This fall, students at City College found that bookstore prices had been raised by as much as 30 percent from last spring, although buyback rates for used textbooks are up 21 percent as well.

Director of Bookstore Services John Lorelli says the economy has affected the bookstore.

“We’ve been affected like everybody else has,” said Lorelli. “But one of the issues is, of course, that what we are dealing with is something that instructors are telling you to get.”

“With textbooks it’s not a discretionary item. The teacher is saying ‘go get this book.’ But yes, its affected us, of course.”

Textbooks are a necessary item for most students, but buying books and supplies from the campus bookstore is not required. Some students have found different ways to deal with the long lines and high prices.

Aside from a tough economy, Lorelli said, “the second thing that has affected us is just the utterly outrageous, ever increasing increases we get from these publishers.”

When faced with price increases, Lorelli described that the bookstore faces the dilemma of either raising their prices to match the increase in costs, or losing profit.

“There are two gigantic conglomerates that publish the bulk of the textbooks and their price increases have been utterly egregious,” said Lorelli. “We saw some between spring semester this year and fall semester that were anywhere between a 20 to 30 percent increase.”

As an example, a 30 percent increase on $300 worth of books would set the total to over $400, after taxes.

Buyback rates were also up this semester, with a reported 21 percent increase from last year. “Buyback is based entirely on the price of the book, it’s always 50 percent of the retail price new, (or) of the retail price used,” said Lorelli.

Buybacks are based on orders from teachers for the books they will use next semester. The next buyback will take place on Sept. 30.

When the bookstore buys back old books from students, it lowers the amount of money they make. As a result, they sell more used books the following semester, which cost less. The bookstore is not at benefit.

“What it does is it helps the students,” Lorelli said. “There were approximately $200,000 more buybacks this fall than there were last fall.”

Over the years, the bookstore has survived by lowering profit margins and keeping prices within reason, according to Lorelli. The goal is to accommodate to students-“that’s my job,” Lorelli said.

Another alternative to the bookstore is the campus library. The library does offer textbooks on reserve to students enrolled in certain classes, although copies are limited and can only be checked out for a limited period of time.