The tuition bill hits you five seconds after you register for classes, and you barely have time to catch your breath before the class textbook list comes. Then it’s a mad dash to the bookstore to try to nab that last used book.

Standing in front of stacks upon stacks of textbooks, you glance at a stray price tag. A gasp escapes despite your pursed lips. You now understand what is meant by the phrase “sticker-shock.”

The start of a new semester at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee means thousands of students will be laying down serious cash for required textbooks. Those who are price-conscious will hope that their books come with a friendly sticker that says “used,” meaning cheaper. Students can also think ahead to the last day of class, when they can march into the bookstore with that dratted book and exit with cash.

Recently, The Boston Globe published several articles about the cost of textbooks and the effects on American college students. The wholesale prices of college textbooks, according to the Globe, are up 32.8 percent since 1998; used textbooks were typically priced at about 75 percent the cost of the used textbook. This is more than four times the inflation rate for all finished goods, reported the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The rising cost of textbooks has generated protest; CALPIRG, a California consumer group, published a report last year, “Ripoff 101: How the Current Practices of Textbook Industry Drive Up the Cost of College Textbooks,” that led to hearings before the U.S. House Education Committee.

Buying books at UWM

At UWM, the majority of students buy their books from the UWM Bookstore, located in the Union; however, students also buy books from Panther Books, located on Downer Avenue.

The UWM Bookstore makes finding books extremely convenient — students can log onto the store’s Web site, choose their classes from several menus and then print out a list of the books they need. The Web site also lists the new and used price for each book.

However, said Marc Sanders, course books department manager, not every book available is used.

“It’s a default in the program that we use,” Sanders said.

He said that even if a book is only available at the bookstore new, the bookstore’s Web site, as well as the price tags in front of each book, will automatically give both listings. This commonly happens with packaged books, which are books that come with supplemental materials, like CDs, workbooks and other items.

Sanders said that the bookstore charges 69 percent of the new price for used books, compared to other universities that charge 75 percent of the new price.

Post outlines 15 courses

The UWM Post randomly selected 15 courses that required textbooks, from a variety of fields, and analyzed the used cost vs. new cost, and which books the bookstore actually had on the shelves used. The used prices were consistent with Sanders’ statement: The majority of the books selected were 31 percent cheaper used than new. Two were slightly less than this, at 30 percent and 29 percent.

However, the extra 6 percent off would not be very helpful for the courses we selected. Only five of the 15 courses had used books in stock on Tuesday, Jan. 23, the second day of classes of the spring semester.

Come May, however, the bookstore will buy back a student’s book for the same price, regardless if the student bought it new or used. This differs from some universities where the bookstore buys used books at a portion of the used cost, rather than the new cost, Sanders said.

The bookstore will buy a book back for 40 percent to 50 percent of its original cost new, “if an instructor has submitted a book adoption and the UWM Bookstore needs additional stock,” according to the its Web site.

Used books get no more than 1/3 price

If the book is not needed for the following semester, then the amount to be paid for a book is calculated by consulting the database of the used book company that the bookstore sells their excess books to. This price is roughly the book’s national wholesale value, and is anywhere from five to 33 percent of the book’s original value.

Sanders said he doesn’t know how much a book will fetch at any given time because it “depends on the supply and demand of the book.”

This differs slightly from Panther Books’ buyback policy. They give students up to half of the new value if the book is needed the following semester, but if it isn’t, they consult a database that quotes three of the largest wholesale companies, rather than just one.

At the end of the semester, some of the books that are sold back to the UWM Bookstore will be needed the following year. However, since the bookstore does not know the booklists for subsequent courses that far in advance, they sell the books rather than holding onto them. This means the student will get less money for the books and that the university might end up buying the same books back.

Textbook costs rise; as much as $900

The average four-year college student spends $900 a year on textbooks, a Government Accountability Office study revealed. The rising cost of textbooks can be attributed to the expense of supplemental materials like workbooks and CDs. Additionally, publishers produce new issues much more frequently, limiting the used book market, reported the Washington Post.

Part of the problem also comes from professors who release their reading lists late, giving students little time to shop around or to find a used book, or give little thought to the costs of the texts that they are assigning.

Organizations and legislators around the country are attempting to make efforts to make textbooks cheaper, but in the meantime it looks as if students will have to hand over the cash in the name of higher learning.

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