by Deborah Harvey
Daily Lobo
Textbooks can be an expensive part of attending any institution of higher learning, but students can turn to online companies such as eBay, Amazon, eCampus and Barnes & Noble.
A survey commissioned by eBay showed 65 percent of students feel textbooks are expensive and more than 43 percent of students are turning to online services in order to save money on textbooks.
The survey was conducted in July and included 500 college students between the ages 19-25. It found:
* 40 percent shop on eBay for their textbooks
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* 64 percent spend $300-$600 a semester on textbooks
* 35 percent identify biology as the most expensive major for purchasing textbooks
* Nearly 50 percent pay for the majority of their textbooks without assistance from parents or loans
* 50 percent have bought textbooks online
* 29 percent have sold textbooks back online
According to the survey, more than 90 percent of the respondents go online at least once a day. It states college students are typically a tech-savvy and Web-dependent group, making the online buying and selling of books a practical alternative to overspending in offline stores.
"If you're sure you are keeping the book, go online," said Tony Peredo, a UNM business major.
Returning books is a disadvantage to buying books online because not all are returnable.
Carrie Mitchell, book division manager at the UNM Bookstore, said sometimes a professor's book order is not correctly requested, leading students to purchase the wrong book.
When books are not available at the UNM Bookstore, they refer to an online system which was first used during the fall semester of 2003.
An ISBN number is required to order books online. It can be found printed directly on books or in bookstore catalogs.
Shipping fees, which also apply when books are purchased online at the bookstore, are another disadvantage.
"There is no space to store books ordered online, so the books must be shipped to the person ordering," Mitchell said.
Online purchases mean students don't wait in long lines to get books delivered to their homes.
John Reindorp, computer systems manager at the UNM Bookstore, said online orders went up about 15 percent over last year.
