Early last semester, I wrote an article regarding my experience with the college textbook buying process over the last three years.
In that article, I explained that I had spent so much money on textbooks that were barely used in my courses and then lost money in the buyback process at the end of the semester.
I gained some new information over winter break, so this will be my first ever follow up article. This semester, I found myself in the same predicament.
Over winter break, I was looking over the required texts for my upcoming courses and trying to get an idea of the total cost.
As usual, I start on Saint Xavier’s bookstore website, which is run by Follett. In the past I have given textbook
companies like Follett the benefit of the doubt, hoping they will give me a fair price for the books I need and also buy them back at a reasonable price, since that is one of their main selling points.
The bookstore generally gives you four options:
1) Buy New – which is when you buy a brand new book at full price and keep it.
2) Buy Used – You buy a previously owned book and keep it, if any are available.
3) Rent New – You rent a brand new book for a slightly lower price than buying it new, but you must return it to the bookstore at the end of the semester.
4) Rent Used – The cheapest option, you rent a previously owned book for a relatively low cost, but you must return it.
On the surface, some of the prices seem reasonable.
The “Rent Used” price is within my range most of time. The problem arises when the bookstore no longer has any used books to rent or sell. That cuts your options in half and more than doubles your cost.
To try to fight this dreaded cycle, I resolved to not buy any textbooks before my courses began. I wanted to wait and spend a few days in the class to determine what books I really needed. From this, I learned another valuable lesson, it’s better to have the textbook and not need it than need it and not have it.
As many of you probably know, college professors do not wait to start assigning homework and exams, they tend to jump right in.
I found myself unprepared for several of my classes and lacking the information I needed to be successful. All of this leads me right back into the hands of Follett.
I knew the prices were going to be high, but I would have the book in my possession right away. Moral of the story, I ended up paying seventy dollars to rent a textbook…that’s right, I won’t even get to keep it.
I was recently contacted by the creators of an awesome new tool called OccupytheBookstore. The representative that contacted me had read my September article and thought this new plug-in might be of use to me and my fellow Saint Xavier classmates.
Initially, I thought it was just another company reaching out for free advertising. But at this point, I am willing to try
anything to save me some money when it comes to textbooks so I downloaded the plugin…I was pleasantly surprised.
So, I did some additional independent research and also corresponded with the representative to get a full picture of the plugin, its purpose and the organization’s goals with the hope that I could share it with my readers, get the word out and help others save money too.
OccupyTheBookstore is a Chrome plugin (which means that you can only use it while operating within a Chrome web browser) that activates on your bookstore website.
You use the bookstore website to identify the books you’ll need, as you normally would, and the plugin automatically figures out the books you’re looking at and then displays market deals right on the page.
The extension will show you a variety of editions and buying options , including new, rental and used.
The plugin saves students about 70 percent off the bookstore cost at no cost to the student. The plugin, I was able to quickly and easily compare prices from popular sellers like Amazon and Chegg without having to go to each of those sites individually.
I also found some of the textbooks for much cheaper prices from some smaller used textbook companies that I probably would not have found otherwise.
OccupyTheBookstore is almost like a little banner that pops up during your textbook search that simply says “Hey, you have other options”.
It did end up saving me money, but more important than that, it fights for students and their money and reminds us that we’re not chained to the bookstore.
Realizing you have options is always a good thing. It is also nice to know that someone is looking out for us students and trying to save us money while we try to pursue an already expensive education.
Although I do not have enough space to write about it here, Follett has taken legal action against OccupytheBookstore and there is a lot of interesting information about it online.
Here’s the link
I’m all about gathering all the information possible before making a decision or a purchase and OccupytheBookstore helps you do that while putting it all in one convenient location.
Bridget Goedke
Senior Viewpoints Editor