Craig D. Peskin '00-'01 didn't expect his annual patronage rebate from the Harvard Coop to amount to much, so he was impressed when he found out $20.98 was waiting for him.

"That's a big surprise," said Peskin, an Adams House resident, "And I was only here for one semester [last year]."

Peskin said he will "without a doubt" be into the Coop soon to pick up his check.

But despite the $537,400 in member rebates available at the Coop for more than a month, only 20 to 25 percent of members have yet claimed their share.

"It seems funny, but we have all this money here in checks to students and alumni," said Coop President Jeremiah P. Murphy Jr. '73, "and we'd love to have them come and pick them up. They're not doing us any good here."

The Coop's Web site explains that the patronage rebate is a feature of its status as a cooperative. The rebate is paid to members "from net earnings from business done with members, in proportion to their individual purchases."

The Web site cautions readers to "remember, only Coop members who have paid their annual membership fee (one dollar per year) are eligible for the patronage rebate."

The Coop Board of Directors, which includes a number of student members, announced a rebate of 4.5 percent in October.

The rebate is based on member purchases made between July 1997 and June 1998.

Murphy said the average check is $12-15, though the range goes from about $1.50 to more than $100. He said he expects that rebate to be particularly meaningful to students.

"The key here is that it's worth coming in to check and see because you may have a check and don't realize it," Murphy said.

Not all undergraduates are impressed with the size of the rebate. Alison M. Kraw '00 was disappointed when she found out that her share was $25.55, the percentage rebated from $567.78 of charges on her membership number.

Purchases are only tagged for rebate eligibility when a customer provides a membership number.

"That actually seems kind of little to meconsidering how much I've spent," Kraw said.

After the rebate was announced the checks weremade available in Coop stores.

For the week prior to that availability periodand the availability period itself, the Coop ranads to notify its members, Murphy said.