Selling back textbooks is one way students can get extra money for the holidays.
Students can sell their books to off-campus bookstores for as much as half of what they paid, depending on many factors.
“I hope to get back at least $160 for all of my books from this semester,” said sophomore Daniel Caldwell.
Most students don’t know that during the end of each semester is the best time to sell books back to get the greatest value.
“The week before exams is the best time to start selling books for half price. If students come in during mid-terms, they get wholesale value, which is about a quarter of the value,” Dee Dee Hanson, College Books, said.
If students buy a new book they can get up to half of what they paid back, and if students buy a used book they may still get half of what they paid in most cases.
For example, if the book will be used again, if the instructors don’t change editions, if the book is in good shape, and if the bookstore isn’t overstocked students may get up to half of their money back.
“I’ve hardly read any of my books this semester, and I’m ready for my refund,” freshman Ben Ayers said.
College Books, will buy books back from TJC students and non-TJC students as well. TJC students must have a current student ID and non-TJC students will only receive the wholesale value of their books.
“Students must have a current student ID because people steal like crazy,” Dee Dee Hanson said.
Though some students order their books online, College Books will not buy back those books if it is an international version, a teacher’s edition or an older edition, which student’s can find online really cheap.
“We don’t like to turn students down, so if we think we can sell a book to a whole sale used book company, we will pay the student what the whole sale company would pay me for the book,” Anne Clower said.
There is no limit on the number of books students can sell back.
“It’s a guessing game. After we think we’ve bought back enough books to meet our quota, we stop buying books back from students,” Ann Clower said.
This year the books with labs that include an access code cause the student to get back a lot less than what they would if they bought a book without the labs.
“When students buy new books with my math labs (for example), when we buy the book back from the student we have to deduct $70 off to be able to replace the math lab access code for the next student,” Ann and Dee Dee said.
Some students believe they don’t get half as much as they paid when they sell their books back.
“I still appreciate the fact that the bookstores allow us to get money back because all I know is there might be colleges that don’t buy books back,” Caldwell said.
