For college students, scraping together enough cash to pay for expenses and still having enough spare change for a 12-pack is a challenge. One thing notorious for hindering early semester binge drinking is textbook prices.

The price of college textbooks has increased at twice the rate of U.S. inflation, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office this month. Many students are turning to the Internet to save as much money as they can.

Dustin Rosendahl, junior in agricultural studies, says he turned to the popular Web site Half.com, which is run by eBay, and saved approximately $100 on books this semester.

“It’s the only way to do it if you’re on a budget, really,” Rosendahl says. “All my friends pretty much buy their books online.”

Although students like Rosendahl have been able to save money buying books online, Lynette Seymour, general manager of the Iowa State University Book Store, says there can be downfalls to buying books through Web sites like Half.com or Amazon.com.

“What we are hearing are a lot of horror stories,” Seymour says. “The book comes and isn’t what it was thought to be — sometimes it’s the wrong edition or it’s damaged.”

Although online book sellers offer ways to help ensure students are getting the right product, such as photos of the book’s cover and providing the book’s International Standard Book Number, there can still be complications with the exchange.

Kelsey Lenaghan, junior in mechanical engineering, says even though she bought all her books online this semester, there are still some challenges involved with the process.

“Sometimes it’s hard to tell if it’s the right edition, and you have to think far ahead because it can take a few weeks,” Lenaghan says.

Rosendahl purchased his books from the University Book Store so he could make sure he could get the right books online at a cheaper price and kept only the books he couldn’t find online.

“I got the ISBN numbers and looked them up at Half.com to make sure I got the right editions,” Rosendahl says. “But they don’t have all my books online.”

In spite of this, Lenaghan says a bad experience occurred when she reserved her books through the University Book Store her freshman year, which lead her to turn to the Internet.

“They gave me two of the same book, and it was just bad. Plus, it was pretty expensive.”

Another major concern among students, as well as parents who might be purchasing books for their students, is the security of giving out information on the Web. Alex Moore, freshman in health and human performance, says her parents’ worries about identity theft were an important factor in her decision to purchase books the traditional way.

“My dad didn’t want to give out his credit card number online,” Moore says.

Seymour says the human element involved in purchasing books at a store is the one thing a Web site can never recreate.

“One thing I watch here is the socializing,” Seymour says. “You run into people you know that you haven’t seen all summer and there’s personal interaction when you make a purchase.”