A Foolish Welcome to our Tennessean Friends

Hello, Tennessean readers! We subscribe to the venerable daily ourselves, so we’re glad to have you stop by.

However, if they’re speaking with us, it’s clear their standards for sources have slipped! But seriously, we’re honored to be included in Jennifer’s article, especially if it helps students find another option for cheap textbooks. As I said there, “If we can’t give you the best price, we’ll show you who can.” This is a core tenet of our Mission and stems from our desire to put students first.

Jennifer and I had a discussion about textbook rentals as well. We Fools think textbook renting is an interesting idea that works for a certain kind of student. However, we still believe that most students will come out ahead by buying their books used and then selling them back at the end of the semester. Consider this example:

Let’s say Joaquin can buy his Chemistry textbook new at the bookstore for $100 and used online for $60-70. (These are pretty standard figures.) That book would rent for around $50, and Joaquin appears to save $10-20 on the book by renting.

However, there’s a really good chance Joaquin can sell that used textbook to us at the end of the semester for $50 or more. The used book that cost him $70 puts $50 back in his pocket, which means he effectively “rented” that used copy for only $20. And what if he really found a deal when he bought it and paid only $50 in the first place?!

It all comes down to a calculation like that. If the numbers make sense for renting a book, we say go for it.

We do not currently rent our textbooks, though we are watching the trend closely. If we could find a way to rent books that served students’ long-term needs, we would start renting them tomorrow!

About BookFool.com

We love what we do and don’t take ourselves too seriously. We’re happy when students are happy. Read more About us. And why not sign up in the sidebar to receive occasional updates from the Fools?

For more information, consider some of our recent blog posts:

• HUMANKIND Thrift is Ready to Serve: The Rados are changing the world, one school uniform at a time!
• How to Find the Cheapest Textbooks, Vol. 1: A few thoughts from the cheapskate masters.
• 7 Tricks to Score the Job You Want: Part 1 (and Part 2). Advice from a Foolish perspective.
• Photographic Tour of United Record Pressing in Nashville: A Foolish field trip.
• The results of the 2009 Hot Tomato Haiku Contest: An East Nashville favorite.
• And finally…We’re hiring! Our first Customer Care Fool.

Thanks for stopping by! We hope to hear from you.