by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
Student Debbie Nelson spent only $150 on textbooks this semester.
"I got lucky," she said. "They rip us off."
Nelson said the $150 bill was a relief after she spent $500 on books last year.
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She said it would be nice if the government helped students by regulating the price of textbooks.
"We wouldn't have to take out so many loans if we didn't have to spend so much on books," she said.
Textbook prices have risen at double the rate of inflation for the last two decades, coming in slightly behind tuition increases, according to a 2004 report from the Government Accountability Office.
The average incoming, full-time student at a public, four-year school spent nearly $900 on books and supplies in 2004, the office reported.
Although the UNM Bookstore marks books up by 25 percent, it doesn't make any money from textbook sales, said Melanie Sparks, director of the Bookstore.
She said the 25 percent margin covers the operating costs for the Bookstore, such as shipping and staff.
"The lowest margin thing we have in the store is textbooks, because we want to make sure that's the most affordable thing," she said. "We try to control costs because we know it's something they need to purchase."
Sparks said the publishers set textbook prices.
She said the Bookstore's largest supplier is Pearson Education.
A spokesman for Pearson Education, David Hakensen, declined to comment.
In an e-mail, Hakensen said the company would not disclose the process for setting prices or how much money the company makes in sales every year.
"We do not discuss how prices are determined or our profitably, as we view that as proprietary information to the company," he wrote.
UNM students may set their own textbook prices as early as next semester, ASUNM Sen. Evan Harris said.
"It's going to be up to the students," he said. "At their discretion, they can sell books. They can trade books."
Harris said he would contact Facebook.com in the next couple weeks to see if UNM can use the social networking Web site for students to buy, sell and trade books through its Marketplace application.
"Different schools do different things," he said. "We're a little bit of a unique university, so I thought it would be better just to come up with something different for us."
Students get the short end of the textbook stick, Harris said.
"Students just feel gypped," he said. "We've all had the experience where you buy the book for $120 (and) sell it back to the Bookstore for $20. You come back and notice, 'Oh, they're selling those used books for $80 now."
Buying books on the Internet is another option.
The best way to get save money is by purchasing books from multiple online booksellers, such as Amazon.com and Textbooks.com, said John Bates, spokesman for Bigwords.com.
Bigwords.com is a search engine that compares prices from online booksellers and finds the cheapest ones, Bates said.
"You type in every book you need, and we'll do a price comparison
for all those sets of books," he said. "If you buy from a particular online store, they may not have a good price all the time. Bigwords finds the best price all the time."
If a search is for several books, the Web site will recommend purchases from multiple booksellers, depending on which has the lowest price for each book, he said.
"We automatically pre-fill the shopping cart for you, and you just go and check out," he said. "We've put every kind of bell and whistle we could into this search engine, so you can make sure you get the edition you actually need, and you get it on time."
Bates said the company makes a commission for referring people to the booksellers.
"We don't actually sell books, so we don't care where you buy them," he said. "So, that's why all we care about is you finding the lowest price."
