By Angela Ashby
Additional tables and registers deck the halls of the third floor of the BYU Bookstore in preparation for textbook buyback, which begins tomorrow, Dec. 13, and will go through Dec. 20.
The Bookstore will reimburse students for books needed for future semesters at 60 percent of the current new price.
'You bet I''m selling all my books back,' said Dan Patterson, a senior majoring in manufacturing engineering.
Katie Naylor, a senior double majoring in English and psychology, said she typically doesn''t sell her book back to the Bookstore because it does not offer her enough money.
'Sometimes I just want to throw the candy at them because they will only offer me $3 for a book,' she said.
Naylor said she plans to sell her books back online to see if she can get more money. She admitted she hasn''t even looked into the procedures required online to sell books back, but still believes it''s a good idea.
The Bookstore textbook section offers textbooks at prices lower than the national and state averages. BYU''s large-scale buyback and low prices give students one of the lowest textbook cost figures in the country.
Todd Gunderson, a junior majoring in chemical engineering, said though he could get some money back for his books, he will probably not be selling most of them back this semester.
'I am still having a hard time believing a paid real money for a linear algebra book,' he said. 'How can I expect them to pay me back for it?'
Textbook buyback policy states, 'for a book that is not needed by the Bookstore nor by the wholesaler, you will not be offered a buyback price. These books, can become worthwhile additions to your personal library. Other alternatives would be the BYUSA-sponsored Book Exchange or donating books to worthy causes.'
Students still feel they are not getting as much money back as they want.
'I walk in with all my books and sometimes I walk out with all of them because they will only buy them back for cheap, but I do walk away with a candy bar,' Patterson said.
The free candy bars offered by the Bookstore entice some students to make the trek to the third floor.
'Sometimes I take books back that I know they won''t take just so I can get a free candy bar,' admitted Adam Valencic, a senior double majoring in comparative literature and Chinese. 'I really have done that.'
Dee Hansen, Bookstore textbook manager said the free-candy tradition started many years ago.
'Before the Bookstore even used computers,' he said.
Employees started passing out candy bars to keep students happy as they waited in the long lines.
'It helps relieve the stress of the students,' Hansen said.
The candy bars are bought at cost by the textbook section from the candy department of the Bookstore to help eliminate some of the expense.
Hansen also said the Bookstore buys some textbooks back from students they do not want and then turn around and sell them to a used-book company. The used-book company reimburses the Bookstore to help pay for the candy.
This used-book company is a national warehouse for college books. It works through BYU and offers a lower national wholesale price for books already in stock.
Luci Robinson, a clerk in the textbook section of the Bookstore, said members of the wholesale company come to BYU to help work during buyback.
Robinson said besides workers from wholesale book companies coming to help with buyback, extra workers employed by BYU always come in during busy times, like buyback and before school begins.
'These workers are the on-call workers and most of them are non-students,' she said. 'They come in to get some extra hours.'
Extra employees are also brought in to help box the books to get them ready for shipping, Robinson said.
Students are encouraged to sell books back as soon as they can, guaranteeing books will be bought back at the best price.