Online bookstores could be wave of future

By Elizabeth Putnal
Contributing writer

Bookstores might become a thing of the past as online vendors offer better deals for students buying and selling textbooks.

GetCheapBooks.com is a Web site designed to assist students with comparison shopping for new and used textbooks.

“Over 200,000 unique visitors came to the site in the month of January 2006,” said Jonathan Miller, founder of GetCheapBooks.com. The site offers price comparisons of about 15 different vendors, including Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and Ecampus.com.

Users can search GetCheapBooks.com by university or book title to find books for specific classes. GetCheapBooks.com has over 5,000 registered users, but it does not require users to register for an account to use GetCheapBooks.com.

The site compares the item price, shipping price, condition and availability of the textbook. Users then choose to purchase the book directly from the vendor or through GetCheapBooks.com.

The company claims to help students save up to 40 percent off retail prices. Efollet.com, the online bookstore linked to the University of North Florida Bookstore, lists a used copy of Lial, Hornsby and Schneider’s College Algebra for $85.25. GetCheapBooks.com lists the same book for $55.25 from Half.com, a savings of about 35 percent.

Ashley Pugh, a junior public relations major, recently purchased textbooks online.

“I did get a better deal,” she said. “Some of them are too overpriced, especially at our own bookstore.”

Textbook prices have nearly tripled since December 1986, having increased by 186 percent, according to a July 2005 study conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The GAO attributes the price increases to the rising costs of developing supplemental materials, such as CD-ROMs.

Miller said there are advantages of buying books at a bookstore — the purchaser can take the book home that day, and students are able to browse the store if they don’t know what book to purchase. The advantages of online bookstores are “better selection — especially of used books — and cheaper prices,” Miller said.

Laurie Hardy, manager of The College Book Rack, said with online bookstores, “you don’t really know what you’re going to get.”

Students can also sell used textbooks on GetCheapBooks.com. The site assists students with selecting the best selling option. Selling back to the vendor is fast, but peer-to-peer selling can earn about 40 percent more money, according to the Web site.

Hardy said the highest price paid for a used book by The College Book Rack is half the value of the used book. She said there are some exceptions, as when the store sells all new books and knows the books will be used again the following term.

Harry Shmunes, general manager of Buy Your Old Textbooks, said people enjoy bookstores for reasons other than getting the book on the day of purchase.

“They like the experience of having someone to help them,” Shmunes said.

B.Y.O.T.B. offers students the buyback price that the store would pay a wholesaler for the books. Shmunes said wholesalers usually charge 50 percent of the publisher’s list price.



E-mail Elizabeth Putnal at uspinnak@unf.edu.