While some students are waiting in line for their textbook purchases this semester, others are taking their booklists online to avoid the hassle of a bookstore.

Book-selling Web sites like LionSwap.com, LionSwap.com, LionSwap.com and Half.com are catching on in popularity, but the promise of cheaper prices must compete with the convenience of buying from a bookstore.

Tom Bauer, Penn State Bookstore's general manager, said purchasing textbooks from a traditional bookstore is more convenient than online book shopping, and the price difference is minimal when factoring in the shipping and handling tagged onto online purchases.

"Many students like the convenience of buying [textbooks] at a bookstore, so there's always that convenience factor," Bauer said. "You just go into the store and pick it up."

Megan Sheeringer (senior-biobehavioral health) also said she feels shopping at a bookstore is more convenient than purchasing a book online.

"I'd rather buy from the bookstore," she said. "I just like to have them in my hand."

However, Polycarp Tam (senior-graphic information science) said even though shopping online adds a fee for shipping and handling, it is not always a big issue.

"I buy textbooks from Half.com, and as far as shipping and handling, even heavy books are only $5," Tam said.

Jacob Smith (senior-physics) said he finds purchasing textbooks online is significantly cheaper than purchasing them at the bookstore, even including shipping and handling.

"I usually buy at Amazon.com -- sometimes it's up to 60 percent cheaper," Smith said.

Another question raised when buying books online is the quality and type of book purchased. Bauer said it is difficult to know the condition of a used book through an online purchase, which is why the physical aspect of a bookstore is appealing.

"At the bookstore, you can find the cleanest one, pay at the register, and go home," Bauer said.

Some students, like Eric Mueller (senior-architectural engineering), still prefer to shop online and say that the price difference is considerable.

"They're 10 times cheaper online. I shop at Amazon.com and Half.com, and I bought a $150 book for $35," Mueller said.

Officials from LionSwap.com and Stuzo.com said they have profited from the success of online textbook sales.

Laura Penna, assistant to the founder of Stuzo.com, said the appeal of online textbook sales is that online sites sell them cheaper than the bookstores and better facilitate the sale of used textbooks, allowing students to make more money than selling them back to a bookstore.

Buying books from Stuzo.com is about $35 to $45 cheaper than buying at a bookstore, Gunter Pfau, founder of Stuzo.com, said.

"We are strictly students helping students," Pfau said. "We bring students together from the same university and other universities."

Online sellers, however, have not greatly affected bookstore sales, Penna said.

"We are not necessarily trying to alter anything with the bookstore, we are just trying to give students an alternative," Penna said.

However, LionSwap.com founders Daniel Roukous (junior-mechanical engineering) and Alec Bitner (junior-accounting) will reconstruct their Web site in the spring, and said they hope to compete with the bookstores then.