'Action' ticket proposes book exchange

Buying books can be a painful, expensive process. To alleviate that stress, IU Student Association's Action ticket wants to create a book exchange so students can trade books with each other and save money.\nAction's presidential candidate Laura Walda said when students try to get money back at the end of each semester, they are disappointed.\n"Students spend way too much money when they could simply exchange their books," she said. "It's ridiculous to pay so much. There needs to be a central forum online and then a physical location to pick up books."\nWalda said this can be accomplished through an IUSA Web site. Students would plug in their information, saying which books they need for the next semester and which books they want to exchange. The information would be matched with other students. \nThen, the students could head to a campus location such as Alumni Hall to pick up or drop off the books.\n"It would be so much easier this way," Walda said. "It's a big task, but it's feasible."\nBecause it's such a large task, a book exchange has not been created in the past, said Greg Lloyd, T.I.S. Bookstore manager. He said students might even lose money because of the book exchange.\n"This idea has been around for a number of years and has been tried a number of times," Lloyd said. "It's a good idea in theory, but practical reasons are why it hasn't worked well."\nMany titles are not used for courses again, and instructors are at liberty to choose what they want. And if students discover they can't exchange books, the buy-back price may have already dropped, he said.\n"The most they could get for a book is half of what they paid for it -- best case scenario," Lloyd said. "The worst case is national wholesale market price, which is anywhere from 30 to zero percent of the original price, and that changes on a monthly basis."\nVice presidential candidate Liz Weikes said Action, if elected, will work to make the book exchange happen.\n"It's been tried before, but we have the manpower and resources to back this," Weikes said. "Action has already formed a budget, and this is feasible."\nThe book exchange would solve an issue that really hits home for students, she said.\n"Every student is paying a lot of money," Weikes said. "A lot of students don't have enough money, and even if you do it's ridiculous. It really hurts your pocket"