Buying textbooks can get very expensive for some college students, but Weber State University’s bookstore offers help with that in the form of the textbook buyback promotion.

“We look for books that are going to be used for next semester,” said Amy Archibald, the textbook manager for WSU.

The price that is determined for books that are bought back is either half of the new or half of the used price. The demand for books also contributes to whether the bookstore will buy them back.

“We have dynamically priced all of our titles and reduced the price on over 500 books. So with all those books, we pay half of the used price,” Archibald said.

If professors have let the bookstore know that a certain book will be used for quite a few semesters, students can get more money for those books. One of the things Archibald suggested was that students should find out if the book they have bought might be used again if the class has a continuation the next semester.

“A lot of students sell books back to us only to realize they have to purchase it again the next semester. There are some classes that are two parts,” she said.

For students that can’t afford to buy books or know that the book they need won’t be used for future semesters, the bookstore has a rental service.

“It can save money for students, but they still need to watch out for those two-part classes,” Archibald said. “Usually if you rent a book twice, you can save more money by just buying it instead.”

Some WSU students might be looking for electronic books, but Archibald said there are a few problems with this idea.

“There are students who want them, professors who don’t know how to use them and publishers who don’t provide them or have them in a format that people can’t use efficiently,” Archibald said.

Some books have codes that give students access to the e-book online, but usually they are paying for the code and getting the book for free.  There is still a lot of kinks and quirks to figure out with electronic textbooks, but there is a big movement towards that kind of publishing.

The textbook buyback  is going on Nov. 30 through Dec. 13. The Ogden bookstore will also have a trailer at the Bell Tower so students don’t have to walk all over campus and go in and out of buildings. Students can also participate at the Davis campus in Layton and the West campus in Roy.

This year, the bookstore is also giving away free iFrog headphones to the first 500 students who sell back their books with a transaction of $150 or more.

“If there’s one thing I can tell students, it would be to sell your books at the end of the semester and do it in one big lump. When the new semester begins, I have already stocked the shelves, and students can’t get the best price on their books,” Archibald said.