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College students will be
able to shop around more for deals on textbooks,
thanks to a new law that took effect this month.
The Higher Education
Opportunity Act requires colleges to release
required book lists at the time of class
registration. Publishers must disclose prices and
revision information to schools.
Proponents say the law will
give students more time to take advantage of
textbook buy-back programs, book rentals and
prices that are often lower online than in college
bookstores. They expect it will also force
professors to pay more attention to the cost of
books they assign.
"Until this year, many
schools didn't give the book list until the week
before classes, and you really had no choice but
to head to the college bookstore," says Christine
Frietchen, editor in chief of ConsumerSearch.com.
Dan
Rosensweig, CEO of the textbook rental site
Chegg.com, says the law will provide more
transparency for students, which he thinks will
translate into a boost in interest in his service.
"If information isn't
available to you until the last minute, things
like the Internet don't really benefit you," he
says.
Borders launched an online
textbook "marketplace" last week that allows
students to buy or sell books with other students
or sell them to an outside company. Amazon
recently announced that more than 1 million
textbooks are eligible for its buy-back program,
which allows customers to exchange used textbooks
for an Amazon gift card.
Frietchen, who analyzed
textbook prices for the ConsumerSearch blog, says
college bookstores are often out of used-book
options. Freshmen and students taking classes that
aren't part of their majors often don't want to
keep their textbooks. That makes renting or buying
the cheaper electronic versions more attractive,
she says.
But Charles Schmidt,
spokesman for the National Association of College
Stores, says his 3,000 members are confident they
can remain competitive. Schmidt notes that college
stores can guarantee that students buy the correct
edition, and have clearly defined return policies.
"If you purchased through a
peer or eBay, you're out of luck," he says.
But some of the off-campus
options may be too good to pass up. Students who
shop at eBay-owned Half.com
can search for books offered at discounted prices
from sellers across the country. Often, nearly new
paperback novels required for English classes are
listed on the site for less than a dollar.
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