Prices for new textbooks have increased at twice the rate of inflation since 1986, according to a federal report, leading many students to fight back by buying books from alternative companies.
The average college student will spend more than $3,500 on textbooks over the course of four years, according to the Arizona Student Public Interest Research Group.
Students like urban and metropolitan standards junior Mike McDade look for any alternative to the ASU Bookstores.
“I’m a nontraditional student and I have to stretch my financial aid as much as possible, so I’m always looking for the cheapest resource,” he said.
One Web site he found to be the cheapest on more than one occasion is DealOz.com, a Web crawler that searches multiple sites for new, used and rental books.
Renting textbooks is a trend that has increased competition between book dealers, like Chegg.com and some local bookstores.
Chegg was launched in 2007 as a peer-to-peer secondhand textbook site and has evolved into a “one-stop shop for textbook rentals,” said spokeswoman Tina Couch.
“Chegg was started to help college students to save money and give them an alternative to college campus bookstores,” Couch said. “The core mission is to save students as much money as possible.”
Nursing sophomore Nicole Adams rented her textbooks from Chegg.com for the first time this semester and said she was pleased with the results.
“I saved well over $300 and I would definitely recommend it,” Adams said. “It took me five minutes to find all my books and pay for them and they arrived the next day.”
Couch said she expects to see a rise in the number of students renting textbooks across the country, particularly because it also benefits publishers.
“Publishers make their money on the sale of the book and it’s a one-time transaction for them,” she said. “With renting, a book has a longer life cycle and they are making money on the multiple times that it is rented.”
Rob Meyers, an ASU Bookstores assistant, said Wednesday that the University does everything possible to help students save money on textbooks.
“Our texts are some of the lowest [priced] texts in the country because we operate on a smaller margin than most university bookstores,” he said.
The ASU Bookstores also offer a price guarantee to match prices from any other established retailer, even those online, with proof of the lower price. The only prices the stores won’t match are those of peer-to-peer sales, like listings on Craigslist and eBay.
The ASU Bookstores have also started offering some textbooks as rentals in addition to used books.
Couch said prices vary from store to store depending on the book, but renting is almost always the cheapest option.
“College students are obviously going to do their homework and shop around to see what is cheapest,” she said. “[Renting] is going to continue to grow and you’re going to see a vast array of options. It all comes back to helping the students.”
Reach the reporter at keshoult@asu.edu
