Book swap leaves ABC unscathed
By Perry Swanson
The Metropolitan
A student-led effort to save money on books by swapping and buying them from other students barely made a dent in Auraria Book Centerās near-monopoly on the campus book market.
About 80 books were up for sale or trade in the Colorado Public Interest Research Groupās book swap on Jan. 20, said Anthony Nocera, a Metro student who helped organize the event. But event organizers said they havenāt tracked how many books have been sold or traded since the book swap started.
CoPIRG, an environmentally-oriented organization at Metro, has staged a string of book swap events since December. Students, who set their own prices, can sell their old text books and buy used books from other students at a discount. Students get the money from the sale, and CoPIRG collects a 5 percent fee on the transactions. Nocera said this is the first swap in
memory at Auraria. Student government members from all three Auraria colleges advertised the event by posting fliers and word of mouth. One swap organizer pitched the idea to a long line of students waiting to sell their books back to Auraria Book Center at the end of fall semester.
Several students asked questions and read the fliers he passed out. But few actually left the queue, and the fliers ended up on the floor.
But Clayt Freed, campus organizer for CoPIRG, said the response has been better than expected.
ćIt has surpassed my goals,ä Freed said. ćFor the first time doing this, I think itās really good.ä
Freed said the group would stage at least one more book swap at the end of this semester.
Swap headquarters are at the University of Colorado at Denver student government offices in the Tivoli.
