“Slanging Books”

A young college student drops a stack of books off at the check-out counter. He says to the clerk, “Miss, I would like to pay for my books with two dime bags.” The clerk, taken back by the man’s request, responds, “Sir, I’m going to have to ask for you to leave. We do not accept illegal narcotics.” The young college student quickly replies, “No mam. I have two actual bags of dimes.” “O, well in that case, about how much do each of your dime bags weigh?” asked the clerk. “They’re both a bit shy of a gram,” responds the college student. Turning him down, the clerk says “Well, we’ll be getting shorted.” The young college student’s eyes lit up “Well, that makes it even. Because the price of these books are a rip!”

The book industry is the most disguised goldmine ran by a covert mafia group! Not necessarily, but maybe a secret society of publishers in cahoots with universities virtually capable of controlling book sales as easily as the fluctuation of gas prices. Conning students to succumb to their inflated prices pulled from a hat.

Too bad illegally downloadable kindle versions of our textbooks aren’t as readily available as music and movies. If only there were a bootleg man that hung outside the library and caught you in passing, saying on the sly, “I got them books for the low.”

In desperation for an alternative, we place our hopes in sites like Chegg.com and CollegeBookRenter.com; or, seek out better deals on Amazon and Ebay.

Bookup.com, a new site, has launched to compete with all of the above and be an act of valor in our time of frustration and uproar against over-priced merchandise we may briefly use throughout a semester.

In addition to buying books at a reduced price, selling them for a higher turnover, this newly founded site offers students the opportunity to barter. But is that enough to combat the book mobsters?In my opinion: no.

I do recommend each of the alternatives to buying books from the University bookstore, but the heart of the matter isn’t finding better deals. The problem is the publisher’s ability to eliminate the opportunity for finding deals.

They do so by consistently issuing new “updated” editions of a book. Making older versions seem obsolete. There’s too much muscle backing up the Big Meach of books; but, there’s hope.

Thankfully, Bookup.com does pose some sort of threat to this Godfather-like industry. If accepted and popularized by the nations student body, Bookup.com could really be helpful. Though another issue will be the majority’s approval and the standards we set before each other.

Figuring out which required readings ends up on the curriculum will be another crease to iron out, but at least we’ll have the best alternative than financially investing in a scam in broad day light.