 Students
can buy books online
By Sarah Szczepanski
Assistant Features Editor
In 2001-2002 the
average cost that Purdue estimated students would spend for textbooks
was $830, according to the Purdue University Web site.
In order to save
money, some students are looking online to satisfy their book buying
needs. It can be cheaper and more convenient, if a student has Internet
access.
Textified.com and
Boilerbooks.com, both founded by Purdue students, offer a virtual space
where Purdue students can connect to buy and sell books to each other.
Purdue Online, although it is in a different format than the other two
sites, also offers textbook exchange under its classified heading.
On Aug. 14, Textified.com
had 451 entries for textbooks for sale and Boilerbooks.com. had 118
entries. Purdue Online had 29 entries, but some of those included individuals
who were looking to buy only specific textbooks.
That same day, Textified.com
offered 51 books under its management section and Boilerbooks.com offered
five books.
Although it includes
fewer entries, sometimes Boilerbooks.com includes books that are not
found on Textified.com. On Aug.14 Boilerbooks.com had four entries of
COM 114, "Introduction to Communication," textbook — "The Principles
of Human Communication" — that were for sale, where Textified.com
had none.
Both Boilerbooks.com
and Textified.com offer a search engine where a particular title can
be looked up. In addition, they both list the specific edition of the
book. Purdue Online sometimes had the edition, but it was not required.
On all three sites,
the textbook prices are set by the individual seller. Usually the price
is lower than the bookstores' price but more than the cost that all
of the bookstores will buy it back for.
Tom Frey, the store
manager for University Bookstores, agrees that sometimes cheaper prices
can be found online.
But he says it is
difficult for students to actually find what they are looking for when
buying online.
According to Frey,
University Bookstores has not seen a loss in sales to online companies
as much as it has seen more of the negative aspects of online purchases
from students.
"What we get
are the problems; people buying the wrong book. We try to do what we
can, but it really is not our responsibility."
Chuck Toth, a senior
in the School of Industrial Technology, was interested in the textbook
exchange Web sites. To him they sounded like a good way to avoid paying
extra high prices for books.
The only problem
he considered was if he didn’t buy a used book right away from
one of the bookstores, then he might not be able to find the correct
book on the Internet.
Then he would be
forced to pay full price for a new book in the bookstores.
But Toth still thinks
that it would be worth it to look into the online sites.
"You always have
to have a lot of options," he said. "It could work."
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