The competitive world of book-buying

One prominent question heard on college campuses throughout the nation: What is the cheapest way to purchase textbooks?

Students have a choice between buying them at their campus bookstore or searching for better deals on the Internet. Textbooks are notoriously expensive, so it's important for students to be aware of their best option. Because of this, the Zag Shop tries to keep books reasonably priced.

Since the 1940s, a national college bookstore-pricing model has been used to keep a standard price on textbooks and to keep books reasonably priced for students. The model sets a maximum profit margin of 25 percent, half of what many retailers apply. This percentage leaves just enough for a bookstore to still operate. A used book, for example, would be sold at 75 percent of the new equivalent's price.

This price model kept used and new books at consistent prices for several years until the creation of the Amazon marketplace. Due to the low prices and high resale that occurs through Amazon, publishing companies are losing money from their sales. Publishers must inflate the price of their books to make up for losses.

However, as the prices of new books rise, so do the price of used books, contradicting the model.

Take our very own Zag Shop.

Director Scott Franz became aware of the problem while working for a local charity. The charity made a profit from donated books, which they would sell on Amazon. He said he quickly realized some books he was posting for a penny on the marketplace, were identical ones that the Gonzaga bookstore sold for $50. This sparked an idea.

"With my friends, after my day job, we started a software company and we wrote software that farms Amazon," he said.  "The idea was that if we can beat schools like Pepperdine and get all the cheap books and bring them here to Gonzaga, then we can discount them to our students."

The software starts by searching the marketplace and purchasing the cheapest books. It then readjusts the profit from the marketplace's inexpensive book buys to brand new books, lowering their price. Because of the Zag Shop's innovation, the National Association of College Stores recognized its "outstanding development, implementation, and creative entrepreneurship of a new and/or existing collegiate retailing program or service."

Since its incorporation, book prices have been falling progressively each semester. However, competing with penny sales on Amazon is a herculean task.

Amazon.com and its marketplace circulate a variety of college textbooks, but cheaper deals are still found by tech-savvy students.

Sociology major Shaun Flemming bought on a budget, and compared all his textbooks at the Zag Shop to books from Internet retailers.

"This semester, I bought 100 percent of my books online, I didn't have to buy a single book at the bookstore, not a single one," he said.

However, there is also the possibility of renting. The Zag Shop's rental system has provided one of the most effective ways of getting bang for your buck.

"I can appreciate the idea of them being able to rent now," Flemming said. "Any way for me to save a dollar, I will. For me, I believe the Zag Shop needs to find a way to keep competing with other websites such as Chegg.com and Half.com."

Regardless of the Zag Shop's diligent efforts to lower prices, it appears that online retailers have the upper hand in book sales.