By Jeff Rost

“I never look forward to selling back books because you never get anywhere near what you paid for them,” says college student Anthony Fininzio. “You pay $100 for the book and sell it back for $25, and that’s if you are lucky.”

Listen up college students, this may be you in the coming weeks as colleges around Western New York will be putting a close to this year’s spring semester. According to the Buffalo State College Web site, on average each semester a college student spends $450 on books and supplies. Some books may be retained for future uses, but the majority of books are sold back to the college’s bookstore.

Lynn Puma, manager at the Barnes & Noble Buffalo State Bookstore, says the store’s policy on buying back books is:
• to give students 50 percent of the purchase price back if the professor has requested the book for the next semester.
• if a professor has not, or will not put in a request in for the book, the bookstore then will buy the book back and sell to a wholesaler.

This is where the low prices that students complain about come about since the price is based on the demand for that particular book. A high demand equals a better return, and likewise, a low demand equals a low return.

Sophomore Becky Ruether recalls a time when she paid $80 for a new book. After using the book for the semester, she attempted to sell it back only to find out that the college would not buy the book back because the teacher had not put in a request for that book.

“I was outraged,” says Ruether. “I work hard to pay for college, and selling back my books gives me a little relief to my money woes. I’m stuck with a $80 book that I will never use again!”

Puma says the bookstore is constantly pushing and educating faculty to complete and return request for books. Her advice for students to get the 50 percent buy back value is to constantly pressure the teacher to get the 50 percent buy back value.

“Students will benefit because they will get money back right away, but also they will save in the upcoming semester because there will be more used books to sell,” said Puma.

Knowing that they may not get a return on their investment, many students look to alternative methods instead of selling books back to the college bookstore. Many students are utilizing the internet. One such Web site is half.com, which is operated by e-bay and works just like the auction site. College students can place their no longer needed college books on the site and sell them to the highest bidder!

A few college students are taking a more drastic method of not even buying books for their courses. In their eyes they are now worry free of being told “we are not accepting this book, or we can give you $10.”

The bookstore’s main goal, says Puma, is to have a bookstore 100 percent full of used books. Students can sell back their books anytime. Puma says they can check the bookstore Web site to see if a teacher has turned in a request for the book. She advises though the optimum time to sell back books is the final two weeks of a semester because there will be a higher chance the professor has filled out their request. Follow the hyperlink for information Buffalo State College Bookstore.

Email Jeff Rost at: rostjw06@mail.buffalostate.edu