For college students, here's how to get cheaper textbooks

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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 Web sites, 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 U.S. Government Accountability Office found that textbook prices increased 186 percent from 1986 to 2004, while inflation rose 72 percent. 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.

There are more used books on the shelves as the bookstore works more closely with professors on deciding what books will be used for classes. 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.

"The textbook problem has existed for students for a long time," said Jim Safka, CEO of Chegg.com. "The difference is, when I was in school there was no Internet and no other alternatives to buy books."

Campusbookrentals.com was started by Alan Martin after he became frustrated with book costs while working on a master's degree at Weber State University in Utah. He said students could save an average of 50 percent to 60 percent by renting textbooks.

His company provides envelopes with prepaid postage for students to return books when the rental period ends.

"Every student feels the frustration of paying for books," said Martin, whose site serves 4,000 campuses across the United States. "You can muster up the money to pay tuition, but it just doesn't seem right to pay so much for books." Bookfinder.com recently started a service that enables students to comparison shop by showing the price of a book on various Internet sites.

Campus bookstores say they often are made out to be the bad guys in the debate over textbook prices. They contend that publishers control book prices and that the stores operate on slim margins. Money from campus bookstores sometimes is used to fund school initiatives.

"We are trying to do what we can to make it as painless as possible for students," said Rosemary Epperson, director of the University Store at Towson.

But even as bookstores work on ways to keep students buying, they'll have a hard time earning loyalty.

Phillip Lester and Elisabeth Flood, both Towson University seniors from Elkton, Md., said the campus bookstore was the last place they would buy their books.

Both said they preferred to shop at the Towson Book Exchange, an off-campus bookstore, because it is cheaper. They also shop at Half.com. They said that they had not heard about a rental option but that it sounded like a good alternative.

On the other hand, Helen Sundqvist said she liked the convenience of the campus bookstore.

"It's easy," said the 22-year-old sophomore from Sweden, who is majoring in political science. "The prices can be expensive. But it is what it is."

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