By Juan Echavarria
While college expenses are on the rise, so too are creative solutions to avoiding the steep prices of everything from tuition to textbooks.
With some organizing, students have created a Facebook pages dedicated to buying and selling used textbooks from the previous semester to incoming students of their school. Daytona State College student Nicole Bohzyk says, “Instead of having them lying around at your house, you can post them on Facebook and get money for them.”
The page creations follow the same user interface as the rest of Facebook, making it extremely convenient to millions of Facebook users. As if college students did not use Facebook enough, now they can open the school’s textbook exchange page, type the classes they need books for, and often within seconds, other students will offer their used books for a fair price.
The idea boils down to cutting out the middleman, which in this case eliminates most shipping costs, bookstore fees, convenience charges and other expenses. Furthermore, prices are competitive due to the large number of students selling the same copies of textbooks.
There is a common trend in schools to make textbooks available in an electronic form, but many people prefer the convenience of a traditional textbook, while others may not want to spend a hefty sum for a tablet they might not need for very long. This is especially true when the average tablet costs anywhere between $200 and $600.
A student-run Facebook page can fix all of that. The innovation also has hit larger schools like the University of Florida and it is developing an entirely new peer-to-peer relationship that might be here for the long haul.
“If it’s cheaper I’m sure it would work if the marketing was there,” says DSC head librarian Mercedes Clement.
DSC students may follow suit tis fall to counter the rising prices of college textbooks. Although larger schools have the advantage of numbers, state colleges like DSC could be applying the same idea on a smaller scale, students here say.