college textbooks

One rainy evening, I made my way to the bookstore with a backpack full of expensive textbooks that I needed to sell in order to purchase more expensive textbooks the following semester.

At the bookstore, I unpacked my books and asked the employee how much I would get. I watched in anticipation as he typed some numbers into his calculator.

He said I’d get about $90.

That was half the price of one of my textbooks. I noticed the line building up behind me and wondered if I should just take the money. After all, I had already carried 10 lbs of books in the rain. What was I going to do? Take them all the way back to my dorm?

Yep.

I stuffed the books back into my Jansport and trudged my way to Metcalf wondering why in the heavens they had to close Ruffner Bridge.

From that day on, I started to sell my textbooks online. I used Amazon and eBay, and it was so easy. Kind of.

There was this one time when I sold my accounting textbook – the loose leaf kind that came about because publishing companies said to themselves, “We’re not ripping off students enough. Let’s get rid of the binding.”

A Dartmouth student purchased my textbook on Amazon. I mailed the textbook in a binder to ensure that the pages would be in good condition when she received it.

Days later, I was just about to roll in the dough that I had made when I received an email from Amazon. Dartmouth student had complained that although the textbook was in great condition the binder had been used.

??????????????

Look, I’m not a smart kid, but I do know that she could just scan all the pages and complain about something completely unrelated to the textbook to basically get it for free.

No matter. I’m a problem solver so I prayed to God for an answer.

I guess God said to look at Amazon’s policy because I did and saw that I could charge a 20% restocking fee.

I let my customer know that her happiness was my top priority, and in pursuit of such a goal, I would allow the return but would have to charge a 20% restocking fee in accordance with Amazon’s policies.

She said she’d keep the textbook.