College Bookstores Defend Their Market

Association refutes four “myths” regarding textbook purchases.

I must admit that I am no fan of college bookstores. Sure, it has been ages since I’ve had to use one having finished up my college studies in 1985. But just like back then students were paying too much for their textbooks, easily spending hundreds of dollars per semester.

SayCampusLife.com has faithfully and impartially covered ways that students can contain their college costs since first launching in 2007. We’ve shared with you how to obtain college scholarships, have given you information about Pell grants, discussed private and government backed student loans and have looked at housing opportunities in a bid to help you save money.

The High Cost of College Textbooks

We’ve also taken on the topic of textbooks, which is a sore subject for some. Various consumer groups including PIRG have asserted that textbook costs exceed one thousand dollars per academic year, a small fortune for today’s college students. True, not every student must pay that much for their books, but it isn’t difficult to reach higher cost levels especially if you’re a medical major where several books are needed per class.

Recently, an organization representing college bookstores has been speaking out about some of the myths they believe are being aired about books, particularly those textbooks sold by them. The National Association of College Stores says that they are “the leading resource and advocate for the higher education retail market” and are claiming that some of the information being said about these bookstores is incorrect. Most recently they tackled the myth, “Buying textbooks online is always safe” in an attempt to suggest that identity theft is more common than it is.

Shop A Secured Website

Obviously, purchasing books online isn’t always safe. I haven’t heard of anyone perpetuating that myth, expect perhaps the bookstore association themselves. Like any online purchase, buyers should peruse a secured site and that means making certain that “https” is present in the URL which means that these types of ecommerce pages lock out intruders. Never buy anything from a site where the purchase page doesn’t have the “s” after the http as that information is transferred as text, not encrypted.

I realize that the National Association of College Stores has been taking a beating of lately and needs to say something. However, suggesting that your online college textbook purchase is risky is disingenuous, suggesting that the only sound option for students is to get hosed shopping at the college bookstore.

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