Packback, a textbook company offering pay-as-you-go textbook rentals, is making its way onto the University of Northern Iowa’s campus. Packback targets college students who spend money on required textbooks that are hardly used in class.
“Packback enables students to take control over their education and what they spend,” said Brycen Henry, sophomore economics and political science double major and brand ambassador for Packback.
Packback charges $3 to $5 per day for book rentals. Students can change the number of days they have the book, and they can extend their rental for the semester. Packback is the first textbook retailer. that allows paying per-use.
Packback offers other advantages such as textbook price comparisons and selling textbooks back to Packback, said Henry.
According to Packback’s website, the rent per-day option decreases the need for used textbooks. When fewer students buy used textbooks, textbook companies selling new books are faced with less competition, which lowers their prices, according to the website.
UNI students each have their own routine when it comes to buying or renting textbooks. Trent Simpson, junior family services major, usually rents his books from online retailers such as Amazon or Chegg.
“It’s irritating when professors require a specific textbook, only for the class to find out it won’t be used in the class,” Simpson said. “[Renting textbooks per day] can still add up.”
Emma Shipley, a sophomore biochemistry major who usually buys her textbooks from University Book and Supply, said the ability to rent textbooks during shorter periods seems like it would be “very useful.”
According to Henry, Packback was founded in 2012 by four college students that took their idea to a business plan competition and won first place. The founders understood firsthand what college students experience when it comes to buying, using and selling back textbooks, said Henry in an email.
The very first model of this company began in the Fall of 2013 at Illinois State University, said Henry.
