With the semester coming to an end, students are deciding the best way to their used textbooks and get the best deal on buyback prices.
The campus bookstore offers 50 percent of the new price at the end of the semester for textbooks bearing a Guaranteed Buyback sticker.
Tuyen Tran, textbook manager for the campus bookstore, said there has been a trend towards increasing the number of buybacks from students at the campus store.
More information will be provided on buybacks via the bookstore Web site and e-mails this semester, Tran said.
In-demand titles for buyback will be included in e-mails while a more comprehensive list will be included on the Web site, he said.
“That information is going to change as books are bought back, so it’s a good source for students to be able to see what’s still needed, and then they can determine if it’s worth making the trip,” Tran said.
Joshua Peavey, a sophomore in environmental technology, said he was more satisfied with the offers from other stores after shopping his used books around last summer.
“Last semester I started selling them to the places up and down Hillsborough Street because they give you a little more cash,” he said.
Peavey was unaware of the Guaranteed Buyback Program the campus book store offered and said he would investigate it next semester.
Bobby Mills, a senior in political science and economics, said that even though prices are occasionally a little higher, he has supported using the bookstore since he found out that its profits go to financial aid for NCSU students.
NCSU Bookstores is a non-profit organization which benefits the University’s need-based Academic Scholarship Fund, according to its Web site.
“I used to buy my books online, but ever since I found that out, I’ve purchased my books on campus because I want to do things that benefit students,” Mills said.
Mills said he encouraged increased use of the Guaranteed Buyback Program while he was student body president last year, and said in recent years students have saved over $1 million as a result of the program.
“The initial cost is still the same, but at the end of the semester you’ll get a lot more of your investment back in return and that saves you money,” he said. “It not only saves students money in that form, but it encourages more students to buy books on campus which also encourages more financial aid.”
A key component of the Guaranteed Buyback Program and for ensuring higher prices paid on buybacks in general, Mills said, is making sure teachers put their textbook orders in on time.
A mandate from Provost Larry Nielsen has increased the percentage of teachers who place their orders on time considerably, Mills said.
The best time to sell books back to the campus store is at the end of the semester, according to the Web site.
