Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Students Find $100 Textbooks Cost $50, Purchased Overseas
New York Times ^ | October 21, 2003 | TAMAR LEWIN

Posted on 10/21/2003 2:58:20 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-36 last
To: HiTech RedNeck
Actually, all they have to do is revise the "review questions" at the end of each chapter from which homework is assigned. The content never has to change, but there are new questions every year. It's a perfect way to screw the students!
21 posted on 10/21/2003 5:02:16 AM PDT by Fresh Wind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
"This is a season when textbook publishers get kicked around a lot, and they're feeling vulnerable,"

Waaaaah.


22 posted on 10/21/2003 5:04:50 AM PDT by Lil'freeper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lizavetta
..until they graduate and become gouged British taxpayers, so they wind up paying for that low-tuition education for the rest of their stinkin' lives.

BUMP! There is no free lunch.

23 posted on 10/21/2003 5:37:15 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
Textbook publishing is one of the most scam-ridden industries in America. They publish ever-bigger, heavier books while imparting less and less knowledge.
24 posted on 10/21/2003 5:40:10 AM PDT by cookcounty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lil'freeper
""This is a season when textbook publishers get kicked around a lot, and they're feeling vulnerable,"

Waaaaah.

Actually, it's the parents and kids exchanging huge wads of cash for almost useless textbooks that are getting kicked around a lot.

25 posted on 10/21/2003 5:47:28 AM PDT by cookcounty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

26 posted on 10/21/2003 5:47:57 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: stainlessbanner
This pdf file published by the Ntl Association of College Stores tries to break up the publisher's profit. Nice try.
27 posted on 10/21/2003 5:51:49 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
""I buy from Amazon.co.uk and from sources in the Far East, and I knew more and more students were doing the same thing, individually," said Tom Frey, owner of the University Bookstore at Purdue University, who sells the new books from overseas at the same price as a used American book. "Then this fall, for the first time, the Fed Ex man told me that the students at the Indian Association here at Purdue had just gotten a delivery of 14 skids of books, about 50 books each, from India. I think I'm losing about 10 percent of my sales to overseas books."

As a FedEx man myself, this is a wonderful heart-warming story to start my day with.

28 posted on 10/21/2003 5:53:42 AM PDT by cookcounty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: stainlessbanner
Well that is not as bad as what the record companies do to the artists.

At least the author is making 10%.

29 posted on 10/21/2003 5:54:38 AM PDT by Paul C. Jesup
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife

OH it gets better. When I was in grad school all the orientals had "knock off" text books. for instance, J.D. Jackson's "Classical Electromagnetics" cost me $105 - they paid $5, and they had all the solutions manuals also.
30 posted on 10/21/2003 5:55:25 AM PDT by richtig_faust
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
I'll tell you a story about the reason the costs of textbooks are so high. In our system the administration decided to convert the math curriculum to Math-Land. The coordinators and select teachers got to go to a seminar in Maui HI for their trouble, spouses too. Guess who paid for this? If you think it was the publisher think again, it was the taxpayer in the cost of higher prices. In education stuff like this happens all the time, it is just a different form of corruption.
31 posted on 10/21/2003 6:10:11 AM PDT by Final Authority
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: stainlessbanner
Hahahahaha

Yeah right. The bookstore only marks them up 8%. Hold on while I laugh to death.

The biggest money maker on Campuses is the Book sales.
32 posted on 10/21/2003 6:13:37 AM PDT by Area51 (RINO hunter!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: TankerKC
Then they should take an economics course.

Looks like they understand it well enough. Arbitrage is the natural response to price discrimination.

33 posted on 10/21/2003 12:02:06 PM PDT by ThinkDifferent
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: stainlessbanner
As a textbook author, I can assure you that that graphic is BOGUS. According to my contract, I get 15% royalty. However that is 15% before the bookstore markup. On one of my books, that markup is close to 50%. Furthermore, the bookstores go out of their way to buy the books even cheaper from so-called book-buyers who slink around campuses knocking on office doors asking to buy the freecopies that the publisher sends out (usually for something like $10, which they then sell to the bookstore for $20, who then sells to the student for $100 -- it is a NEW book).
34 posted on 10/21/2003 5:32:15 PM PDT by eniapmot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Cincinatus' Wife
Or the bookstores won't buy them back because, guess what? A new one is being used for the course.

And the only thing that's different is the edition number.
35 posted on 10/21/2003 5:49:38 PM PDT by jwh_Denver (My tagline flunked PC in school. We're going to Disneyland!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Fresh Wind
Your comments on this revelation are valid. Many schools are dissolving their bookstores and students generally have only on-line purchase options. Most professors are aware of the cost of textbooks, particularly new ones. I advise my students that nearly any edition of the book will suffice (overseas purchases are frequently one or two editions behind). If there are minor differences in the sequencing, or even the updated info, I remain aware of that and take appropriate steps to ensure a "level playing field" in the classroom. In the meantime, be sure and let your school administrators know about this problem - - they need to step up to the problem but are not doing much. Remember, when they went to college, a textbook cost $15. :-)
36 posted on 11/12/2003 7:20:07 AM PST by NYProf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-36 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson