Renting an Eco-Friendly Alternative to Expensive Educational Tools
August 24, 2009 • By Amanda Caskey, Contributing Writer
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Renting isn’t just for houses, movies and cars anymore — textbooks are going on the list, too.
With students paying from $700 to $1,000 each year for textbooks according to The New York Times, they’ve always looked for the best deals for where to buy books. Options have included the campus bookstore, the University Outpost and numerous online Web sites, but now there is a new and innovative way to save money by renting textbooks.
Junior Leah Spital has already discovered the advantages of renting, instead of buying.
“I used to use Half.com to buy my books, because I was saving a lot of money, and I assumed I was saving as much as I could, but then a friend of mine showed me that he gets his books from Chegg.com,” Spital said.
Web sites such as Chegg.com and BookRenter.com have emerged and present an economical and eco-friendly way for students to acquire textbooks.
Renting books is just as simple as buying books online. Customers can search by title, author or ISBN number to find a textbook, and then pay for it with any major credit card.
Rental periods last up to a semester, but many sites also offer extension periods. Done with the class? Just ship the book back — for free — and then receive money back in the form of a credit card, or you can use it as book credit on the site.
“I used to like Half.com, because I felt that I could sell my books back to the bookstore on campus and get a good sum back, but lately I’m realizing how many books the store doesn’t take back,” Spital said.
Book-renting Web sites say there are many advantages to renting textbooks versus buying them. For example, Chegg.com claims to save the customer 65 percent to 85 percent of the retail value of a new book and offer free shipping.
Students can also convert their rental to a purchase by paying the difference for the full price. Most sites also offer a full refund in 30 days to return the book.
Renting won’t just save money — it might help save the earth, too. Sites, including BookRenter.com, encourage users to recycle the boxes the textbooks arrive in to ship them back. Chegg.com even offers to plant a tree for every book rented to show their influence in the green movement of today.
However, there are some downsides to renting, such as late fees if the book is not returned by the due date. Also, the books cannot have any damage upon return. This “damage” includes highlighting, writing and bent corners. Sites might charge up to the full price of the book for these damages.
Sophomore Alicia Patricca says she usually purchases books for her English major but prefers to rent for her General Education courses.
“The only textbooks I actually write a lot in are the ones for my major, and I don’t sell those ones back, so not being allowed to write in them doesn’t bother me,” Patricca said.
David Daniel, a psychology professor, supports the rental of textbooks for his students as long as the lowered prices do not compromise the quality of the text.
“It is important to take a long-term approach and be fair to all involved, student, teacher, author, etcetera,” Daniel said. “If it works for everybody, I am all for it.”
Follett Higher Education Group manages many university bookstores across the country, including the James Madison University Bookstore. Follett recently started a rental program in about a dozen bookstores with 20 percent of book titles available for rent. However, such a program has yet to come to JMU.
Contact Amanda Caskey at caskeyap@jmu.edu
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I usually search for my textbooks online with http://www.bigwords.com cause they compare the cost of all the book stores online. Sometimes you can find a brand new book cheaper then renting it! It just all depends on the book and the condition you want it in. I feel it never hurts to check all the bases before making a decision.
very informative…but why don’t we just all go paperless? Save the trees!
This is great! I was just struggling to figure out how to afford a couple of particularly expensive and very niche books this semester, scouring sites like Half.com. I just made my first order on bookrenter.com, hopefully everything goes well. I especially love the ability to buy out the book using your rental fee as a credit - kind of like buying a book on an installment plan.