GCL m= December 7, 2004 a e - ses RI > ~ - The Lion’s Eye Pye on Campus Page 3 Tis the season to sell back books Looking for holiday money? This could help By BRIDGET MUNDY Lion's Eye staffwriter BDM185@psu.edu "Tis the season to...sell back your books. Over the next couple of weeks students will be studying and then selling back their textbooks to the book- store in the hopes that the gods of buyback will prove kind. Renee Lutz, manager of the Penn State Delco bookstore, wants students to be well informed before they make their optimistic sojourn to the register. She wants Penn Staters to know that the best dates to sell back books are during finals week, Dec. 13 to Dec. 17. That’s when the store has the most monetary resources for distribution available. ; She said it is also important for students to sell back books that are in fair to good condition. The book should not have gum stuck to it, pages ripped or missing, or scribbles and writing throughout it. Lutz says that highlighting is fine as long as there isn't an absurd amount. Lutz also provided some crucial warnings. "If you are not positive that you are done with your book, don’t sell it back, because once you do, the book is mine," she said. "We process them as quickly as possible, and once we do, we can't go back and find your book." If you are unsure about whether to sell back a book, here is a brief list of those you should not sell back due to special circumstances. If you took Biology 110 this semester and are taking Biology 240W in the spring, keep the book because it will be used again. Also, do not sell back your book for Chemistry 12 if you are taking Chemistry 13 in the spring. The same goes for Chemistry 38 and 39, and Math 21 and 22. Also, if a book is a changing editions or if the book is not needed for a class in the spring, the book will most likely not be bought back. However, students should still attempt to sell back those books back because they may be purchased by the wholesaler. The standard amount students can expect to receive from a used text is about 50 percent of the original value if it is being used for a class during the following semester and the bookstore is not already overstocked in it. "For all other books, I work with a national wholesaler company which buys them back for whatever they deem the national value of the book," says Lutz. Big sellers this year are the accounting books Photo by Jennifer Rufo The Giving Tree, now in the PSU Delco Bookstore, benefits families of Marines who've attended the school. For more information, see “Around Campus Briefly,” on Page 4. for 211, which are selling for $61; Math 21 and 22 books for $54.50; and the micro and macro eco- nomics books that are being purchased for $48. Lutz believes that buyback is a great opportu- nity for economically challenged students. "Book buyback is absolutely great because it puts money in your pocket and provides the chance for someone to acquire a reasonably priced used book later," she said. “The amounts add up. We see students who gain anywhere from a couple of bucks, to a couple hundred dollars." : Lutz laughs as she describes the reasons stu- dents sell back books. "We hear everything from gas money to beer money," she said. "I am going to use my book buyback money for holiday shopping," said junior business/marketing major Meg West. "I am going to sell most of my books back," said senior business/marketing major Sadia Sheikh, "but I keep the ones that were really nice and expensive from my major, because I will be able to use them in the future." Robert Hyers, a senior English major, is not as optimistic. "I probably won't sell back my books because I'll probably only get like a quarter each for them." "I don't sell back my books," said Christina Warren, a junior corporate communications major. "I sold $400 of books back once and only got like $40." Lutz knows that students sometimes get dis- couraged about selling their books. "Everybody has a few bad buyback experi- ences...but for the most part students get a decent amount of money back," she said. So this holiday season, if you're hankering for money to buy gifts or cash for partying, look no farther than the Penn State Delco bookstore. "We want to buy back as much as possible and give out as much as possible," says Lutz. "There is really no other industry like this...it's not like you can sell back a pair of shoes that you've worn for three months and get 50 per- cent of the value."
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