You know textbooks are out of control when...

[j00fek]

i got sick of spending money on books when i started my bachelor degree. so i just borrowd from friends with the same classes and vwolah i had much keg money

 

[Syringer]

Originally posted by: daniel1113

Originally posted by: KarthVader
What's the most anyone has spent on textbooks?

The most I've spent was around $800 in a semester.

I spent ~$875 for one semester of books. I am a structural engineering major.

Have you designed any prisons lately?

 

[santz]

i buys books from http://www.campusi.com/
it is a search engine like pricegrabber for textbooks with the cheapest price and also based on reviews and special offers available.

 

[Banzai042]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

You are missing the point here. Publishers and authors make their money on the FIRST SALE. It is well established by law. Publishers do not need to release a new edition every year or two, they are just gouging the market for all it is worth (and I do say gouging, since many publishers have agreements in place where the old editions are sold back to them by the bookstore and destroyed).

No, I'm not missing any point at all. Textbook publishers have an extremely limited market made even more limited by the used book market. They fully deserve to make back the hundreds of thousands to millions in costs to create the books, plus a profit. Were they to charge less, they could not.

This has been examined over and over again. Search the web on the issue. Only simplistic fools believe the publishers and authors are gouging students.

The only gouging being done is in the used book market itself.

Amused,
A publisher always has costs (royalties, marketing, printing, administrative, etc) associated with every book they publish. The only way to recover this is through the profits from the first sale. This is very well established in US law (I believe it went all the way to the Supreme Court, but I could be wrong).

Now, there are two ways a publisher can increase their returns. The first is to raise the cost of the book itself. Instead of charging $80 for something, they can charge $150. This is a (fairly) common practice and the way it should be done.

The other way is to sell new editions every year. We are all well aware that new editions very, very rarely have any significant amount of new/changed content. So why are they publishing them? The answer is to get more money. This is where people have a problem. The problem is not that they are making money, but that they are doing it in a way that is completely unethical.

Why not do both when you have such a limited market?

Again, if you search and read up on it, the price of textbooks has increased along with the rise of used book sales. And so has the book revisions.

Look, in such a limited market once the market is saturated with used books, the publisher cannot make any more sales on new books. Therefore revisions are the only way to stay in business and keep selling books. You'd do the same damn thing to feed your family.

Ok, if the only reason for high prices is because it's completely necessary for them to even break even then why is it that international editions are significantly cheaper than American versions? After all, if they're at the bare minimum on prices already how can they possibly afford to have prices that low?

 

[DieselUV]

sucks when you buy them and you can't sell them back bc the prof decides to use a new text next semester. sometimes the prof writes their own books. scam i tell ya.

 

[2Dead]

I had a prof of Computer Graphics require a text book (which actually got good use) and his book which were a collection of notes and problems. Both his exams came from his book. It had the answers too which were good. The only problem being that if you gave him the same exact answer as he provided in his textbook you would only get partial credit. His reasoning was that "we should know that more explaination would be needed" and the reason he didn't include it was because "that from a publishing point of view, they were limited in space and cost for the book."

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Banzai042

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

You are missing the point here. Publishers and authors make their money on the FIRST SALE. It is well established by law. Publishers do not need to release a new edition every year or two, they are just gouging the market for all it is worth (and I do say gouging, since many publishers have agreements in place where the old editions are sold back to them by the bookstore and destroyed).

No, I'm not missing any point at all. Textbook publishers have an extremely limited market made even more limited by the used book market. They fully deserve to make back the hundreds of thousands to millions in costs to create the books, plus a profit. Were they to charge less, they could not.

This has been examined over and over again. Search the web on the issue. Only simplistic fools believe the publishers and authors are gouging students.

The only gouging being done is in the used book market itself.

Amused,
A publisher always has costs (royalties, marketing, printing, administrative, etc) associated with every book they publish. The only way to recover this is through the profits from the first sale. This is very well established in US law (I believe it went all the way to the Supreme Court, but I could be wrong).

Now, there are two ways a publisher can increase their returns. The first is to raise the cost of the book itself. Instead of charging $80 for something, they can charge $150. This is a (fairly) common practice and the way it should be done.

The other way is to sell new editions every year. We are all well aware that new editions very, very rarely have any significant amount of new/changed content. So why are they publishing them? The answer is to get more money. This is where people have a problem. The problem is not that they are making money, but that they are doing it in a way that is completely unethical.

Why not do both when you have such a limited market?

Again, if you search and read up on it, the price of textbooks has increased along with the rise of used book sales. And so has the book revisions.

Look, in such a limited market once the market is saturated with used books, the publisher cannot make any more sales on new books. Therefore revisions are the only way to stay in business and keep selling books. You'd do the same damn thing to feed your family.

Ok, if the only reason for high prices is because it's completely necessary for them to even break even then why is it that international editions are significantly cheaper than American versions? After all, if they're at the bare minimum on prices already how can they possibly afford to have prices that low?

Maybe the international ones are subsidized or price fixed? I don't know.

 

[QuEeNyGuRl]

College text books are like the biggest rip off in the world. To avoid buying text books, I would borrow from my friends or classmates who took the class already.