The purpose of this memo is to alert you to the research results after comparing textbook prices at book three outlets. In general prices of textbooks in the book marketplace have been increasing. This makes a difficult situation for students already trying to pay university and housing bills. Many students have jobs to help pay the costs, but an increase in the price of textbooks is the last thing that students need.
Pricing Comparison
New books
The most expensive book costs over two hundred dollars: $212. Titled Trigometry it is needed for a class in the Math Department. The second highest costing book costs almost $186 and needed for a German class. The prices mentioned are being charged at the University Bookstore. The price for Trigonometry is $152 from Amazon and $113.25 from half.con.
The lowest costing book is for a Nursing class and is available from half.con for $16. At the University Bookstore it costs about $58 more and at Amazon it costs about $14 more. The markup at the University Bookstore seems to be high compared to the other two booksellers.
Figure 1 below is a bar graph which depicts the ten new textbook prices from the ten different departments. The three booksellers are University Bookstore in blue, Amazon in green and half.com in yellow. The prices increase from zero to the highest price on the y axis therefore the highest bar for each department shows the highest price and the lowest bar the lowest price.
Figure 1. Bar graph of new textbook prices from three booksellers.
The bar graph is a visual depiction that make it easy to see quickly the blue bars are all higher the green and yellow. Information Systems, Mathematics and German are the highest costing books from the University Bookstore. Amazon and half.com charge about half as much for the computer book that the University Bookstore, with half.com charging the least of the three. As discussed above half.com charges the least except for three of the textbooks. It is interesting to note that the prices are not half price from those charged at the other bookstores as the name half.com suggests.
Used books
Table 2 compares the price of the same textbooks at the same booksellers except that these are the prices for used books. Used books are consistently a better buy at half.com. The used copy of the Nursing textbook is $0.36 less at Amazon than at half.com. The used book for the English class costs $77.25 at the University Bookstore and it costs $17.52 at both Amazon and half.com.
Six of the used books cost over $100 at the University Bookstore, and two of the used books are over $100 at both Amazon and half.com. The price ranges for the used books are as follows: $159 to $28 at the University Bookstore, $110 to $5.94 at Amazon and $105 to $4 at half.com.
Figure 2 is a bar graph which shows the cost of the same used textbooks compared at the three booksellers. The blue bar stands for the prices at University Bookstore and it is easy to see that the blue bar is consistently highest indicating the most expensive used books.
Comparing Amazon used book prices to University Bookstore prices the difference is always lower at Amazon. Checking the comparison of the used book prices between half.com and University Bookstore prices, there is a dramatic difference in the price of used books at half.com. Enough that students may buy their used books from half.com without even bothering to check the prices at the University Bookstore.
The lowest costing textbooks at half.com are from the Nursing, History, German ad English textbooks. They cost from $4 to about $29.
Figure 2. graph of new textbook prices from three booksellers.
Conclusion
After comparing both new and used books at three different book outlets the choice for students is clear. The most convenient and budget-smart choice for students is to buy used books for their classes on line from half.com.
