I'll get to the point before I go into my rant about the textbook racket. Most students are interested in acquiring their textbooks used from a friend or classmate but just don't have a good way to go about doing so. And many of us are more than happy to pass our used books onto other students at a fair price or even free, but don't have an easy way to find those who want them. That's exactly what Lamar Book Trade is meant to fix. Lamar Book Trade is meant to be a simple tool for Lamar students to trade, buy, or sell their used textbooks to other students.

Now the rant.

I think everyone out there can agree that textbook prices are too high. College students are already poor as dirt after paying not only tuition but the multitude of fees that are tacked onto their bill each semester. And then you come to find there is another $300-500 dollars you've got to scrounge up for textbooks. And how on earth can a textbook legitimately cost $130 dollars.

Oh, but it's a new edition! Have you ever actually compared two consecutive editions of the same book. Most of the time they might change the order of some chapters and just rewrite the text, but the content is borderline identical between the two. How much has really changed about basic chemistry in the last 10 years. How about biology, or math. Most Freshman and Sophomore courses you take consist of content that is by no means current, yet publishers find cause to put out that new edition.

And now the fault spreads to the university. They see a shiny new edition and suddenly students who had a nice 5th edition hand-me-down book from a friend are told they must purchase the shiny new 6th edition with near identical content and re-organized chapters and reworded paragraphs. Heck, some of them require a book and then barely even use it through the course of the semester. But many of you may be thinking "at least we can sell our books back at the end of the semester..."

Ah... the oh-so-friendly service of buying books back. Ha! That book you just payed $130 for at the beginning of the semester that is in pristine condition now nets you around $30 come time to sell it back. It's insulting. And don't you dare try to return a book because the return policy is likely non-existent. Especially if you've done the horrible crime of removing it from the irreplaceable shrink wrap. And what do book stores do with your book they just payed you $30 for? Turn around and re-sell it for $90. That's a 300% mark-up. Not only did they make money selling you the book the first time, but now they've made another chunk of cash reselling the book to some other student under the guise of graciously buying back books. Many books don't even qualify for bookstore buy back.

All of these things contribute to the textbook racket. College students are poor and the textbook market equates to stealing.