I asked my friend Michael Novotny, a UWM-WC student and faculty member, to help me with a project comparing school bookstore prices to online prices. I let him pick any book at random to get the most fair comparison.
This intro level physics book caught his eye. The price tag on this book is $93.50 NEW or $70.25 USED with no option to rent. This was a common theme with most textbooks with very few available for rent.
We returned the next week in hopes of retaking and improving our shots but were swiftly told off by the lady who runs it who said, “No, I cant have you taking anymore pictures of my books. Sorry” Part of me wanted to ask why but she was obviously unhappy with our presence, so we left.
We decided to check a well known online book provider Chegg.com to see if they had the physics book available.
Turns out they had four different ways to acquire the book, NEW ($117), USED ($57.99), E-book ($34.99), or RENT ($11.99). Michael was impressed that you could buy this book used for over $30 less then in the bookstore.
He was even more impressed that you could rent the book both online or as a hard copy. Saving either $55 with the online version or $78 with a hard copy.
The CGS Catalyst 
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