Students find new ways to save on books using the Internet

By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki
Special to the State Journal

There's a new twist on Internet book-buying among college students looking to save a buck. Not only are students shopping the Web, they're also scrimping by buying books a chapter at a time or simply swapping books with other students online.

As college students head back to campus in the next week or two, about 23 percent of them will turn to the Internet, trying to beat bookstore prices, according to textbook-industry surveys. That's up from 16 percent in 2004.

And the trend is likely to swing even higher as tuition continues to rise; nationally, costs have grown at twice the rate of inflation over the past 20 years, according to the U.S. Government Accounting Office.

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In Michigan, tuition increases averaged 7.13 percent this fall - and budget-conscious students are snubbing campus stores in search of lower prices or even free books through sites like SwapSimple.com, which allows students to trade books, games and DVDs for only the cost of shipping and a $2 fee.

Another option is available through a Web site launched this year called iChapters.com, which sells books published by parent company Thomson Learning one chapter at a time, for as low as $1.99 a chapter. That can be a great solution to a major student complaint -- professors who require expensive books but only use a couple of chapters out of them.

Jim Marr, 21, of Byron Center has picked up four textbooks for his classes at Michigan State University though SwapSimple.com.

"I love it. I've been trying to find a fair deal on my textbooks around East Lansing," Marr said. "This made it nice and easy."

Traditionally, students tried to cut book costs by buying them used from the bookstore and then reselling them. Today, many students say buying used books from the campus store doesn't save enough.

"I paid $118 for a calculus book that was used and in poor condition," said MSU student Matt Murer, 18, of Walled Lake. The bookstore bought it back after the class for $25, he said.

Contact Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki of the Detroit Free Press at (586) 469-4681 or pwalsh@freepress.com.

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