It's invariably happened to every student at Ball State University and every other college across the country.
We all have walked into a bookstore with our class schedules in one hand and our check books in the other, only to leave with both hands full of overpriced ink and paper, our checking account devastated and a new found disdain for the textbook business.
Textbooks are obviously an important part of the college education experience, but the model the Ball State Bookstore follows and CBX and TIS followed until this semester — the one that sells you the new edition of a book for $100 and buys it back for $1 because there will be a new edition next semester — is a terrible drain on us.
Fortunately, that isn't our only option anymore. We can rent, which will cost us about half the normal price, but give us no buy back money. We can buy online, which is cheaper than a book store and allows us to sell back. We also can buy e-textbooks, which are cheap, allow easy searching, highlighting and no extra bulk in the back pack.
Bookstores need to make money, but we also need to support ourselves through school, and cutting down on the amount bookstores steal from us can only help.
So do your research kids. Find the best option for you and your textbooks. It may even be the normal route. But don't be lazy and go for expensive books for the convenience of proximity when waiting a little bit longer could save you money.
You may be choosing the lesser of evils when it comes to textbooks, but saving is saving and tuition, housing, food and partying aren't cheap either.
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