Eastern’s Textbook Rental Service has seen a dramatic decrease in sales of used textbooks at sidewalk sales over the years.

Susan Allen, who is in charge of textbook assignments at Textbook Rental, said the bi-annual sale has been going on for years.

“It’s been going on since before I got here,” she said. “I started here in 1985 and it had already been going on.”

Bryan Walden, who is in charge of discarded textbooks at Textbook Rental, said this year’s sale was slower than in past years.

“I don’t know if it’s due to the location out here (at Textbook Rental),” he said. “It seems now that the wholesalers take more textbooks back than they used to before.”

Walden said he realizes students are not exposed to the sale as visibly as students who used the textbook rental service when it was next to Pemberton Hall.

“Everybody likes to have a copy of the book they had in class,” he said.

Walden said Textbook Rental used to have a box sale where students could get an entire box of books for a certain amount of money.

“It was kind of a disaster to be honest,” he said. “People would come in and buy boxes and just put them on eBay, or so I suspect.”

He said he hopes students do continue to buy the books and help keep the sale alive.

“We don’t want to send these books to the recyclers, especially if students can use them,” he said.

Walden said systems nationwide are trying to get the type of program Eastern has.

“Everybody in the whole country is trying to start rental systems, and to have rental system, they have to have books,” he said.

When the sale first began, there was a day that totaled $2,000 in profits, according to an Oct. 5, 2004, article in The Daily Eastern News.

However, over the years Textbook Rental has been on campus, sales have continued to decrease.

Christina Coffey, who is in charge of customer service, said sales have decreased by about $50 each year.

In 2010, sales totaled $200, and in 2011, sales were only $150.

This year, Coffey said Textbook Rental has only made about $50 during the sale.

Walden said it would be too difficult to have the sale on one of the quads because of all the projects that are constantly going on at Textbook Rental, as well as transportation.

“Along with doing (this sale), we’re currently resetting all of our shelves,” he said. “We’re actually busier when we’re not handing out books.”

He said the textbook sale is something that is done as a side project.

“It’s just a little something we do for the students,” he said. “It’s not a big money-raiser.”

Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812 or redexter@eiu.edu.