28th Mar 2008
Renting Textbooks
A couple of on-line retailers will rent you a textbook for your college class. This post on Treehugger Renting College books: Greenwash or Choice? argues that renting on-line is sort of like buying your books used and selling them back. A discussion ensues that is more interesting than my summary here.
At one point, I bought all of the books that professors required and suggested. Then I just bought the required books. Then, just the main book. Then I checked out the books in the library and used the copies on reserve. Much cheaper. What is funny in the particular Treehugger discussion is the Blame the Publisher attitude for the problem as if the bookstore wasn’t making a huge profit in their buy back program. But then I work for publishers.
Used books on Amazon are pretty much all I buy at this point.
I can officially say that renting stuff instead of buying is a trend. Shoes (http://www.montanarader.com/thumbnail03.php?gender=F), handbags (http://www.bagborroworsteal.com/), jewelry (http://borrowedbling.com/), designer clothing (http://wardrobe-nyc.com/).
Okay so that’s apparel heavy but my coworker does this all the time. She loves designer clothes but I know what they pay her…
I personally thinks it’s an awesome idea and that the internet is a wonderful place despite all the idiots.