Listen to a conversation between a student and a bookstore employee.
Hi. Can I help you?
Yeah. I need to sell back a textbook.Are you the person I speak to about that?
I am. But we can't buy textbooks back just yet, because the bookstore's buyback period isn't until next Thursday.
I thought it started this week.
It is only in the last week of the semester after classes are over.
Oh. Well, can you tell me if this book will be on the buyback list.
I can look. But we are still putting the list together.Professors have to tell us what books they'll definitely need again next semester, and the deadline for them to let us know isn't for a couple of days.So the list I have here is not really complete.Um... what class was the book for?
Intro to economics, with Professor Murphy.
Professor Murphy.OK. I checked earlier and I know she hasn't gotten back to us on that class yet.So we don't know if she'll use the same book next time.Usually if an updated edition of a textbook is available, professors will go for that one.
So if this book doesn't end up on the buyback list, what can I do?I spent over a hundred dollars for it, and I want to get something back.
Well, if a professor didn't assign it for a class here, we could buy back for a wholesaler who would distribute it for sale for another university bookstore.
OK.Anyway, if professor Murphy does put it on the list, it is important that you come in as early as possible next Thursday.There's only a limited number of books we would buy back.Once we get the number of books we need for next semester, we would stop buying them.
OK. So how much money will I get for the book?
Well, if it's on the buyback list, we'll pay fifty percent of what the new price was.But that also depends on what condition the book is in, so it needs to be cleaned up as much as possible.
Cleaned up?
Because used books show wear and tear, you know, water stains, scruffy covers, yellow highlighting.You really need to make sure there are no pencil marks on the book.The price you can get for a text depends on the shape it's in.
You mean I have to erase all the pencil marks?
If you want the best price for it.
And what if you decide the book is too beat-up and don't buy it back.That does happen.Well, one more thing you can try is to place an ad in the student newspaper to see if you can sell it directly to another student.