Alternatives to costly textbooks
Andrea K. Walker

Greer Begbie is concerned primarily about one thing when shopping for her son’s college textbooks: price. The southern New Jersey mother, whose son Chris is a junior finance major at Towson University in Towson, Md., scours websites, including Half.com and Amazon.com, for the best deals. She almost always buys used books. She says new, full-price textbooks are too expensive.

"It’s a rip-off," Begbie said. "You can end up paying way too much."

The cost of college textbooks has been an issue for years. But as students head back to school, they have more alternatives than ever to the traditional campus bookstore. Web sites are selling books for half-price or less. Other sites rent textbooks for less than the cost of buying.

The US Government Accountability Office found that textbook prices increased 186 per cent from 1986 to 2004, while inflation rose 72 per cent. The GAO said textbooks and supplies for full-time students at four-year universities ran about $898 in 2004.

Internet movements, such as Maketextbooksaffordable.org, are pushing to bring costs down. University bookstores are having to adapt to stay competitive. The bookstore at Towson University, for instance, revamped its price list after losing $500,000 in sales last year. The bookstore is considering renting out books.

The College of Southern Maryland tested a rental program of its own last year and expanded it because it was successful.

In the meantime, an Internet movement is helping students beat the rising cost of textbooks. Chegg.com rents out textbooks at a savings of 65 percent to 85 percent off the cost to buy new.

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