College textbooks were always a giant scam.
Especially because many of the changes between editions are gratuitous, just to force a re-purchase of books.
There’s nothing new in freshman calculus, for instance. Absolutely nothing new in the first two semesters of calc or physics in the last 100 years.
Same deal for chemistry, or English.
There’s an easy answer. We figured it out in my day!
They were a scam. I always made sure to ask the seniors and in college, there was always a surplus of textbooks that the graduating class wont need. Yeah, I was sponge-liberal back then..
Appalachian State started this years ago