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As an engineering student I hated that the textbook companies put out a new edition of the core calc / diff EQ textbooks every two years (you could see it in the front page material) which were always identical to prior editions except for the problems, which they changed slightly. Because the profs assigned those problems for homework, you had to buy the full priced version, the used one was useless even though the content was identical because math is always the same. So shady.

I taught Management 101 at a university for a few years. I used same text and edition as the prior professor. It made my job easier and saved students money buying used books.

A few reasons textbooks cost a lot: 1) The publishers create lots of materials for the teachers — quizzes, tests, videos, PowerPoint slides, case studies, online materials, etc. 2) There are often separate teacher editions of the textbook 3) The publishers give free sample textbooks to the professors (I sold them online, making several hundred dollars) 4) The authors get paid.

For most courses the content in a 3 year old textbook is fine. The biggest problem is the tests and assignments get into leaked.