The Skinny on Textbook Buy-Back

Following a discussion about textbook buy-back, and whether or not annotating or highlighting PSU textbooks changed their buy-back value, I decided to find out for sure. So, I called Sarah, the textbook manager at the PSU Bookstore. Here's what she told me:

1. To the folks at the PSU Bookstore, a used book is a used book, whether pristine, highlighted, or annotated. Once the book is sold to someone and out of the shrink-wrap, it's considered used.

2. If PSU intends to use a textbook again for future classes (the process by which this happens is vague), the Bookstore will buy back used copies of the book from previous terms at 1/2 of the original new price. This is true whether the book is marked inside or unmarked. Annotation doesn't change the buy-back value of a future-use textbook.

3. The only time the Bookstore won't buy back a future-use textbook is when the book has truly been mutilated, i.e., pages are torn or missing, the book looks as if it was dropped in a mud puddle and then run over, etc.

4. If PSU does not intend to use a specific textbook again ( same vague decision process), the book still may be bought-back, but this is up to the publisher-- as is the amount they'll pay for it. If the book is bought at all, it will almost certainly be for less than 50% of the new price.

Bottom line: annotate freely!

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