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Published: 2012-08-04 14:39:00
Updated: 2012-08-05 00:06:34

NC State students save big with tax-free online textbook orders


Textbooks in warehouse
Textbooks in warehouse
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Saturday was day two of North Carolina's sales tax holiday, and many people got their 7 percent savings on school supplies without stepping foot in a store.

At the North Carolina State University bookstore, where one textbook can run $200 or more, buying books during the tax-free weekend can add up to double-digit savings.

Larry Sampson, a senior applied mathematics student, said he saved $37 on a $553 textbook, for example.

The bookstore makes it easy to save. An army of staff are filling online orders – which are eligible for the same great savings – for students to pick up before they start classes later this month.

"It's definitely worth it," said manager Anthony Sanders. "We've saved students, generally each year, over $100,000 just on textbooks."

They estimate filling about 7,000 online orders this weekend, a figure that bookstore director Pat Hofmeister would like to see grow.

"If you look at enrollment here – we have close to 30,000 students taking classes here – and 7,000 is a small percentage of that," Hofmeister said. "I'm always surprised that more students don't do it."


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Always buy your textbooks online. University textbooks have high prices, except at buyback time. Then they'll offer you $7 for a gently used book and mumble something about it being "wholesale."

Never buy from a University bookstore as they will always take the most they can get away with. You can get them at Amazon for half the price.

The costs of books is ridiculous, also it is entirely unnecessary. There should be one DVD that you purchase in year one. You trade it in in year two at no cost to you. The next person doing year one buys your previously owned DVD. Unfortunately, there no longer is any effort to minimize costs and every effort to maximize profits. Then foolishly the Government tosses billions of dollars at the students claiming it helps lower the cost of education. It does not, it raises the costs and simply transfers some of it to other people. These same students will then pay higher taxes throughout their working lives to pay for the so-called cheaper education.

If no taxes really spurs sales like this....why do they keep telling us that the only way to fix the economy is to raise them???

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