Bookstore 102
Textbooks: A student's guide to investing wisely...
Textbooks are the most important purchase you will make in terms of your academic success. Carefully selected by your instructor, textbooks provide the information you need to do well in your courses. They are available 24 hours a day, in a format that encourages and supports learning at your own pace and in your own style.
When you highlight key points, make notes in the margins, and write down questions to ask your instructors, you transform a textbook into a record of your own unique intellectual journey through a course.
The CSU Bookstore wants to do everything we can to help you maximize the investment in your textbooks. The following suggestions might help.
On your first day of class
It's important to understand the role the text and other materials play in each course. We encourage you to ask your instructor:
- Why was this particular book chosen?
- How will the textbook be used?
- Will there be assigned readings?
- Will homework be based on the textbook?
- Will exam questions be taken from text material?
If the book is really used and referred to in class, then your investment will pay off. Students indicate that a text is worth its price if it's used a lot in class. If however the book is not even cracked open, then it's worthless.
Distinguish between "Required" and "Optional" titles
Be careful to distinguish between "required" and "optional" titles. This information is posted in the Bookstore on the shelf tag where the books are for your class. We recommend you don't buy optional books until you attend the first class. At that time, ask the instructor:
- How is "optional" defined?
- Is the optional material necessary to perform successfully in class?
With optional books, it's sometimes a good idea to purchase one copy and share the book and savings with a classmate.
Find out your store's refund policy
To protect your opportunity to return unneeded texts, find out your store's refund policy before you buy. The CSU Bookstore's refund policy is posted at the cash registers, on the web site, and in other print formats such as this one.
After you buy your books
Save your receipts.
Virtually all stores require receipts for refunds. Always quickly return materials you don't need so they can be resold to someone who does need them.
Don't write in new books until you're sure you will keep them.
Most stores will not give a full refund on a book purchased new that has been written in, even if you've only written your name. Don't mark inside or damage the outside of the book in any way until you're sure you're going to keep it.
Before you sell your books at Buyback
Acquiring your own library of textbooks can provide significant benefits as you continue your education. Textbooks often have value after the class is over, especially those in your major or in a subject matter you intend to pursue further in university or beyond.
We recognize however, that you will not want to keep every book. In order to get the best price when you sell your books you should:
- Encourage instructors to get their orders in early.
Ask your instructors to let the Bookstore know before exams begin if a text will be reused. If the store has a request early enough for the titles to be included in Buyback, you'll get a better price for your book.
- Sell early.
You'll usually get the best price if you sell unwanted texts to the Bookstore as soon as finals week begins.
The bottom line
When selected carefully by the professor and purchased carefully by you, textbooks can be a valuable investment in your academic performance and in your future.