When asked for one one word to describe the price of books, Shanice Owens, a sophomore Sociology major, says, “outrageous.”
Owens shares the same view of the prices of books with many other students.
“You don’t even get back half what you pay for the textbooks,” says Owens, citing the end of the semester when students sell their books back in hopes to get back some of their money. “For a book that I paid $120 for, I received $24 back!”
Sean Doucette, sophomore Media Production major, says he feels trapped into purchasing books.
“. (but) we need the books for the classes. Either you buy the books, or you don’t pass your class.”
There are other options however. As Professor Patricia Norberg suggests, Owens buys her books on Amazon.com. “I saved $300 on books,” says Owens.
The question still remains, ‘why are textbooks so expensive?’
Norberg estimates that the retailer cut, not only for Quinnipiac bookstore, is 25% though she was hesitant on her sources. Norberg believed that Half.com as well as Amazon.com was a good choice for students to buy their books.
“International versions are cheaper, which would make you wonder,” claims Norberg. Asking Norberg to clarify what she meant by her statements, she said bluntly, “the production costs can’t be much different.”
Looking from an outside resource, www.Salon.com, column writer Christopher Dreher writes that the price of books covers the “publisher’s overhead,” (which covers the cost of maintaining editors, designers, and sales representatives), “the cost of distributors, and promotions (of the books).”
So, it is a known fact that wherever a student will go to a retailer to purchase a textbook, the prices will be higher than people may be willing to pay. However, Quinnipiac charges $5.95 for a single subject 5 Star Mead notebook that Target was selling for $1 during the last couple of weeks of August.
The cure? There is a Facebook group called “Quinnipiac Book Exchange” that currently has 210 members. It is where Quinnipiac students post books that they need and books that they have so they do not have to buy a new book. If nothing else, Half.com and Amazon.com are suggested.