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Why are textbooks so expensive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter SoFLO
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SoFLO

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It's ridiculous how expensive books are...I've spent almost $500 on books this semester and that's after shopping around online for the best prices and picking up a few used books from a local bookstore. If I would have gotten them at my university's book store, forget about it.

My CPO book brand new costs $137 (of course I didn't pay that) and it's not even a hardcover book :rolleyes:
 
it sucks Idid one semester at my local state school but couldnt doe the next because of work schedule conflictions, spent almost 700 on books that one semester. My BIG JAVA book cost almost 170 itself, Genki was about 30$ a piece, few english books, calc, A+ and network +, was not a fun time :(
 
You schmucks should really look into half.com

Get all my books from there and I pay less for "like new" condition books than I would for all used books from Amazon or BN. Screw the local bookstores, they're even worse.

But yes, textbook prices suck. Oh well. You can also pirate them, too.
 
gallandof said:
it sucks Idid one semester at my local state school but couldnt doe the next because of work schedule conflictions, spent almost 700 on books that one semester. My BIG JAVA book cost almost 170 itself, Genki was about 30$ a piece, few english books, calc, A+ and network +, was not a fun time :(
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$700?! Ouch talk about a wallet crusher :( makes me feel a little better :p

smacky said:
You schmucks should really look into half.com

Get all my books from there and I pay less for "like new" condition books than I would for all used books from Amazon or BN. Screw the local bookstores, they're even worse.

But yes, textbook prices suck. Oh well. You can also pirate them, too.
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I checked into half.com and Amazon. I paid $124 on Amazon for my Physiology book brand new, half.com has the same book "like new" for $155 and up. Half.com has good deals on certain books but on others Amazon has them beat. My local bookstore actually beats Amazon and half.com on some used books.
 
Lots of the more popular classes, people torrent them now. If your into that kinda thing.
 
SoFLO said:
It's ridiculous how expensive books are...I've spent almost $500 on books this semester and that's after shopping around online for the best prices and picking up a few used books from a local bookstore. If I would have gotten them at my university's book store, forget about it.

My CPO book brand new costs $137 (of course I didn't pay that) and it's not even a hardcover book :rolleyes:
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I feel your pain. Try buying books for any medical program. You have to buy the text book, the lab manual, a lecture manual and other reference material. I spent $300 for one class alone. :mad:
 
because, though very important to your future; college is a racket just like everything else.
 
SoFLO said:
I prefer having a physical book, call me old school.
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Same here, but when you just need the book for reference and not for doing the full-fledge 100 page reading, it's a lot better to have the digital copy on your laptop/phone when in the library, so you're not bringing three 1000 page books to the library in the same bag as your laptop. If you're gonna be there that long, you're gonna need a snack. No one likes a smushed PBJ. :)
 
Ahh nothing like snacking in the library while putting in some overtime...it's always a damn challenge to keep the noise down though :D
 
SoFLO said:
Ahh nothing like snacking in the library while putting in some overtime...it's always a damn challenge to keep the noise down though :D
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Our library is ridiculous and I dunno if other school's libraries are like this.

We have a Caribou on the main floor, which is actually the second floor, and is right at the entrance. So there's coffee, sandwiches, cookies, salads, and then just chips and soda. With the Chick-fil-a on campus, we're allowed to bring food and drinks in and sit anywhere and eat it while reading. Save for the computers, I'm sure.

It's dumb how lenient they are with that kinda stuff. Even in private group study rooms, we have an Old Country Buffet going on our table as we read. Only thing we can't do indoors is smoke, which is understandable. So we dip.

For a library, it sure seems a lot more like a social community center to me.



There used to be a site two or three years ago called texbooktorrents.com. I know they went down, but has anyone found a suitable replacement? It's hard to believe with all the things you can pirate these days that no one started up a similar project soon after it was shut down.

Now I have to scourge Demonoid and separate DDL sites. And they're not as good.
 
Yeah. Not looking forward to that next year. My father had to take a college class back in 1988, and the book was $120. And that was back when the dollar actually had a decent value.

I've always wondered what makes them so incredibly high priced.
 
I just dropped off my son at school, he started his Jr. year at SDSU and yeah books were a bit pricey. He shops around and get's some online, then what sucks is that when you go to sell them they are not even worth $10.00 :mad:
 
zoiko said:
I just dropped off my son at school, he started his Jr. year at SDSU and yeah books were a bit pricey. He shops around and get's some online, then what sucks is that when you go to sell them they are not even worth $10.00 :mad:
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Throw them up on craigslist for a decent price, they will go fast.
 
I think it's a real ripoff that text books cost as much as they do. this is especially true of those books written by professors who are teaching the class, which you know no one else is buying but those who have to because they are taking the class.

The sucky part is that the publishing industry is on its ass right now, because digital publishing is undercutting them. How hard would it be for them to make text books available digitally and keyed to an individual book reader and/or computer? they still get to sell their book, but their printing prices essentially disappear. they could get to sell the book for a fraction of what they do now (as they would also save money on shipping and inventory), protect their precious margins, and hand students a very large discount. Heck some technical books could even benefit from the use of AV materials built into the books.
 
Ok so it's been awhile since I was in college (depressing really) but here are some tips on what I did for text books:

First off, look at either half.com or amazon.com for the books. Pick a book that is "Used - Like New". You can usually pick up a book for half price that is as good as new. If someone is offering a non-OEM soft cover version of a book that only comes in hard cover check it out. I bought a few of these in my time for like 1/3 the price of the hard cover. These books are exactly the same but are (prob unauthorized) reproductions of the book and are exact down to the page number. The pages are thin but to be honest, I loved having a light soft cover version of one of the heavy hard cover books. I even got one with a cover entirely in Chinese but the contents were identical to the regular book.

Ok so you saved at least 50% on all your books for the semester. This is the best part. Let's face it, from experience; you are never going to reference these books again. Wait until the beginning of the next semester (when demand is very high) Create a half.com or amazon.com sellers account (I had better experience on amazon) and put the book up for sale. Assuming you didn't mark it up or highlight anything, list it as "used - like new" and undercut the cheapest book by 50 cents or a dollar. If you do that, the book will sell within days. Give the option of either standard or expedited shipping as people like the option of getting it quick. If they chose standard you typically make an extra buck or two and send it media mail. If they chose expedited you can either make a couple bucks and send it in a Priority Flat Rate envelop, or if it doesn't fit you might lose a buck or two and send it in a priority box.

Either way, I was able to recoup most of the money I spent on books. Not only did I save about 50% on the books initially, but I sold most back at close to, or the same as I bought them (you get hit when they introduce a new version the next semester but it doesn't happen that often). I probably spent 10% on books that my classmates did at the book store. To top it off, our book store only paid out 10-15% on buy back and discounted the books by 20% the next semester. They pulled a TON of profit from doing this.

Me: $120, bought for $60, sold for $50, $10 book rental for semester.
others: $120, bought for $120, buy back for $15, $105 total book rental for semester.
Then the book store sold it the next year as used for $100 and their used books sold out in 6 hours. $85 pure profit. They practically begged for our books back and acted like they were doing us a favor. School book stores = fail (for students)
 
There is one answer to this, the government wants you to be stupid, they dont need 1000 bosses, they need 1 boss and 999 workers.
 
Vmanisme said:
There is one answer to this, the government wants you to be stupid, they dont need 1000 bosses, they need 1 boss and 999 workers.
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Sad but partially true.

On another note.. regarding your signature - it's we're not were. :p
 
Here is one thing I used to do in college. I got a full ride on an academic scholarship, but still needed money for room and board as well as spending money. for me books where expensive. My school required that all text books be on file at the library, so every semester a group of us would find out what books were needed and individually check them out before the semester began. While one person had it, theothers would put their names in a waiting list for the book. you were allowed to recheck a book for a period of time so we could hold on to a book for a while before someone else in our group got it. In that way we always had a textbook available which we shared.

This worked for most classes that had books that could be checked out or where the materials were so unique that they had to be purchased. for other classes the books were reference only, so you needed to do your studying at the library.

Ghetto but effective. :D
 
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