Editorial Notebook: Flying Back to the Coop

I was determined. I was prepared. As I sat down at my laptop surrounded by syllabi, I only thought about how I was going to spend the money I was bound to save.

I had already munched on my free bagels (thanks to VarsityBooks.com) and I had already scratched the cards to receive savings at Bigwords.com. The long lines at the Coop, the mind-boggling credit card bills and the "I can't believe a few sheets of printed paper could cost that much money" speeches from my parents were quickly fading into a distant memory. Or so I thought.

The search for cheap online textbooks started off fairly well. I picked up a few brightly colored flyers from outside Canaday and found that I could easily compare prices by going to limespot.com or the UC Books website. Because the Undergraduate Council has recently been wrapped up in more pressing issues than saving students' money, I decided to try the former.

All was going well, at first. I easily compared prices for all 17 of my History 10b books--just by selecting the course from the list of options. But Sociology 149 wasn't one of the choices. Neither was Foreign Cultures 19. Still unfazed, I typed in each book title, hoping that a manual search would yield me the savings I so desired.

That's when things started to go downhill. According to limespot.com, two of the books on my Sociology syllabus do not exist in virtual reality. And I guess the language of the web must be English, because none of my Spanish books were for sale either. I became a tad frustrated. But I was still picturing 40 percent off books and how my parents' elation over my deal-sleuthing skills would cause them to turn a blind eye to that $50 charge from Jasmine Sola.

But thanks to packed introductory courses, I thought I could at least save money on my History 10b books. Unfortunately, that was not in the bytes for me. When I actually logged on to VarsityBooks.com, more than half of my required texts were unavailable and had to be back ordered. Not knowing when they would arrive (hopefully before midterms), I resigned myself to adding only two books to my e-shopping cart. Luckily, they had two of my Sociology texts for a reasonable price. After I clicked on the calculate button, my screen flashed brightly "YOU SAVED $6.59!!!" Two hours of endlessly clicking and typing only yielded a measly $6.59 in savings. At that rate, I would be able to buy myself a celebratory cookie and hot cocoa at Toscanini's--if even that.

Sighing, I shut down my computer and trudged through the graying slush to the Coop. To my surprise, the lines were short and the employees were relatively friendly. My books were easy to find even if somewhat on the pricey side. I even found two used Sociology books in mint condition, with minimal margin scribbles and highlighted passages. I thought about my wasted two hours and almost slapped myself for being so easily manipulated by a free slice of Tommy's pizza.

But come fall semester, you might again find me in front of my laptop furiously clicking away. By September I'll have the entire summer's worth of bills to somehow pay back.