Issue date: 2/6/08 Section: NEWS

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In the competitive market of college textbooks, students with a Facebook account may be getting the best deals.
Many students now sell their textbooks directly to peers through Facebook's marketplace, avoiding the higher prices of retail stores and the shipping costs of online book sellers.
The marketplaces are organized by school with categories for jobs, housing and sales.
Adam Martinez and his fiancée said the cost of their combined used books for the fall 2007 semester was about $800, at used-book retail prices.
Martinez found most of his books on Facebook and paid about $400.
College Station alumnus Travis McKethan said he checks the buyback and resale prices for his book on the Voertman's Web site and then sells it on Facebook for a price in between.
"In the end, both the buyer and the seller walk away happy and are not messed over by a middleman," McKethan said.
Voertman's manager Michelle Dellis said she is uncertain if Facebook marketplace will affect business.
"You have to look at it as another store opening up down the street," Dellis said. "It's just the newest thing. Next month we'll see."
Dellis said retail stores will survive because people like to browse and Voertman's has adapted to the new competition by selling through its Web site and advertising on Facebook.
"My mother remembers when grocery stores delivered to the home and doctors made housecalls," Dellis said. "Who knows what the state of retail will be in 10 years?"
But some students said they will continue to buy and sell all their textbooks online.
Houston junior Amanda Hall has sold at least five books and a Nintendo Wii, mini-fridge and computer monitor on Facebook. Hall said she checks the marketplace every day and will always sell her books on Facebook or eBay.
"I think selling books to the bookstore is a rip-off," Hall said.
But buying on Facebook does have disadvantages.
Elgin junior Chris Ives said the campus book store and Voertman's "will always be a step ahead" because using Facebook can be a "hassle."
Ives said the drawbacks of Facebook include the risk of purchasing the wrong book, having to meet with strangers and the inability to buy all the required books at once.

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