VCU Textbook Buybacks

By Chris Davis
May 1, 2009

RICHMOND, Va. – Most college textbooks share two characteristics: They are expensive, and they are virtually useless after the semester’s end. Fortunately for VCU students, there are competing outlets for the resale of old textbooks.

VCU’s bookstore, which is now supplied by Barnes & Noble, Inc., and the Virginia Book Company (VBC), an independently owned retailer, operate stores within two blocks of one another. But when the semester nears its end, each sets up tents on campus to make the buyback process easier on students.

Though both stores do buy books throughout the entire semester, the tents are only set up to dissipate the throngs of students waiting to lighten their loads after finals. Which store can give better deals, though, seems to be a toss-up.

Both companies claim to offer students up to half of what he or she paid for the book, but each has a different way of calculating exact values of used books.

“What we do,” said Michael P’Pool, 37, operations manager of VBC, “is price popular books a little lower so we can buy back more of them. What they (VCU) do is buy back a certain number at a certain price, then don’t buy any more.”

Since VBC is privately owned, P’Pool went on, they are able to sell the used books to a wide variety of wholesalers instead of the short list approved by Barnes & Noble. So, while VCU might be able to give slightly more for a book, VBC is more likely to buy the book in the first place.

“I compared prices, and the VCU bookstore was $3 higher,” said Paul Smither, 19, who received $68 for his old chemistry book.

Brian McCormick, on the other hand, received $30 at a VBC tent for four books that the VCU bookstore wouldn’t buy back. McCormick, 20, a political science and Spanish double major, burned his old edition textbooks at the end of last semester, but decided to make a little money this time. However, he could not suppress his frustration with the cost of books.

“It’s a scam by the publishing companies,” said McCormick, referencing the tendency of book publishers to print new editions every year, making old editions worthless.

Margaret Ludlow, 18, agrees. “It’s a rip off. I paid $100 for a book and got $10 back. It’s better to get some money back than none, though.”

Perhaps the biggest difference between VBC and the VCU bookstore is how they deal with old editions and other books deemed to have no buyback value.

“We work with the SGA,” P’Pool said. “We give them the old editions that students bring in and they send them to schools in Africa and Asia.”

As for VCU’s bookstore, “We encourage students to recycle them,” said Melissa Shorey, an employee operating one of the bookstore’s tents.