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More
cash by selling books on Internet
By Michelle Siazon
On-line Forty-Niner
As the end of the
semester approaches and students cope with the stress of finals,
they now begin to think about what to do with their hardly
used or over highlighted textbooks.
Most students usually end up doing the simple, yet sometimes
tedious task of selling their books back to the student bookstore
through a conventional buyback program. Yet, there is another
option to be explored, online marketing of textbooks through
Web sites such as Amazon.com, Half.com or TextbookX.com.
Through a traditional buyback program, students tend to receive
anywhere from 40 to 50 percent of their purchase price, if
the campus plans to re-use the book and 0 to 30 percent if
not, according to Geoffrey Katz, Industry Relations coordinator
of Akademos, Inc. which is a company dedicated to benefiting
students and faculty access to educational information through
new media and models of distribution.
President of Akademos, Inc., Brian Jacobs came up with the
idea of a textbook exchange Web Site two years ago, before
it had been done before, and prior to the launch of TextbookX.com.
Jacobs was a professor at Cornell University, where he became
familiar with the inefficiencies in the system of book purchasing
and buyback, according to Katz.
Towards the end of 1999, Jacobs launched his company and improved
the site's retail model and formed supply-chain relationships
with major textbook publishers as well as new and used book
wholesalers, all within the next two years.
"The loser in every cycle of purchasing and return was
the student who invariably paid too much and got back too
little from their textbook investment," Katz said.
Through this type of market, students can sell their books
for more money than offered by traditional buyback programs
and purchasers can buy those books for less. The Internet
makes it possible by bringing together suppliers and purchasers
no matter which campus they attend, widening the market for
used books, which are often very limited at bookstores.
"Clearly the quick pay-out of dollars through conventional
buybacks is the glaring disincentive here," said Katz.
The advantage for student purchasers is that they will have
access to a variety of sources for a single transaction. With
a single order and one credit card transaction, they are able
to acquire a discounted new book, a discounted used book,
an "exchange" book from an individual seller, and
so on, in any combination.
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