bookworm

Renting Textbooks: A Study

For decades, we have been renting apartments, cars, and movies. Renting allows us to enjoy goods while we need them and return them when they are no longer useful. To mitigate the skyrocketing costs of attending college, we've seen this seemingly ancient concept applied to the textbook marketplace. But is renting textbooks actually worth it for students?

We found that, although students can save even more money by buying a used copy of a book and later reselling the book back to one of many buy-back vendors, renting is often worth it. This is partly due to the intangible benefits of renting - the renter does not have to go through the slight hassle of finding a buyer, and also avoids the risk of the book going out of date, rendering the owned edition useless.

Students nowadays have the option to rent their textbooks from reputable vendors (such as bookrenter.com) for a fraction of their local bookstores' retail cost. This service takes the risk off students by guaranteeing that vendors will accept the textbooks at the end of the semester regardless of any new editions released.

The option has become popular for college students who are looking for a way to save. While renting textbooks has the same impact overall as buying books and selling them back, it lowers the upfront cost and guarantees the book will be "sold" at the end of the semester.

Recognizing the high demand for this service and the increasing popularity of online renters, over 500 college campus bookstores have decided to provide this option to their students for the Fall 2010 semester.

So what are the benefits and shortcomings of this cost effective option?

book.ly offers students the opportunity to easily compare the prices for renting versus purchase new/used/international books. Based on the data collected by book.ly and professional organizations, we have put together a graph of average annual expenditures by method of purchase below:

While buying used and reselling does appear to be the most cost effective method, students should consider the risks involved in this process. While students may be able to save a little extra, it is often a hassle for students to actually find a buyer who is willing to purchase at a favorable price, and there is the risk that a new edition of the textbook is released, making the book worthless to buyback vendors. Book renters streamline this process and reduce the risks involved in reselling books, charging only a slight premium for these conveniences.