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With the 2008-09 school year coming to an end, Miami University students are packing up belongings from residence hall rooms and off-campus houses, booking study rooms at King Library for the upcoming finals week and, of course, making arrangements to sell back textbooks.
Students have many options to sell back their books: DuBois Book Store, Follett's Miami Co-Op Bookstore, the Miami University Bookstore and recently, the UPS Store.
According to sophomore Jonathan Rogowski, Phi Delta Theta fundraising chair, Phi Delts do not sell their books back to bookstores, but to the UPS Store located on South College Avenue.
The UPS Store in Oxford decided in December 2008 to try its hand at buying back student textbooks.
"One of the things we offer is that social groups on campus, sororities and fraternities, can actually encourage students to come and give their names and they can get a benefit from selling their books," UPS Store Owner Bob Coley said.
According to Coley, it is only the UPS Store's second time buying back books.
"This is our second time … so we're really feeling new at this," Coley said.
In December, the UPS Store began offering students an alternative to the various bookstores in Oxford and on campus, leading to what Coley called an impressive turnout of students stopping by the store to sell their books.
"There are three or four groups already signed up for it, so that means if a student comes to the store and says that they are from Phi Delta Theta or something like that, the amount or a certain percentage of them selling their book goes back to their fraternity, and of course they still get the full amount but our store and the book buy back company donates a certain percentage to their organization," Coley said.
Rogowski said he appreciated the collaboration Phi Delt has with the UPS Store.
"It's another option for students, if they are getting a bad price at the uptown stores or on campus or if either of those places aren't buying those editions back, the UPS store will buy those editions back and give you cash on the spot for it just like at any other bookstore," Rogowski said. "It's a fundraiser for us when you go in and mention our fraternity name, Phi Delta Theta or Phi Delt, and then Bob will make a mark on that and we receive a certain percentage of all the sales that help go toward philanthropic events and other sorts of things that we have to pay for."
The three bookstores, DuBois, Follett's and Miami University Bookstores all follow the Faculty Adoption criteria when pricing books.
According to Gail Paleza, store manager of Follett's Bookstore, the Faculty Adoption criteria are the information given to the bookstores and any other retailer on specific textbooks.
"If we do not know what the faculty member will be using, and the student wants to sell back that particular book, but we have no information from a faculty member that it will be used again, then we buy for the national book market, and those prices are much lower than they would be for something that would be used again," Paleza said.
As for the Miami University Bookstore, Manager Kevin Poindexter said he promises his location would benefit the students the best.
"We can pretty much beat any price than any of the other competitors in town, we pay very good money for the books, because we want to buy as many as we can from the students," Poindexter said. "We want them coming back year after year, so we pay top dollar."
Miami first-year Ashley Goble sold her books from fall 2008 semester at DuBois.
"I thought the process was quick and easy and convenient, but I felt like I did not get the money back for my books that I deserved," Goble said.
However, first-year Chelsea Milligan was more pleased with DuBois's exchange.
"The UPS Store would not take back a lot of my books, but then I went to DuBois, and I sold the rest of my books there," Milligan said. "I think DuBois gives back the best in the end though."
