After paying for tuition, parking and new clothes for the schoolyear, Sacramento State students experience a drained checkingaccount. Then comes another big hit to the pocketbook:textbooks.

Each year, American college students spend nearly $8 billion ontextbooks alone, according to the National Association of CollegeStores. With 15.3 million college students in the U.S., the averagecost per student for textbooks in over $520 annually.

The average price of a textbook is $72.83, the NACS also said intheir Higher Education Retail Market Facts & Figures 2003report. The NACS also reports that most students take between threeand five classes and multiple textbooks are often required for eachclass.

College textbooks certainly are not getting cheaper, accordingto the NACS. In 2002, new college textbooks experienced a 6.5percent increase in selling price. In contrast, the selling pricefor all books in general rose only 3.7 percent. The price ofcollege textbooks experienced its biggest increase in 2001, whentextbook price jumped 7.8 percent.

For the 2001-02 school year, the Hornet Bookstore, which isoperated by the California State University- Sacramento Foundation,brought in $10.9 million on book sales. The Foundation reported 9percent net profit from the Bookstore .

The Hornet Bookstore fits into the upper echelon of collegestores, according to the NACS. Only 5.8 percent of college storeshave a sales volume of over $7 million. Fifty-seven percent ofcollege stores sell less than $1 million in products per year.

Bookstore Director Julia Milardovich said that Sac Statestudents spend $500 per year on textbooks, matching closely withthe national average. For compensation, students may sell theirbooks back to the Bookstore during finals week each semester.

Six criteria affect the price offered for used textbooks:condition, campus demand, national demand, new editions, missingpieces, and faculty ordering of books.

Buybacks are based on the amount ordered for either the fall orspring semester, according to Doris Gorin, Book Department Managerat The Bookstore.

“We pay up to fifty percent,” Gorin said.

However, if a faculty order for the textbook for the followingsemester is not in place, the amount offered drasticallychanges.

“If we don’t have a faculty order,” Gorin said, “then the amountoffered would be from zero to 30 percent (of the original bookprice).”

The NACS reports that in the 2001-02 school year, used textbooksmade up 14.9 percent of the total textbook market, down nearly 3percent from 2000-01.

That decrease was filled in by a nearly 6 percent jump in theindustry share for new textbooks, which made up over 54 percent ofthe total textbook market in 2001-02.

The NACS says that 70 percent of national revenue for collegestores comes from course materials — class kits, supplements andtextbooks. Insignia merchandise, computer products and schoolsupplies make up a large portion of the remaining revenue.

Although books are indispensable to a college education,students feel cheated with prices.

“The bookstore cashes in on our used books,” senior Sean Molveysaid. “I feel that if students received more money in return, noone would complain about buying books.