Molly Tumanic

When looking for some extra cash at the end of the semester, junior Jessica Hurd said she uses the University Bookstore’s buyback program.

At the beginning of the semester, she said her parents buy her books, and then at the end, she sells them back.

Bookstore manager Camille Weixel began operating the store in September 2002 after the university outsourced the bookstore to Barnes and Noble College Bookstores in Spring 2001.

“We try and buy back as many as we can from students,” she said.

Of the 860 titles sold this semester, Weixel said the store plans to buy back some copies of 191 of those titles – about 22 percent.

As a national industry standard, she said the bookstore will refund students 50 percent of the purchase price of faculty-requested books.

When those used books are back on the shelf next semester, they will be priced at 75 percent their original value.

For example, faculty requested the bookstore buy back about 150 copies of the American Psychological Association’s publication manual. A new copy of the book costs $23.50, and students can return their copies for $11.75. The manual will be priced at about $16.25 when it goes back on the shelves.

If the bookstore buys back enough books to satisfy the needs of the faculty, Weixel said people who still own books will not be able to get money unless she authorizes buying back more copies.

Books faculty did not request still could be eligible for buyback, but it depends on supply and demand, she said. Students would be given less than 50 percent of the value on titles the Missouri Book Service – a wholesaler the bookstore works with – is interested in.

A list of books students can sell back will not be available because Weixel said it changes as the store buys back the maximum amount needed in one title.

The buyback program relies on faculty submitting book orders to the bookstore, Weixel said. Last year, 47 percent of requests from faculty came in on time and this year, 75 percent of requests came in.

Last year, fewer titles qualified for the bookstore’s program and students had to sell back their books at wholesale prices or had to keep them.

Last spring, the store gave $22,000 back to students through the buyback program. This semester’s goal is $90,000.

Students returning books they never used still will get 50 percent, wholesale or nothing, but books with water damage, missing pages or a missing cover will not be accepted, Weixel said.

In the past, Hurd said she would buy books professors recommended, but would never even open some of them. At the end of the semester, she would get a fraction of the cost back through the buyback program.

Now she said she gets only the books necessary to the classes she takes.

Workbooks, course products, consumable items and some outdated editions cannot be returned.

To help promote the buyback program, Weixel said the bookstore started a program that grants six students the chance to get a semester’s worth of free books.

Students who sell books back get a numbered button and three pairs of students will be given the same number. If a pair meets each other and goes to the bookstore, Weixel said both people get free course books next semester.

Though she doesn’t get back as much money as she’d like from the buyback program, Hurd said getting any money back is nice.

“It’s better than nothing,” she said. “It’s nice at the end of the year to get spare cash back.”