Buying used textbooks is a well-known way to save money on your college education, but the used book system at NC State Bookstores needs moderate reforms. Most, if not all, college students know the sticker price for textbooks to be expensive, a hefty price tag that even while rarely crippling still feels like a sting after paying large sums for tuition and other expenses, albeit cheaper than other universities.
Buying books used usually allows a customer to acquire the same content for less money, understanding of course, that natural wear and tear, crumpled edges, lightly torn pages and the like are part of the deal. You might get lucky and the last person to use the book did not do any of the reading and left it in mint condition, but what about the books used beyond the point of usefulness?
While not the only place to obtain textbooks, NC State Bookstores remains among the most popular options for purchasing books for the semester; it is conveniently located and usually has most of the books NC State students require as well as being the obvious starting point for looking for them. As at other places, the bookstore sells used books at a lower rate than new and the store offers a convenient service most students use, wherein ordered books are compiled and bagged at the store and then just picked up by the customer all together.
This convenient feature is not just a major incentive to shop at the NC State store instead of elsewhere but ordering this way before the semester starts is also the best way of actually getting your books on time.
The problem with this seemingly convenient feature is that with most people getting their purchases arranged and sacked beforehand, there is little inspection of the product before the customer actually leaves the storeroom, allowing for the used books to be damaged not in a normal fashion but beyond usability.
The customer has already paid in full before they even have the books in their hands at all, but may be left with a nearly useless product.
Based on personal experience and conversations I have had with other students, there seems to have been more of an issue this year than previously.
I have never had any issues with the quality of NC State Bookstores’ used textbooks before this semester but sadly the streak did not hold; I purchased a large number of books (16 in total, the life of a CHASS major who over-enrolls) and from the outside all of them looked in good enough shape, perhaps frayed but entirely workable.
Then, while attempting to do a class reading assignment, I found the book I needed illegible, heavily marked out and written all over (doodles and notes on the book itself which would have been less objectionable) and torn, with at least a handful of pages gone entirely. Fortunately for me, this happened on the last day of book returns so I was able to recoup what had been paid for it, but only at the last minute and I was nearly stuck with it.
Since the store was out of any other copies, new or used, I ordered from an online site with one-day rush shipping — roughly equal to what I paid the store for the unusable one for a new copy. Accordingly, here on out I am having a hard time seeing why I should not just order everything online in the first place. Other students agree, including Nathan Comer, a third-year studying mechanical engineering and computer programing: “I have only rented books from Amazon… It [is] definitely a better deal for one, and they pay for the return shipping.”
This was not just an annoyance but rather poor business as I found out in the process that they didn’t care enough to check the quality. A cursory examination of used books either before buyback itself or simply before reselling them could eliminate the small proportion of books that have been “used” beyond usefulness.
Because of this experience, I will likely shop elsewhere. I am clearly not the only NC State student who is planning the same thing, based on better prices and services from other vendors.
