Last semester, I decided to try out the Mercyhurst Bookstore’s Cash 4 Books program.
For those who don’t know, Cash 4 Books is a program where you can return the books you’ve bought from the bookstore for money.
I normally don’t buy any of my books from the on-campus bookstore.
I usually get them for a fraction of the price from Amazon or a similar site.
Last semester though, there were several texts which I needed to buy from the bookstore, either due to their exclusivity, their cost or due to my needing them immediately.
Obviously, I wasn’t expecting to get a fortune back when I went to Cash 4 Books.
They need to make money somehow, after all, but I was expecting to get something back.
Evidently, I set my sights just a bit too high.
I spent around $60 to $70 on books from the university bookstore last semester.
I want you to honestly guess how much they offered me for my haul.
Eight dollars.
They offered me eight solitary dollars for a haul of $70 worth of books.
I didn’t even take the money, I just kinda walked out of there.
I can’t imagine how angry I would be if I bought one of the truly expensive textbooks from the bookstore under the impression that I could at the very least return it later for a little cash.
If you turned in one of those $100 books under this program, you’d probably get back just enough money to get a medium-sized lunch at the Arby’s down the road, or, more appropriately, a few drinks at the Cornerstone.
I understand that you can’t give students all the money they spent back.
If you did that, you couldn’t make a profit, and the bookstore is ultimately out to make money for the university.
But this is just a ripoff that undermines the trust that Mercyhurst students put into the faculty.