Amazon.com vs. University Bookstore

As a college student, this is a fact that all of us can't help laughing at whenever conversations mention "the bookstore." University Bookstore is supposed to effectively serve students and faculty once it comes to books and office supplies. I don't see how that "mission" can be fulfilled when everything in the bookstore is more expensive than a regular price.

Merchandise products, such as T-shirts, sweater with your school's logo or mascot on it are way more expensive than the equivalents sold in Walmart or an average store. I guess we pay more for those extra logos and mascots. And we are willing to do that because we use the apparels not only to keep your body warm (or something like that) but also to show off our school's "spirit" or "pride." Well, at my pride level, I had two T-shirts with our mascot in the front and our chant in the back. I didn't pay a dime for them. I got them for free at the orientation. Some of my friends would go to the orientation for new students every year to get a new T-shirt. Some would go to the games (football, basketball, etc.) very very early to get one of the 100 free T-shirts for first comers. A dear friend of mine gave me a real nice school T-shirt for my graduation. I have not worn it since then. Again, at my pride level, I haven't seen a good occasion to parade in that T-shirt in this area.

Merchandise items are exclusive to the Bookstore so you really do not have a choice if you want to wear a school logo or mascot. Other than that, everything else you can find any where from outside with a lower price. Maybe that is why paper, notebook, pens, and other stuff are normally on display for a thick level of dust if they don't dust it regularly. I myself bought some poster makers there because I didn't want to go to One Dollar tree for one-dollar poster makers. My friends would run to the Bookstore to get some sharpies if we forget to bring extras for a group project. Oh I also bought a couple of blue books from the Bookstore. It is 50 cents each. Some instructors require it as a test book and you can find it nowhere else.

Those small items you can do without easily. But books are essential to prepare for class. Most courses have at least one required textbook. First semester at my school, I was new and obviously with no experienced guidance, I bought all my textbooks at the bookstore. It cost me a fortune even though I had all used books. I thought it was worth it for my education. As its life cycle ends after four months, I thought I may never use some of these books again and I wanted to sell it back to the Bookstore. I thought I would make some money back and help other students have access to lower cost textbooks. Well, it turned out more painful than I had thought. I stood in line for ever and found myself rather keep those books for no future use than selling them back for just a couple of dollars. I sold them anyway because I didn't want to waste my waiting time and I learned my lesson. For the mission of the Bookstore (or the profits of it), I made nearly a quarter of my money back. I thought that was quite an expensive one-time use of a book.

After that pocket-ripping pain, I decided to shop very carefully for text books. I would buy text books online or from my friends in the department. Of course, I am familiar with amazon.com and half.ebay.com. Most of the time, books on amazon.com are cheaper but if you are lucky, you can find some at a unbeatable price on half.com. Even when you want to sell your books back, you can probably make all your money back. I haven't tried selling my textbooks back to amazon.com. I am still trying to hold on the belief that someday, I will do something related to what I studied and I may need my books to look things up. Maybe I am just holding onto a dream that is drifting away.