The college bookstore wanted $285.00 for my son’s Calculus II book (Used). I bought a “used” one from Amazon for $46.00 (delivered in 2 days). We couldn’t find a mark on the book that was delivered.
We've been doing likewise. After going the conventional bookstore route once, we wised up. As soon as we knew his classes for the next semester, he and I went online and searched for used copies of his books. We found most of them at significant savings, and they're in very good shape. We'll re-sell the ones he doesn't need to keep for reference and recover a bit more. Unfortunately, some of the required books are specialized products which aren't readily available outside the campus network, but we do what we can. College textbooks have been terribly over-priced for a long time.
I took a class in Personal Finance as one of my electives once. I could tell I’d gotten one of those rare outstanding teachers when, the first day, he said “anyone who’s bought the textbook already, don’t unwrap it, and as soon as you can go return it to the campus bookstore downstairs for a full refund. I’m going to show you a website where you can get that book for under $5.”
He then showed everyone how to search websites like Bigwords.com or half.com to find the textbooks we needed. I think I even got one of mine for $1.25!
You are a point man in breaking the back of the education tyranny. Cui bono? Follow the money.