Purchasing Process

 Purchasing & Payment

  • Purchases can be made by ARTICard ONLY. You can add funds to your card online. You can also add cash at the ARTICard Office in Sharp Suite 254 during business hours or at any of the Value Transfer Stations around campus (Sharp 2nd Floor, Sullivan 12th floor lounge, Maclean Lobby, 280 S. 2nd Floor, 162 N State Lobby, Jones Hall 3rd Floor)
  • You must pay in full before any items are removed from Material Source locations.
  • Items not stored in Material Source locations must be picked up as soon as the purchase has been made.
  • Material Source cannot assist in the transport or storage of any purchased items.
  • More ARTICard information can be found HERE
  • Faculty and Staff can see our Faculty & Staff Resources page for more information about Journal Transfers.

Returns & Exchanges

  • Returns and Exchanges require the following:
  1. Your original receipts.  This is an itemized receipt in your email.
  2. Your ARTICard.
  3. The item you are returning.  The item/s must be unopened, unused, and otherwise in the same condition purchased.
  •  Items can only be returned at the location where they were purchased.
  •  Non-returnable items include: personal protective equipment, items cut or altered after purchase, and certain cut-to-size items.
  •  Returns may take time, please be patient.

Service & Pricing

Material Source seeks to serve all members of the SAIC community with the same level of respect and professionalism. Customer service is a top priority! We will do our best to ensure that the products we provide are readily available to the SAIC community with as few steps as possible for the customer.


Material Source’s main goal is to make sure items used for curricular needs are accessible and available to the SAIC community. We are aware that a large aspect of accessibility is affordability. We do what we can to keep our margins low. The pricing margins that we do have cover the costs of bringing materials to the SAIC community. This includes a 5% ARTICard fee, loss/damage of items that we sell due to theft or misuse, shipping from the vendor, and any contracted labor used to bring in large orders. Due to these costs and the limits of our operation, we are unable to compete with the pricing of larger vendors. That being said, please feel free to email us if you have questions or concerns about pricing.