CAMPUS AND AREA
University Daily Kansan, April 5, 1985
Page 6
Used books not so cheap
By PATRICIA SKALLA Staff Reporter
When students buy used books, they think they've gotten a bargain. But what they don't realize is that the bargain price of that "fine quality used book" might cost them money in the long run.
Two book publishers said yesterday that publishers sometimes were forced to mark up prices because unused complimentary copies sent to professors often were sold rather than sent back to the publishers.
Vicki Frankel, vice president for Worth Publishers Inc., said yesterday, "it's pure greed and profit by having nothing to do with education."
Publishing companies send thousands of free books to professors across the country. The professors examine the books to determine whether they want students to use them in class during the next semester.
SOME PROFESSORS get books that fill their libraries or sit in their offices. Peter Lorenzi, KU associate business professor, said. Instead of donating the books to someone who might need them, professors choose to give or sell the books to recyclers who buy books for recycle.
The recyclers make a profit by
selling the books to bookstores, which sell them to students.
"Everybody can claim that they're doing a service, but you have got to decide who is being cheated," Lorenzi said.
John Meyer, sponsoring editor for the college division of the McGraw-Hill Book Co in New York, said the recyclers had every legal right to resell the books. But he questioned the morality of the practice.
Publishers raise prices to recover the loss they suffer, because the complimentary book could have been given to them. It hadn't been given to the professor.
Meyer estimated the practice reduced his company's textbook sales by 30 percent. He said he didn't realize it went up because of the recycling.
Publishers receive no money from the sale of used books sold by recyclers to book stores, Frankel said.
Meyer said. "We are aware that books are getting expensive, but we are stuck because we are businesses."
Lorenzi said many students complained about having to buy new editions instead of used. But he defended the new editions, saying publishers were forced to combat declining new book sales.
dinator for the Kansas Union bookstores, said he was aware of the practice publishers complained of. But the more used books offered to the students, he said, the less students have to pay.
"I don't want to say that we don't care where we get the books from," he said. "But it's a proven fact that when we get the books we have, the more we sell."
Many of the books bought from recyclers can be identified by a three-inch sticker that covers the stamp identifying the book as a complimentary copy, Jewett said. The stickers usually say "another quality used book," and differ in appearance from the smaller stickers that the Union bookstore places on most used books.
STEVE JEWETT. textbook coor.
Some students think they are being cheated if they find the complimentary copy stamp beneath the sticker, Jewett said, because they assume the bookstore received the copy free.
"It's a very good condition used book, and it's a bargain for the student," Jewett said.
Meyer said bookstores usually sold McGraw-Hill books at 25 percent above cost. But recyclers and used book companies often recommend that bookstores sell at 50 percent above cost, he said.
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Tietjen said facilities operations officials had reported that about 60 square feet of material containing 20 percent asbestos had been removed during the two-year motion and removal of the boiler.
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Steve Braswell, one of the workers who complained that federal procedures were not followed during the destruction and removal of the boiler, said he thought the EPA had been misinformed about the amount of material involved.
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In February, the EPA had
Mary Tietjen, the engineer, said the amount of material removed was not enough to require facilities operations to comply with EPA regulations for removal of asbestos. EPA guidelines apply to the removal of more than 160 square inches of material containing asbestos.
The Environmental Protection Agency will not investigate the procedures used in the removal of an asbestos-laden boiler at the campus power plant, an environmental engineer said yesterday.
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