The U of T Bookstore is introducing a buyout option for its rental program this year. The new option allows students who are not certain whether they want to rent or buy a textbook to initially rent it, and then buy it if they decide they would prefer to own it.
“With our buyout option a student can save the money up front by renting and if they change their mind come back any time before the due date with their rented book, pay the difference between the rental and purchase price and buy the book,” explains Chad Saunders, vice-president of retail at the University of Toronto Press, adding: “So the worst case scenario is that they buy it but pay for some of it later.” Additionally the Bookstore is lowering the prices of the majority of new textbooks to make them approximately equal to prices on Amazon.ca, the largest online retailer of textbooks.
Presumably, these initiatives are in response to increasing pressure in the market from online book exchange websites, through which students at U of T and other schools in Toronto can buy and sell used textbooks. A typical transaction involves a student placing an advertisement for a book she or he wants to sell, which other students can search for on the site. The prospective buyer then contacts the seller using information listed on the ad to arrange a meeting to complete the sale. Effectively, the service works similarly to classifieds sites like Craigslist or Kijiji, but specifically for textbooks.
CourseTexts (coursetexts.ca) is one of these services. Rajaie AlKorani, the website’s co-creator, states that “The U [of] T Bookstore’s main focus is to make money, not to give students good deals on their books. CourseTexts’ focus is to give students the upper hand when buying books since it lets them choose to purchase their textbooks from a large number of people, rather than a single company/organization.”
Perhaps the most well known of these websites is the Toronto University Student’s Book Exchange (tusbe.com), which in past years was the only such service of any appreciable size. However, when it went down for three months this summer, other websites like CourseTexts, Bookwiz (bookwiz.leila.cc) and Torbok (torbok.com) began appearing to take its place. tusbe has since relaunched, and with over 20,000 listings, has reclaimed its place as the largest of the exchange services. However, its younger competitors have no intentions of bowing out. Al Korani and Leila Chan Currie of Bookwiz both point out that one must create an account to view sellers’ contact information on TUSBE, while their respective sites have no such requirement. Bookwiz is also linked to Coursewiz (coursewiz.leila.cc), a database of courses and professors at U of T used by thousands of students. Textbooks listed on Bookwiz place a link on the corresponding Coursewiz page, creating an additional advertisement for the seller.
“I’d like to say that I don’t think the current fragmentation of online exchanges serves students very well,” notes Currie, speaking to the competition in a market monopolized by tusbe just a few months ago. Currie emailed the other major websites — proposing a shared, open source database for used books so that the same results could be used anywhere, with whichever interface students preferred. “Unfortunately only Torbok emailed me back, saying they weren’t interested in the extra work,” said Currie.
The result of all this activity, at any rate, is that students have more options than ever when choosing where to buy their textbooks. The Bookstore, as always, offers the convenience of being able to purchase all one’s books in a single place — now at more competitive prices, and with the option of effectively leasing them without the effort of having to peruse listings and contact sellers. Enterprising students can seek to save money by using one of the now myriad book exchange websites, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Becoming familiar with the sites’ functions is at any rate useful because one can eventually sell one’s textbooks to recoup some cost. Currie points out that: “If you buy a used book online one year, you’re very likely to be able to sell it to someone else for the exact same price the next year.” As with any purchase, being an informed consumer is critical, particularly when it comes to spending hundreds of dollars on books some students may simply never open.
