Students often ask how they should decide whether to buy or rent their books. As a result of answering this question fairly often, I thought we should add a post here that compares the differences & how each student should decide which option is best.

First, what is a rental? What do you do after a semester is over? How do you return it?

FreeTextbooks now offers textbook rentals on thousands of titles, which can be a cheaper alternative to the usual ‘buy & resell’ method. This gives students another great option for finding textbooks, and also makes FreeTextbooks the only site that lets you compare buy & rent prices side-by-side, all while finding your books by course. Know your schedule? Find your books, compare buy/rent prices, get ‘em fast, earn cashback – only at FreeTextbooks.

Here’s how rentals work:

1. Rent your books - Once you find the books you need, select the amount of time you’d like to rent it (semester/quarter/60-days), add it to your cart, & checkout.

2. Get your books - During checkout, select your shipping option. We offer low, flat-rate expedited delivery via FedEx Ground or USPS Priority Mail, plus FedEx 2-day & Overnight rates for books that are confirmed in stock.

3. Use your books – Read your textbook & complete assignments for your courses as normal. You are not allowed to write on the pages. Feel free to highlight, but keep it to a reasonable minimum. If you return your book in a condition that prevents us from renting it again, your card will be charged the replacement cost.

4. Return your books – Visit your ‘My Account’ page toward the end of your rental period to find your FREE FedEx return shipping label & packing slip. Put your books in a secure box or envelope, attach the label, and drop off at any FedEx location. Books must be postmarked by your due date or a 25% late fee will be assessed.

Now for the buy/rent comparison…

Buying Books

Pros:

-better option if book is needed for more than one semester/quarter

-you get to sell it back at the end of the semester/quarter

-you own the book, which means you can highlight, write/mark-up pages, etc

-owning the book also means you can keep it if desired

Cons:

-can be a higher initial cost

-sometimes, students are dissatisfied with buyback value

Renting Books

Pros:

-can be much cheaper if book is only needed one semester/quarter

Cons:

-must return via mail by due date or late fee/replacement cost will be charged

-no writing allowed & limitations on how much you can highlight.

-more expensive if book needed more than one semester/quarter

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any questions – we’re here to help! contact@freetextbooks.com

One of the most frustrating, incomprehensible things about textbooks occurs during end-of-semester buybacks. You take a book that you bought brand new from the bookstore for $140.00, walk up to their buyback table, hand it over & wait for the offer…

“We can’t buy this book.”

“What? Why? I paid $140 just four months ago!”

“Sorry, it’s going out of edition”

If you’ve ever been a college student & sold your textbooks at the end of a semester, you’ve at least heard something comparable. It may be that the book is changing editions, that the bookstore has reached their max-allowed quantity, or that the professor isn’t using the text anymore. But regardless, the bookstore won’t buy it back & as a result, there’s an extreme distaste for selling textbooks. Everyone talks about it around campus, on Twitter & Facebook, and in blogs or news articles.

“Selling textbooks is a rip off!”

“You only get pennies on the dollar.”

“My book was worth $140 in August. Now it’s worth nothing?”

Admittedly, sharing this frustration is what led me to start FreeTextbooks. I couldn’t figure out how, in a free market system & with other buying choices, the majority of Samford University students would file into such a tiny bookstore, stand in line for hours & pay full price for their textbooks.

Problem is, this is the situation at campus bookstores across the United States. So why do bookstores continue to get so much student business? Answer: location and peace of mind. You see, most students wait until they actually attend class to buy their textbooks, then they’re stuck when their professor says, “You need your book by the next class.” That doesn’t leave you many buying choices, does it? It’s Monday & you need the textbook by Wednesday? “Oh well, I’ll have to buy it at the bookstore.”

Back on topic – why is a book purchased four months ago worth practically nothing?

Because publishers frequently issue new, updated (often sparingly) editions. Why? To combat the used textbook market. Think about it – if a new Human Anatomy textbook is published in January 2010 and is adopted by 500 professors around the U.S. with an average class size of 50, the publisher will sell 25,000 copies. By August 2010, many of those 25,000 books are on the market as used, cheaper copies, which means the publisher may only sell 10,000 new copies. By January 2011, there are about 35,000 used copies floating around, causing publisher sales of new books to fall further. This repeats for the life of the book & publisher sales continue to decline each semester. So, in order to sell more books, the publisher puts out a new edition & makes sure those 500 classes adopt the new one. It’s a constant game of cat-and-mouse.

That tells you why books go out of edition, but it only leads us to the most important part. If you purchase a book for $140 and it’s worth nothing four months later, it’s mostly your fault.

What in the…? Are you serious?

Unfortunately, yes. Because that $140 book you bought at the bookstore was available elsewhere for MUCH less. How can you be sure? If it’s not worth anything, then it’s going (or already is) out of edition. If it’s going out of edition, it’s been in print for at least three semesters. If it’s been in print that long, there are plenty of used copies available all over the internet. How much are they? A fraction of what the bookstore charges.

Here’s an example:

Mario Triola’s Elementary Statistics updated to an 11th edition just after the start of the August 2009 semester. For many colleges, the 10th was required for fall classes, as the 11th wasn’t in full distribution yet. Your bookstore’s new price was $149, and it’s used price was $99. But the market for the 10th edition was sinking in anticipation of the upcoming 11th edition, which means it’s real value was closer to $35-40. In August, FreeTextbooks sold the 10th edition for $33. At time of writing, the 10th edition had a used marketplace price of $11.79, but if the 10th edition is still required this January, your bookstore will still be selling it for $149 and/or $99. Why? Because bookstores adhere to strict pricing strategies no matter what the market conditions are (see previous blog post, How Your Campus Bookstore Makes Money).

We anticipate getting a lot of questions about how books are valued during buybacks this year, so I hope this helps answer some of the most common questions. Some of our angriest customers are those that purchased books at their bookstore, then get furious when that expensive book is only worth $8 or so at FreeTextbooks. Well, $8 > $0 & our price was a lot less to begin with. Since our prices are set by the entire used market, you always get the “best-case-scenario” for buying & selling books.

In closing, we know it’s frustrating. Very frustrating. But we’re here & trying to help by selling for less and buying for more. Plus, tell a few friends and get $5 per referred buyback. There’s an easy way to boost your total…

Beat your bookstore. Use FreeTextbooks.

________

Coming up next, we’ll revisit how books are valued, what drives buyback values, and most importantly, how FreeTextbooks beats your bookstore & other online buyback sites.

Questions or comments? Let us know below!

Though students don’t necessarily use FreeTextbooks because of our social impact, we are committed to donating $1 per book purchased or rented. We also allow customers the opportunity to donate $1 or more during the checkout process. Earlier this year, I blogged about our general thoughts on charity & how we hope to harness the goodwill of our customers to meet humanity’s most basic needs around the U.S. and world (see: How We Help: Our Mission of Social Responsibility). Regardless of profits, our entire company understands & supports the importance of this commitment and it’s been exciting to see our employees associate the increase in sales with increased charitable involvement.

In addition, we want to be an open company. We want customers to know who we are, our values, ideas, or problems, and I want this blog to be an expression of that.

So, here is a look at our charitable giving for fall 2009. This was only possible through our wonderful customers, so if you bought books from us, be proud! This is just the beginning…

• Provided 4,809 meals for food-insecure American families through Feeding America.
• Gave 28 people clean drinking water for 20 years through charity: water’s freshwater well projects.
• Donated $291 for books & supplies to underprivileged classrooms through Room to Read.
• Provided vaccinations against meningitis, measles, & polio for 552 people through Doctors Without Borders.

Finally, through one of our newest partners, DonorsChoose.org, we donated books to second graders in a high-poverty Alabama classroom. Here’s a thank you letter from the teacher, Mrs. Hope (or see it, here)

Dear FreeTextbooks,
I am so excited. I know it is almost Christmas, but it feels like Christmas to me today. Wow! I cannot wait to tell my students that we will be getting a lot of new books for our classroom library. By the time children reach second grade, most of them are reading well and really enjoy it. It is important to me to have a wide variety of books on different levels for my children. You have helped make this available. I am thankful for your support of education and reading through donors choose. If it were not for Donors Choose, I would not have this wonderful opportunity to get more materials, like books, for my classroom. Once again, thank you very much! Your donation is greatly appreciated.
With gratitude,
 Mrs. H.

That wraps it up. We’re currently working on site improvements, building on-campus buyback relationships, and preparing for December & January! Get ready – big improvements are coming.

When we started Free Textbooks in January 2009, it didn’t take long to realize that we could use our customer base to tackle some pretty big social tasks. Believing that all people are inherently charitable, we began brainstorming ways to harness that goodwill both as a company and through our customers.  The idea we developed is based on that often-made $1 donation at the end of your shopping transaction. How many times have you been asked to add $1 at Publix, Target, or Walgreens? And how many times have you declined? I hope none, unless you really couldn’t spare a dollar.

For most of us, it’s easy to spare $1 for an honorable cause. We actually want to – we’re just not asked enough. Compare the associated feelings when asked for $1 to your feelings when asked for $30. Odds are you declined that $30 request unless you’d premeditated your giving.  And, when it comes to actually planning to be charitable, we seemingly talk ourselves out of it, as we’re left to think through other ways that $30 could go to use. As a result, I’d argue that the most effective way to raise $30 for charity would be to ask 30 people for $1 each.

At the same time, if you try to solicit $1 from 30 strangers on the street, my guess is that a mere handful would offer support. How many of you decline giving $1 to a beggar? You question their motives and how they’ll actually use it. Rather, place people in an organized setting (e.g. the grocery checkout) and assign a specific organization or cause, and I bet you’ll get almost as many dollars as customers. Granted this is all unproven, it’s just a product of my observations that we’ve chosen to test at Free Textbooks.

So if we can recruit a significant number of donations, how should it be distributed?  I recently read a study by The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University that discussed the patterns and allocations of charitable donations by American households. The central question the study sought to answer was this: To what extent is charitable giving by individuals directed to agencies that are working to provide for the needs of the poorest? A shocking fact from this study is that “only 8 percent of households’ donated dollars were reported as contributions to help meet basic needs – providing food, shelter, or other necessities.” (p. 2)

Rather than targeting donations to higher education, healthcare research, or planting trees, shouldn’t more of us be concerned with meeting humanity’s most basic needs? Admittedly, the former should not be neglected, but the real needs of a helpless man are obvious – food, clean water, education, and health.

As a result of this conviction, Free Textbooks has partnered with four non-profits that strive to meet these basic human needs – Feeding America, charity: water, Room to Read, and Doctors Without Borders. While we donate $1 for every book purchased on FreeTextbooks.com, we hope customers are willing to add a dollar or two of their own. To offer a little more insight, we’ll be profiling these four organizations over the coming weeks and discussing how they use the money we’ll collect & give. You’ll be amazed at what your $1 can do.

Questions or comments? Post your thoughts below…

What is Free Textbooks? Founded in January 2009, FreeTextbooks.com is an online textbook buyer and seller with a real-world presence at the University of Alabama, Samford University, the University of Alabama-Huntsville, Auburn University, and Troy University. We sell for less, buy for more, and offer a unique cash back program (translation: free books).  FreeTextbooks.com is also a social venture, helping to meet the underprivileged’s most basic needs – food, clean water, clothing, education, and health.

One of the objectives of this blog is to educate you about the college textbook market in order to help you make more informed buying decisions. That doesn’t necessarily mean buying from us – we just hate to see you walk into a campus bookstore & overspend.

A big reason I got into this business is that it always seemed like students were severely underserved. Students have no say over which books they buy & options for saving money are few. Not only do you have to buy the books assigned by professors, you’re often told, “Have the book by tomorrow.” This presents a terrible disadvantage, as you’re basically forced into walking to the bookstore & paying their price, no matter how high. Find that they’re out of used books? Sorry. You have to have it & end up buying a new one. Chances are you could’ve paid up to 30-90% less through Free Textbooks.

How can you avoid this bookstore deadlock? By ordering your books in advance. If you’re interested in saving money, never wait until the first day of class to buy your books. Free Textbooks compiles course & book data for a number of schools, making it super easy to find out which books you need & order them early.  So a couple weeks before class, start shopping. Find a good price with good shipping options & go for it.

What if you do wait until classes start? Do you really have a choice? As mentioned, when a professor tells you to get your book immediately and start studying, you think, “Oh well. There’s nowhere else I can get it in time. I’ll have to go to the bookstore.” This is a mentality Free Textbooks is trying to fight. Not only do we use free expedited shipping services, we will also offer overnight and 2-day shipping services to give students the flexibility they need.

Example: Let’s say you attend your Psychology 101 class on a Monday morning & your professor asks you to have the book by Wednesday. What can you do? Buy it at the bookstore? Order it online? Let’s compare your choices.

Psychology, by Ciccarelli, 2^nd edition. ISBN 0136004288.

Bookstore’s new price: $137.00

Bookstore’s used price: $91.10

Free Textbooks’ used price: $75.60

You know that the Free Textbooks price is cheaper, but you need it by this Wednesday & it’s Monday. So, you say, “There’s no way I can order it online. It won’t get here in time.” Well, if it’s from us, you’re wrong.

Bookstore options:

1. Buy new at bookstore for $137.00 + tax.
2. If it’s in stock, buy used at bookstore for $91.10 + tax.

Free Textbooks options:

1. Buy used for $75.60 + free FedEx Ground. Arrives Wed-Fri. Total = $75.60
2. Buy used for $75.60 + $10 FedEx 2-day. Arrives Wednesday. Total = $85.60
3. Buy used for $75.60 + $19 FedEx Overnight. Arrives Tuesday. Total = $94.60

$75.60, $85.60, $94.60  <   $137 or $91.10 + tax

No matter how you spin it, Free Textbooks can get you the book(s) you need faster & cheaper. Give us a chance to prove it.

Questions or comments? Post your thoughts below…

What is Free Textbooks? Founded in January 2009, FreeTextbooks.com is an online textbook buyer and seller with a real-world presence at the University of Alabama, Samford University, the University of Alabama-Huntsville, Auburn University, and Troy University. We sell for less, buy for more, and offer a unique cash back program (so you can earn free books).  FreeTextbooks.com is also a social venture, helping to meet the underprivileged’s most basic needs – food, clean water, clothing, education, and health.