Green stickers promise cash back for textbooks

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, the original version of this story misrepresented the name of the textbook wholesaler. The company's name is now MBS Textbook Exchange.

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The University’s buyback program provides students with the opportunity to make more money on textbooks than ever.

In fall 2014, Director of UNC Student Stores John Gorsuch worked with the marketing and textbook departments to develop and implement the buyback program for students.

Student Stores worked with the textbook provider Follett, which recently proposed privatizing Student Stores, for 10 years. When Gorsuch heard Follett would be opening a competing store in Chapel Hill, he terminated the relationship and switched to the textbook wholesaler MBS Textbook Exchange instead.

With the help of MBS Textbook Exchange, Student Stores introduced three new incentives for students: the green sticker program, the One Planet program and the Tar Heel buck program. 

One-third of the textbooks in Student Stores have a green sticker located on the cover. The sticker indicates that students are guaranteed 35 to 66 percent cash back when selling the textbook back to Student Stores at the end of the semester. 

Also listed is a web address for students to look up the value of their textbook at any given time.

“The green sticker educates students and gives them confidence that we will buy back their high-valued books,” Gorsuch said.

Student Stores developed a partnership with One Planet Books to create a program designed to promote recycling of textbooks that no longer have value.

“Students are paid $1 for an old textbook that would normally just be left in the back of their closet or thrown away,” Gorsuch said.

One Planet Books provides Student Stores with the necessary supplies and shipping materials. Once the textbooks are collected and shipped, One Planet Books ensures they are properly repurposed.

Student Stores also offers Tar Heel Bucks, giving one Tar Heel Buck for every textbook sold back to the store. Each Tar Heel Buck is equivalent to $1 and can be used toward textbook purchases in the next semester.

Last year, a total of $17,000 Tar Heel Bucks were given out to students — only one-fourth of them were redeemed, Gorsuch said.

Student Stores gave about $900,000 cash back to students for textbooks in the past two semesters, which Gorsuch said was a 71 percent increase from the 2013-14 school year.

“Since we have gone over with a wholesaler with a much larger buy guide, our unit increases have been dramatic," Textbook Department Manager Kelly Hanner said.

Junior Molly High said she did not know about the new buyback program. 

“I used the buyback program my freshman year. Once I got older, I realized that other places offered cheaper prices and would give me more money back for my books," High said.

Hanner said Student Stores faces a time crunch when working with faculty members to determine what books to order.

“We really have worked hard on students' behalf to get much better pricing at buyback and, of course, on the front end for the purchasing price," Hanner said. "No one ever believes it, but we actually are watching out for students as best as possible."

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