End-of-semester book buyback starts Wednesday

The University of St. Thomas Bookstore, St. Paul campus, will conduct its annual end-of-semester book buyback starting Wednesday, Dec. 12.

Here is the schedule Dec. 12-14:

• Noon-6 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 12 and 13
• Noon-4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 14

Here are the hours for finals week:

• 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 17, through Thursday, Dec. 20
• 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21

The Minneapolis bookstore will have similar hours and times.

Students wishing to sell their books back can receive up to 50 percent of the new cover price if the bookstores have received a firm book adoption for the next semester. Since the bookstores can only purchase limited quantities of some titles and the quotas are filled daily, the bookstores encourage students to sell their books daily after finishing their classes.

If the bookstores have met their quota on the quantities that are to be resold in the UST bookstores, most likely the title will have a wholesale value. Books not ordered for the next semester in many cases also will have a wholesale value. Books purchased wholesale will be shipped to a nationwide used book distributor, which in turn will sell to other schools for their students' needs. Last year, the UST bookstores purchased more than $600,000 worth of used textbooks back from students.

As more and more books have CDs included in them, books being sold back must have the CDs with them to receive the best price.

There will be an opportunity to donate books not being purchased by the bookstores to Books for Africa. Donated books will be put to good use by other students where even a used out-of-date textbook is a treasured commodity.

Check the list of books that the stores will not be purchasing due to new editions or no book orders at this time.

A picture ID is required for all customers selling back books.

The end of the semester is a time when book thefts increase substantially. Watch your books and mark your books so you can identify them in case they are lost or stolen.