books, many college bookstores have started offering
textbook rentals.
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Students can often rent a book for less than half the cost of
purchasing a new book. Textbook prices have gotten attention in
recent news due to the Federal Law passed on July 1 of this
year.
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According to new provisions in the Higher Education Opportunity
Act, publishers are now required to provide college professors with
a list of textbook prices along with a history of revisions.
Colleges must also provide a list of required textbooks during the
registration process.
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This has been done so that students will be able to search for the
best price around for their books. A possible money-saving route
for students is the new trend in textbook rentals. According to the
National Association of College Stores, 1,500 out of their 3,000
stores offer textbook rentals.
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Starting up a textbook rental program is expensive for most schools
since they must purchase brand new copies of each book they hope to
rent. In addition, they must acquire software for book tracking and
train their staff in the program.
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“It’s beneficial to me because it’s significantly cheaper than
purchasing a new or old book because you don’t know how much money
you’ll get when you sell it back. It’s a gamble, you never get what
you think you’re going to when you sell back,” said Leah Parker, a
UNA graduate student.
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However, renting a book may not be as cost effective as renting a
digital book or purchasing a used book from websites such as Amazon
or Half.com.
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“Renting a textbook didn’t work out for me. To rent a brand-new
economics book that is normally $230, I paid $115. Paying half the
cost of a book that I don’t get to keep seems like a rip off when I
could have bought it used,” said Cory Alexander, a UNA
sophomore.
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Most textbooks are available as a digital rental on Chegg.com or
BookRenter.com.