Textbook Leasing
Textbook Leasing
Q1: How do I make sure I get the books back? Security deposit? How much?
Idea Description
I want to create a business that would lease textbooks to college students. Instead of buying and selling, students would lease textbooks at a rate of 20% the retail price per semester. Initially I would only start at my University (Millersville University, a member of the PA Systen of Higher Education). Also, I would only be interested in the most popular textbooks at first, such as those needed for General Education classes.
I (like many of my peers) are sick of the high price of textbooks along with the low buy-back rate of the campus book store and private buyers.
What will you do if you win $10,000 for this idea?
1) Find out what textbooks are needed. Ask around and build a database of what books are needed for what courses, and how many students typically enroll in these courses each semester.
2) BUY! I need to build up a library, and to do this I plan to buy books from students on campus, advertising my services by word-of-mouth, Facebook and eventually campus fliers.
3) Work on building the back-end, probably investing in a bar code scanner to help streamline the process of building a library and leasing out the books.
Vote for it now.
Actually, contrary to popular belief, while the edition numbers may change, little else does. There are a few exceptions, but 99% of the books I've had are the same with each edition. Sure, chapters may be flipped around, but I've been using a 1st edition solutions manual for my third edition calc book to help with homework. The only things that change are the chapter orders. Also, this has worked before. And if I can make it big, book companies will likely take notice, in which case I would barter deals like Universities that have book leasing at their school do. See http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org/newsroom.asp?id2=18107 for more information.
good idea but the greedy book companies out date their books the instant they hit the shelves. i hate to rain on your parade (i had a similar idea and researched it) unfortunately, i do not think this would work as intended as these books cannot be used over and over the way they should be (as say a car?). many classes require the updated book edition within 1 to 2 years of an edition being released (with only minor revisions). it would be impossible to pay off the book (or making a profit) in time for the next edition.
Unfortunately, putting books on CD would violate copyright law because then I would be leasing intellectual property that I do not own. I'm not trying to get sued here. Right now, I'm just looking to do this at my own university. After a year or so I plan to look at distribution options to include other PA State schools. The money would go to helping me get started to (1) make a website about what I have and what I want from students and (2) to give me some money to purchase books to start leasing.
Maybe the textbooks could be sent on a CD in PDF form and then returned like "Netflix"? Saving paper and processing, but there might be an issue with students copying the CD and distributing pirated versions?
Great Idea!!