Comments on: Confirmed: Kleiner Perkins Gets Into Textbook Rentals As Chegg Raises $25 Million

By: Thyro

Thyro — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:52:07 +0000

The same I do in German…with bookway.

By: Senior PHP Developer / Chegg / Santa Clara, CA - Morpheed Jobs

Senior PHP Developer / Chegg / Santa Clara, CA - Morpheed Jobs — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:45:09 +0000

[...] over 4,000 campuses, Chegg is the #1 in book rentals. Chegg was recently featured on Techcrunch. http://www.tech...ses-25-million/ Responsibilities: * Work in a fast paced and highly collaborative development environment tasked [...]

By: Daniel Sun

Daniel Sun — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:11:48 +0000

i like how people are arguing how Chegg makes a profit from the book they rent out

if they didnt make a profit how are they still in business and how did they get that $25 million dollar investment with out making a profit???

By: Textbook

Textbook — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:25:23 +0000

Thanks I like it.^_^

By: blog.twidox.com » Blog Archive » Renting out student textbooks is profitable business

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:23:37 +0000

[...] Confirmed: Kleiner Perkins Gets Into Textbook Rentals As Chegg Raises $25 Million [...]

By: Senior PHP Developer / Chegg / Santa Clara, CA | MyITJobs.mobi

Senior PHP Developer / Chegg / Santa Clara, CA | MyITJobs.mobi — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:30:09 +0000

[...] http://www.tech...ses-25-million/ [...]

By: green

green — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:06:41 +0000

I would suggest using GreenTextbooks.org
Save Money, Save The Planet
GreenTextbooks.org specializes in the recycling of textbooks, DVDs, CDs. Buying used textbooks not only saves you money, but cuts down on greenhouse gases caused by the manufacturing of new textbooks.
With GreenTextbooks.org you’re not only saving trees, you are saving some green.
http://www.greentextbooks.org

By: 2008 December 18 | Tween Girls On Line Magazine

2008 December 18 | Tween Girls On Line Magazine — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:03:22 +0000

[...] Textbook rentals (gaining momentum with startup Chegg attracting a cool quarter million in funding. Seems like prime [...]

By: Shane

Shane — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:30:58 +0000

My assumption is that like any rental company they look to their late/loss fees to make the real money. I mean, realistically, what percentage of college students will truly be on time returning their texts? Especially when you consider the hassle of packing the thing up and putting it in the mail. I mean, returning videos to Blockbuster is a pain, think about having to ship something.

By: Dina Gold

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:37:23 +0000

I wish I had this when I went to school…oh the money it would have saved at the bookstore!

By: Chegg recibe 25M

Chegg recibe 25M — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:11:21 +0000

[...] Chegg, un sitio web dirigido a estudiantes donde pueden alquilar libros de texto, ha recibido una ronda de financiación Serie C de 25 millones de dólares. [...]

By: Joe Magennis

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:18:18 +0000

I have significant experience in this arena and I am shocked that KP would put any money towards this endeavor.

Textbook rentals have been attempted on college campuses for as long as textbooks have been in use, and there are simply too many inherent problems to make it successful.

The edition issue has been addressed in other comments as it relates to the number of turns on the inventory, and obsolete inventory at the end of an edition life.

What has not been addressed is the assurance to students that they will receive the correct version of the book requested by their professor in a timely manner. Sourcing & stocking correct amounts of inventory when students require them is challenging on a single campus let alone 1000’s of campuses. So fulfillment issues will be rampant.

And what is this magical due date? .. Length of term and therefore need, vary by campus.

Good luck getting a return on this investment.

By: dave h

dave h — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:26:43 +0000

Students do want to save money, but they don’t want to be tied down to contracts let alone rent textbooks. Students here at UCSB are using Uloop.com to sell and buy books from one another. My cousin uses them at UW.
Also textbooks are seasonal. They’re focus is too narrow. I think a company like Uloop which has a roommate finder and job finder will be more successful in an economy like we are in today.
Dave
UCSB ‘10

By: Chegg Nabs $25 Million, Sparks Rental Followers | iLetYou

Chegg Nabs $25 Million, Sparks Rental Followers | iLetYou — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:08:25 +0000

[...] the comments on the TechCrunch post, it looks like there’s an increasing flow of rental fans especially when you can see the [...]

By: Shane

Shane — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 01:57:50 +0000

Interesting concept, but what is the exit? I mean, it is not like you are going to take this public. Amazon buy out maybe?

By: Ypulse Essentials: The MySpace Effect, A Debate Over Newberry, Textbook Rentals | Ypulse

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 01:44:23 +0000

[...] Textbook rentals (gaining momentum with startup Chegg attracting a cool quarter million in funding. Seems like prime [...]

By: DMil

DMil — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:21:35 +0000

“If your book is late you will be charged a 25% late fee. If your textbook is not postmarked within one full week after the due date, you will be charged the cost of replacing the book.”
The replacement fee is often 50% higher than the Amazon price of the book.

These policies allow for even more leniency with expiring editions. You will also notice that Chegg offers to rent books by the quarter trimester and semester. This enables even faster turnaround time and value from books.

I think it’s a great idea and wish them the best. My only concern would be the used book market, which has all of the benefits of textbook rental (cheap price) without any of the problems (you can’t keep it). Then again, the used book market is probably experiencing a shortage in this economy. Congrats Chegg and KP.

By: 2008 December 17 | Tween Girls On Line Magazine

2008 December 17 | Tween Girls On Line Magazine — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:02:10 +0000

[...] Textbook rentals (gaining momentum with startup Chegg attracting a cool quarter million in funding. Seems like prime [...]

By: Aaron Richard

Aaron Richard — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:40:33 +0000

Right, but that still doesn’t *really* work.

The books that you’d really want to rent are the ones that get new editions every year or two years. If it’s a book with a 3-4 year use, you can just buy it used and/or re-sell it to your bookstore, friend, or on Amazon.

The real problem that needs to be solved is that students don’t like paying $115 for a new book they use twice and then can’t resell because everyone gets the new version each year.

If a book has a 4+ year life, it’s really not a problem. You can buy it used for 1/3rd the cost already.

By: R

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:24:59 +0000

i have quite some knowledge on this topic – i was on the board of directors for one of the largest university bookstores in the nation.
books nowadays have a very very short shelf life – some even less than 4 years. the problem with the used textbook market is that most professors are coerced into getting the brand new edition rendering the old version semi worthless (depending on the amount of differences and changes between the versions) – it IS an inconvenience most of the time to use an outdated version. outside of academia not many people are interesting in academic textbooks and their value goes DOWN.
so.. the first year a book is released.. you can buy a book at full retail.. but when you return the book to the bookstore you still get 50%+ of the value. the following term the bookstore has used books which are ~30% or more cheaper then new ones. and when you return them you still get a good value. NOW.. towards the end of the versions life is where renting might be beneficial as it will most likely not be bought back at all.. but by that time there’s more used books floating around. it’s a strange process.. and it IS mostly the publishers fault for pushing new editions out.
good luck~ and if prices are good then why not!
- as far as ebooks go.. i was against them personally but our bookstore heard positive reviews on them..perhaps once they refine the rules and the drm. or make them cheap enough that you don’t really need to “sell” them to recoup the high costs. (at the time they were only fractionally cheaper than print)

By: Razin Mustafiz

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:49:34 +0000

It’s one of those ideas that you wish you had thought of. Here’s hoping that Chegg is here to stay…even after Amazon unleashes a Kindle for textbooks.

By: Drew

Drew — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:25:48 +0000

Wow… Great Idea! I wish I had this available to me while I was in school… I’m definitely passing on this site to every college student I know

best of luck Chegg team!

By: Yosef

Yosef — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:25:31 +0000

I books shelf life is around 3-4 years in the academic field. In that case they have that amount of time to charge rental fields on a book. If they charge a quarter of the price on a book it will take 4 years to get the full payment. If they charge a third it will take three years to get the full payment.

Even after your school bookstore doesn’t buy your book back there are still many schools that will use the book and hence the online marketplace will buy the book.

By: Jennifer Mills

Jennifer Mills — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:18:47 +0000

I wish this service was around when I was in college! It would have saved me a fortune.

I love to read so I joined Paperspine.com, like a Netflix for books. Same idea as the one above, just for regular books.

By: Elliepuppet

Elliepuppet — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:17:16 +0000

Not gonna happen. People have to research and write this content, and capable people don’t do this for free. Maybe something akin to iTunes might develop eventually, but there will always be payment for high-quality academic text.