Dan Sandoval Corsair

The Money Making Machine - Michael Shabsis browses through SMC's bookstore in search of class material. Many students say they now prefer buying their textbooks online. Overseas websites, such as amazon.co.uk, often offer better deals than their U.S. counterparts.

• Students find overseas and online alternatives to high-priced bookstores.

As the costs of attending college continue to rise, the price of college textbooks is keeping pace - and then some.

Students who are already paying more money per unit and increased parking fees are trying new strategies to avoid paying high textbook prices.

Many students believe they can find better deals on the Internet than they can get at Santa Monica College 's bookstore.

"I think the bookstore is really expensive. It's misusing its position," said Lotte Goede, an SMC student. "Like, it's most convenient to go to the bookstore at the campus, but the prices are quite high. I go to 'campusi' on the Internet and I get all my books for.an average of 10, 20 bucks per book."

Yet shopping online isn't always cheaper and more practical for everyone, as student Samia Khwaja pointed out.

"Not everyone can do it. Not everyone has a credit card," she said.

Referring to online textbook discount sites such as half.com, which is run by eBay, SMC bookstore manager David Dever pointed out his own paradox.

"It's not illegal, but it's not 100 percent true," Dever said. "They'll send you an older edition, which is cheaper, if you don't put in the ISBN number of the book."

The ISBN number identifies the specific printing run and edition of a book.

An example of this is packaged editions; online at eCampus.com you can buy the fifth edition of Sheldon Metcalfe's "Building a Speech," which comes with a CD for $28.45, or you can buy the "same" book with a "CD-rom" for $21.63.

The difference in price is accounted for by the fact that the CD-Rom edition is a used package dating back to 1995, and the CD edition is new - having been published in 2003. Students buying the used 1995 edition are taking a risk as well; a used CD could be damaged and an older edition might not be the same as the textbook used in class.

But, unless a student doesn't know the edition needed for the class, mistaking different editions is difficult - since the difference in price should, according to Dever, tip off the buyer that something is wrong.

Another option for students looking to cut costs is the purchase of used textbooks, but this comes with its own challenges. If a professor requires a package (a textbook that comes with additional features, such as student workbooks, software, or Internet-access codes), you may have to purchase each feature separately.

New textbook packages usually offer free Internet-access for a number of months; "free" workbooks are included in the price of a new package; buying the Internet-access code and workbook separately costs more because they aren't discounted. In this way, the total price of the used "package" students put together themselves may be more expensive than buying the package new.

Dever explained that the SMC bookstore sells new packages because professors request them, writing the ISBN for them on requisitions the bookstore sends out before each buying season. He said that if a package is listed on a requisition they call to confirm that is what the professor wants.

The price of a used textbook can vary much more than the price of the same textbook new. According to the National Association of College Stores, the average bookstore markup (margin) for a new textbook sold by its member stores is about 23 percent. Used textbooks sold at NACS affiliates have a margin of 34 percent average, but there is no standard re-sale margin for all books; 34 percent is the margin against the buy-back cost. Costs were not listed on the NACS website.

SMC's bookstore, which is publicly owned by the college district and is governed by the Board of Trustees, is associated with the NACS.

"Basically, our standard markup [for all textbooks] is set by the district," Dever said. He went on to explain that the average markup is 24 cents on the dollar, and that this is the industry standard in California . "If you go to L.A. Trade Tech [or the] L.A. community college district, it's basically the same. [ Loyola Marymount University ] doesn't own their bookstore, but the company that does still charges about 24 cents [per dollar]," he said.

The average margin for total book sales by NACS affiliates is listed as 25.99 percent, making California college bookstore prices lower than average.

Selling a used textbook isn't easy either. Dever explained the bookstore's buy-back policy. He said the time-line for returns is short because there is no market for a used book if a professor doesn't plan on using it the following semester. Requisition forms for the next semester are sent out only a few weeks after the start of the term, so that new books can be ordered and can arrive on time.

He speculated that SMC's bookstore could get 75 percent of the used textbooks on campus sold back to them if it weren't for new editions. New editions, which are printed roughly every two years, decrease sellbacks because professors request the new edition rather than continue to use the old one.

Khwaja said that there is another obstacle to selling back used textbooks: students who desire to buy textbooks at low prices do not want to sell their textbooks for low prices.

She said her brother went to sell his psychology textbook, for which he'd paid $100, and was offered less than $30 in return. "He [decided not to] sell it back. It's a waste. It prevents other students who want to buy used textbooks from the bookstore," she said.