Text books = extortion

[01rangerxl]

Today I decided to try to sell back my economics text book, which I bought new at the beginning of the semester for $75 or $80. Guess what, the stores are not buying the book back because the text book companies have just come out with a "new" edition, just like they do every semester. The basic principles of economics do not change in four months. I see no reason for these new editions. To me, it is blatant extortion. Every semester I am required to spend around $400 on these text books that by the end of the semester are obsolete. It's completely rediculous. Students should not have to fork over that much money for a cheaply made book that will be worthless in four months.

These books that we pay $70-$150 on EACH are not nice hardcovers either. Usually they are just kind of thrown together. My accounting text that I spent $125 on isn't even bound! They punch holes in it so you can put it in a binder! Even more, they have the nerve to call it a "convenience." Convenience my [censored], more like shamelessly cheap.

And for those who say "just buy old editions." It isn't so easy. We have web-work assignments, and usually to be able to log on to the online homework, you have to buy the book because it comes with a unique access code that expires at the end of the semester.

You can walk through any Borders and see nice, hardcover books on the bargain shelf selling for $20 or less new, yet I have to buy a pile of pages for $125 and it is worthless in 4 months. Completely rediculous.

I am going to put my books up for sale online since the stores won't take them, but I'm not really expecting anyone to want them. Everyone else is in the same position as I am...we have to get new books.

Here is a pic of a worthless pile of pages I paid $125 for about four months ago...yes, all the pages are loose.

 

[moribundman]

Yup, you are angry with good reason.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Book companies, software companies...not much difference in how they force you to pony up the $$$.

 

[rationull]

Ahh.. memories.

 

[CivicFan]

Sell it on Amazon.com

 

[Tempest]

They will tell you that you are purchasing the information inside and not just the book itself. That's what they say anyway...

 

[VK56VD]

I am in the same position as you. I'm finishing up my Graduate program this May and the prices on books in the book store is ridiculous .

I always try to buy used books online or try to get my hands on an international edition which is a lot cheaper, even when new.

If I were you, I'd sell what you bought online as the school book stores literally rape us when it comes to buy back.

Btw, I took the same class as you a few semesters back. The book was bound though and the edition was older. Is this a graduate level accounting class or undergraduate? For me it was Graduate level Accounting (ACCT 640).

 

[OriginHacker21]

Yes, I am a college student as well. About half my books I tried to sell back last semester were rejected due to a new edition. My college is forcing these "access" codes that they sell for $120 for these online video/lectures which are required to pass the class. If I can I will buy books through ebay, Amazon, and Barnes N Nobles.

Someone is making millions of dollars coming out with new editions every few months...

Some college professors are fighting the trend at my school by helping students resell their old editions - one professor even scanned+printed in the 2-3 pages of difference the new edition had and told students to keep their old edition. lol.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

"Someone is making millions of dollars coming out with new editions every few months..."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The colleges and universities are in an unholy alliance with the publishers.

Amorality at its core.

 

[mechtech2]

They have you by your parts that are approximately round and they know it.
This is designed this way to perpetuate the income in this industry.

 

[Gary Allan]

Well, it's like anything. If you figure out a way to make a living out of avoided costs, someone is going to trump you at some higher level. The book scam was a cash cow for professors and schools ..and, understandably, a used book market emerged as the ante on this sorta thing skyrocketed. Now you're just seeing the reaction to the teet running dry on this cash cow.

You need to figure out the new used book market in reaction to it.

I imagine it would not seem so bad if they just incorporated all costs in with tuition based on your courses. Let them pay the publishers.

Form a protest.

 

[01rangerxl]

People do manage to sell some books by other means, like Facebook. That's where I put the econ book today.

Ultimately, it comes down to convincing the professors to keep using old editions. If the text book companies can convince them to go to new ones, students keep paying high prices and get none of it back. Some professors do put their students ahead of the book companies and use old editions which creates the market for the used books.

 

[tdpark]

i used to publish college text books. The economics of book publishing are aweful- high overhead, high development costs, low profit margins, high inventory costs and on top of that, they have to take returns on everything. I once had a bookstore return books that were 5 years old and we had to give them credit.

Blame your bookstore too as they make a nice profit on the markup- anywhere from 20-50%

I feel your pain though, the books are really expensive.

 

[MarkC]

Just keep them, in 20 years, you can look back at them as souvenirs.

 

[Gary Allan]

Originally Posted By: MarkC
Just keep them, in 20 years, you can look back at them as souvenirs.


That's what my nursing friends did. Between him being a nurse anesthetist ..and her having a Phd. in Nursing (a doctor of nursing

)..they've got a library. They add to it annually due to continuing education requirements.

 

[adam123]

I'm in the same boat. I'm going into engineering so it's pretty much been all math for me. I've got a Analytical Trig book that I had to buy for almost $200.00 now they say their gonna give me $10.00 to buy it back. I think I'm gonna stop by campus in the fall and just hold a sign up saying I'll offer it for $50.00 to anybody. Hopefully somebody will buy it. I agree 100% though, it's extortion and there isn't much of anything we can really do. (At least that I'am aware of).

 

[Buffman]

I used to buy most of my books off ebay. I'd then turn them in at the buyback (if they took them- most they did) and get more than I paid for them

 

[Shannow]

I don't beleive that it's extortion, when you consider how much work and effort goes into the original book, having to keep it updated, and the very limited market that it sells to (you don't see texts in the best sellers lists, as it's not simply another book).

I've kept all my engineering texts, including the one that was "voluntary" at $124 (20 years ago), which I refer back to weekly. My others get a lesser look. Stats never, chemistry a few times a year, thermo 4-5 times a year.

One thing that other students did to offset the cost of textbooks was "club". 4 people would buy the text for 4 different subjects, and would spend their time on campus sharing...leading to exams was more tricky, they'd roster the books. Silly studying more than one subject intensely per night anyway.

 

[JHZR2]

yeah, my engineering books are valuable. And I refer to them too, its not wasted or obsolete information.

All the more reason for a lot of these books to not be changed... for the sake of the student. The basic principles in my fluid mechanics text dont look that different from those in my grandfather's, which was from 1941 or so.

Then again, it is an academic metric for professors to write chapters and texts. and they make a few bucks from it too, so its a win in two ways for them.

For the academic thing to make sense, you kind of have to buy into it lock, stock and barrel. Otherwise it is exposed as a joke.

JMH

 

[Audi Junkie]

This is what we abandoned the Soviet System for?