Before every semester begins, a consistent buzz is heard around campus: the cost of textbooks. While the on-campus University Bookstore is the starting point for many students buying books, others rely on off-campus bookstores to prepare for class.
Boomer Book Co. on Lindsey Street advertises lower prices than other bookstores.
“Our goal is to match or beat everybody by price matching,” said Devon Toland, Boomer Book Co. general manager. “We want students to be able to go to college and learn by not having to empty their bank accounts on textbooks.”
Boomer Book Co. owns the Sooner Textbooks store that is located on Campus Corner, also using the price matching strategy to try and beat the other stores.
Ratcliffe’s Textbooks, located west of the dorms off of Elm Street, carries all the books that the University Bookstore contains.
“We wait and see what the University Bookstore does on prices because they are the main bookstore here so they have the right to price their books first,” Ratcliffe’s manager Charissa Siebert said. “We have all the textbooks that they have over at the university store, so we should be able to compete with them. Our most expensive books are mainly the freshman-level science classes and business accounting books.”
While the off-campus bookstores do compete for lower textbook prices, books for courses such as freshman-level science classes and business and accounting classes remain costly.
At the University Bookstore the lower-level science classes have the most expensive books.
“The chemistry book is one of our highest priced titles, and would fall into that category of lower level science,” said University Bookstore spokesperson Scott Ripp. “The price for this book to buy is $206.50 new and $155 used. To rent would cost $92.93.”
An alternative to the bookstores is online book shopping. Websites such as Amazon.com and Half.com are popular for the lower retail rate.
Another option to buying textbooks is the bookstores’ rental programs. All bookstores now have rental prices available for students. Rental prices are usually half of what the normal prices are to buy the book.
“The rental program is good for those who need to save money at the moment but in the long run if it is a textbook that you will need more than one semester it will cost you more to have to rent it more than once,” Seibert said.
“Our goal is to make it a little easier for students to learn without worrying about the cost of books,” Siebert said. “It’s not about the money, it’s about the education.”
TEXTBOOK PRICE COMPARISONS
Biology by Hoefnagels (ZOO 1114)
›› University Bookstore — New $162.75 Used $122.00
›› Ratcliffe Textbooks — New $154.50 Used $116.00
›› Boomer Book Co. — New $163.50 Used $124.00
›› Amazon.com — New $121.20 Used $104.10
America Past and Present (HIST 1493)
›› University Bookstore — New $113.40
›› Ratcliffe Textbooks — $110.00
›› Boomer Book Co. — Unavailable
›› Amazon — $100.00
Chemistry by Brudge (CHEM 1315)
›› University Bookstore — New $206.50 Used $155.00
›› Ratcliffe Textbooks — New $206.00 Used $154.75
›› Boomer Book Co. — New $197.50 Used $150.00
›› Amazon — New $156.68 Used $151.05
A History of Western Art (A HI 1113)
›› University Bookstore — New $127.40 Used None
›› Ratcliffe Textbooks — New $126.00 Used $95.50
›› Boomer Book Co. — Unavailable
›› Amazon — New $114.44 Used $64.60
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evarun21 1 year, 7 months ago
I buy all of my textbooks used from Amazon.com's marketplace. They have the best prices. When I'm finished using them, I resell them for cash to http://www.mybookcart.com. I find that buying used online and then reselling them online is the best way to go.