Web site offers alternatives to buying textbook

By REBECCA MARTIN

Students searching for a better way to sell textbooks back at the end of the semester and buy them at the beginning need not look any further than www.switchtextbooks.com, a new Web site that offers college students a way to trade books online.

The company, based in Baltimore, advertises on its Web site that it understands the frustration today college students feel when selling books back at the end of the year. Instead of going to the bookstore and being frustrated by how little money you are offered, the Web site will allow you to trade them for books you will need.

Some students at Fresno State say if another option for selling books back were available, they would certainly look into it.

“It’s not inconvenient,” said Andrew Erickson, a junior majoring in marketing about the bookstore. “But it’s not a pleasurable experience. If there was a better option, I would do that.”

There are other options for both selling and buying books around Fresno State, including independent textbook stores near campus, as well as other online options like eBay. The purpose of switchtextbooks.com, the Web site says, is to make it easier for students to do this.

“Our company is best described as a hybrid of eBay, Netflix and Kazaa,” Will DeSantis, co-founder and CEO of the company, said in a statement posted on the Web site.

The Web site boasts a savings of $362 per semester, per student. To trade a book, students follow the instructions laid out, with a flow chart, online. First, students locate the ISBN number of the book and then post the book online. When another member bids on the book, simply ship the book to the other member and receive positive points on the Web site, which go toward buying other books.

The positive points received for each book go toward your switchtextbooks.com checkbook. The checkbook keeps track of the books you ship to other students and gives you points for them. The points are used to buy books from other students on the Web site.

An annual membership fee of $19.95 is charged to join the Web site. However, there is a free trial that lasts until the individual locates the first book they wish to buy on the site. This is essentially the only cash used in the transaction, and after the initial membership fee, checkbook points are used on the site to buy other books.

The Web site claims more than 4,000 colleges as part of its network and offers more than 1.7 million book titles. In addition, it calls itself the largest online college trading service.

While perhaps not every college student is willing to purchase textbooks online, it does give students an option when the bookstore will not buy back a book.

“A lot of the time there is no value for the book,” Erickson said. “So what am I supposed to do, burn the book for heat?”