Why are textbooks so much more expensive?

[lupin]

I mean, compared to the regular books in the bookstore, with the same quality, textbooks are almost always more expensive!

Is it because the smaller target market?

 

[virtuamike]

I think it's because that's how professors make money, by making students buy their books.

 

[Ponyboy25]

C'mon, it's the age-old explanation, "Everything about school SUCKS!".

 

[jcmorris2]

It's a scam. College's are there to make money, not to educate us. That's just how they make money. And so the publishers hone in on this. It wouldn't suprise me if there are a bunch of under the table deals going on.

Everybody's against us

 

[Ponyboy25]

If you buy them from your campus bookstore, the excess charging goes to pay for the cafeteria food, **cough cough ROADKILL cough cough**.

 

[SuperTool]

Nope, it's the American consumers getting screwed. My friend bought $100 books in Singapore for $20. It had a big "Do not import into the US" label on it.
They cost so much because the publisher figures you can afford to pay that much. If you are paying 30K per year tuition, $100 for a book is a drop in a bucket.

 

[ViRGE]

If you think about it, the cost doesn't seem that outrageous. Considering what's in a standard textbook, I can easily imagine that writing one of these damn things can't be easy(reasearch+employees add up quickly). That combined with the relitively small College market, and you have the perfect formula for high prices.:Q

 

[thebestMAX]

Take Econ 101 and find out.

 

[SuperTool]

My suggestion (try at your own risk) is to wait until something is actually assigned from a book, unless it's one of the core classes you will need for reference later on. I have had several classes where I bought books and never once opened them.
Also, try AddAll.com It searches many online book retailers for lowest price. Will save you 10-20 bux.

 

[dcb322]

The damn publishers run a friggin monopoly, they know that you have to buy the book and mark it up. And they change editions every 2 years, so you can't buy a used a copy. so you might as well grab your ankles and squeal like a pig.

 

[Ladi]

textbooksatcost is a small company with a somewhat limited selection and long shipping times, but if your books are on their list and you have a week or two to wait, their prices are often much lower than they are elsewhere and they only charge $4.95 flat shipping.

~Ladi

 

[beat mania]

because it is written by people who know what they're talking about. usually.

 

[Capn]

You know how long it takes to write a 300-400 page text book? Couple this with the fact that there's a very limited market for this kind of thing. A prof has to put in a lot of his time to write this thing and if there's only going to be a few thousand or so sold it has to be worth it financially.

 

[gittyup]

Don't you hate it when they change a few things and then call it a new edition. You use the book for one
semester and then get screwed when trying to sell back the old edition.

 

[bigbootydaddy]

and a lot of professors write their own textbooks for one class, year in and out. can you imagine publishing cost for that. just a thought.

 

[Bluga]

ya Americans are getting ripped off. The price outside North America are about 40%-50% off.

 

[rahvin]

A professor will typically take 6 month to write a text book and it will often have a limited distribution (ie half a dozen schools). How much would your time be worth if you completed 8-10 years of school?

 

[jimmyhaha]

definitely a rip-off !!!
my friend had bought some book in asian country in the past for around
30% to 40% the US price.....

wonder if he can import it in mass volume and make some $$$

US publisher SUCKS

 

[Pod]

I buy books only when absolutely necessary. There's this one class I have coming up where there is a CD with the book that the prof. apparently draws assignments from, so I'm just gonna burn a copy of it. Fu(k the textbook companies!

 

[Bignate603]

buy used textbooks, maybe evenfrom somebody who just took the class if you think a bit ahead.

 

[vi edit]

I don't put so much blame on the publishers as I do on the damn bookstores.

They sell me a book for $100. I turn it in at the end of the semester, and they give me $25 for it. They then turn around and sell it for $75 for the oh so much better deal that you get for buying used.

They claim they don't make any money off of it. [dr evil]riiiiiiighht[/dr evil]

 

[dcb322]

One way I got around buying expensive textbooks that I knew I wouldn't keep at the end of the semester anyway, was to sign it out at my department's library and I would photocopy the problem sets and whatever I needed. The library had a copy of every text assigned in that department for that semester. saved me a few hundred bucks.

 

[Wuming]

they sell so expensively within America so that they can export their international versions and sell them more cheaply elsewhere. i think that's why you don't see bookstores selling international versions here or the American versions in other countries.

 

[Passions]

$100/ book here at ucla. wtf is dat? Pos I could photocopy the whole thing for $5. But its true, the time and effort are what you pay for, not the material. Still I think $100 is a tad bit too much.

 

[Triumph]

our bookstore totes that their prices are "10% marked down from the retail price!" meanwhile, everything else is always like 25% lower than the retail price.