With the rise in popularity of such Web sites as Amazon.com and eBay’s half.com, which sometimes boast lower prices than those of the traditional bookstores, Tezak and many other students are taking their business online to find better deals.

“Most (of my books) are new and I have three English classes,” Tezak said. “I wanted to see how much they were here before I look online.”

Many students use allMSU.com, a classified Web site for MSU students, to buy and sell textbooks at bargain prices.

Jon Golenbiewski, a kinesiology and premedical junior said he uses the site to sell his books, although he’s had troubles buying them.

“It was kind of a pain,” Golenbiewski said. “You apply to ads and (the sellers) don’t answer or arrange a meeting and they don’t show.”

As a result, Golenbiewski said he buys his books at the store and then sells them back online, where he can normally get more money back than at a bookstore.

Adam Seyburn, an employee at Spartan Bookstore, located in the International Center, said he noticed that students were starting to level off on buying textbooks online.

“There are a lot of good reasons to shop online,” Seyburn said. “After a student does it, they find it arrives really late or it’s the wrong book, and then sometimes it’s impossible to return it. As a bookstore we can make it better. They find if it’s a guy with one book in Arizona they won’t always (allow returns).”

Seyburn said that his and most other store’s prices on used books are normally around 25 percent off the price of the new book. The price of the new book is set by the publisher, something out of the control of bookstores.

“There’s only one place that makes Spanish 101 books and they make the cost,” Seyburn said.