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College Textbook Prices Have Risen 1,041 Percent Since 1977
NBC News ^ | 08/06/2015 | BEN POPKEN

Posted on 08/08/2015 1:09:57 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen

Students hitting the college bookstore this fall will get a stark lesson in economics before they've cracked open their first chapter. Textbook prices are soaring. Some experts say it's because they're sold like drugs.

According to NBC's review of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, textbook prices have risen over three times the rate of inflation from January 1977 to June 2015, a 1,041 percent increase.

"They've been able to keep raising prices because students are 'captive consumers.' They have to buy whatever books they're assigned," said Nicole Allen, a spokeswoman for the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition.

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: textbooks
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To: Kid Shelleen

It is a criminal racket IMHO. They often make minor changes to a required book, forcing students to buy the newest edition rather than being able to buy a used book. The profit rate must be enormous. You would think prices would have dropped since so much information is online but that is not the case. I just get the feeling that organized crime must have their hand in it.


41 posted on 08/08/2015 1:58:56 PM PDT by ilovesarah2012
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To: P-Marlowe
So has the price of a candy bar.

Nope. Not even close.

The cost per ounce of a premium candy bar has gone from 16.6 cents in 1975, to about 58 cents in 2015. That's well in line with inflation. In fact, at least according to this inflation calculator: http://www.in2013dollars.com/1975-dollars-to-2015-dollars, candy has increased below the inflation rate, which would have put the increase to about 75 cents per ounce.

42 posted on 08/08/2015 1:58:56 PM PDT by FredZarguna ( "I pulled the lever on the machine, but the Clark Bar didn't COME OUT!!!")
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To: Kid Shelleen
Why are college textbooks -- or ANY textbooks for that matter -- not electronic? The idea of buying a hardbound book that you'll use for one semester and never see again is absurd. And don't think you can sell them back to the bookstore; you'll get pennies on the dollar, even if the book is in mint condition.

Put the books on a server, charge (reasonably) for the download, and come into the 21st century.

43 posted on 08/08/2015 2:02:52 PM PDT by IronJack
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To: Kid Shelleen; All
The article leaves out the most critical detail.

In 1977, Pres Carter signed a bill that eliminated the ability of textbook companies to depreciate books in storage. Previously, companies could print huge volumes of books at one time, store them and depreciate the unsold books over time. That was the most feasible way to print low volume books, such as textbooks or rarely printed books. Carter killed that, causing book prices to skyrocket.

Another result of liberal leadership.

44 posted on 08/08/2015 2:03:36 PM PDT by aimhigh (1 John 3:21)
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To: IronJack

Publishing companies give a portion of proceeds to the college. Crony capitalism at its best. /s


45 posted on 08/08/2015 2:04:30 PM PDT by LuvFreeRepublic
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To: IronJack

that doesn’t really work for science books or applied science books. those texts become reference books you sometimes refer to in your career, and it’s much easier to have a bunch of textbooks open at a desk than multiple PDF files on your computer when working through tough engineering or math problems. i’m glad i went to school before laptop computers when you had to take hand written notes in lecture.


46 posted on 08/08/2015 2:06:42 PM PDT by TangibleDisgust ("To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." - Voltaire)
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To: FredZarguna

Exactly my point!

I was paying my own way through graduate school in the early 1980’s and foreign students who were on free rides from their governments or companies would buy their international textbooks in Hong Kong or Singapore and pay 1/4 to 1/3 of what I had to pay. The internet has made those editions available to American students-thank goodness.


47 posted on 08/08/2015 2:07:55 PM PDT by Maine Mariner
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To: 1rudeboy
This was a scam before the price went up 1000%.

I made sure to buy them all used, because I'll be damned if those tenured seditionists get a "red" cent from me.

48 posted on 08/08/2015 2:33:35 PM PDT by Dr.Deth
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“When you can convince 18-year old airheads to take on massive debt in the form of student loans to buy your product, the sky is the limit.”

And only dopes and the very wealthy actually pay the “full price”. When the product that you are selling is subsidized by others, what incentive do you have to keep the price down?

Hmmm...sounds a lot like...the health care industry.


49 posted on 08/08/2015 2:46:33 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day".)
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To: Kid Shelleen
Too many scandals in America right now to pay much attention to this one, but as the cost of American education is necessarily skyrocketing, the quality of American education is plummeting.
50 posted on 08/08/2015 2:47:42 PM PDT by Amagi (Lenin: "Socialized Medicine is the Keystone to the Arch of the Socialist State.")
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To: Maine Mariner

We rent most of our books, now, it’s the cheapest option. It is still VERY expensive though - usually $70 to RENT for one semester. What a racket.


51 posted on 08/08/2015 3:03:14 PM PDT by boxlunch (CRUZ 2016! TAKE AMERICA BACK!!!)
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To: FredZarguna
The cost per ounce of a premium candy bar has gone from 16.6 cents in 1975, to about 58 cents in 2015.

I don't know where you get a premium candy bar for 58 cents. I just got back from the store. They are $1.29 each.

52 posted on 08/08/2015 5:32:50 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (Resistance to Tyrants is obedience to God)
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To: bgill

The Fluid Dynamics textbook that our Mechanical Engineering department had us buying was awkward at best, so when I was solving problems from it, I would submit them to the professor, solved with references to equations in my old man’s Fluid Dynamics engineering text. Oh BOY did that piss off the professor... who happened to be my advisor and Mechanical Engineering Dept. head.


53 posted on 08/08/2015 5:33:11 PM PDT by Rodamala
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To: boxlunch

Indeed it is a racket. The biggest racket is if the instructor requires a CD for the course and the only way you can obtain the CD and the code to use it, is to buy a NEW
textbook.


54 posted on 08/08/2015 5:33:24 PM PDT by Maine Mariner
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To: FredZarguna; SamAdams76
It’s considered an anti-competitive practice by the SEC to require the purchase of a specific product casually unrelated to the product being sold.

Rather than mandatory textbook possesion/education access... read that same sentence above in the context of healthcare services/health insurance coverage... and get back to me when we can use the SEC against 0bamacare.

55 posted on 08/08/2015 5:45:18 PM PDT by Rodamala
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To: P-Marlowe
cost per ounce
56 posted on 08/08/2015 5:50:10 PM PDT by Rodamala
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To: Rodamala

They were bigger in 1977.


57 posted on 08/08/2015 6:00:58 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (Resistance to Tyrants is obedience to God)
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To: Rodamala
0bamacare provisions are cross-referenced against, and are part of, the US Code [http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf] Coming later than the SEC provisions, they would be considered as amending or superseding those.

Nice try.

58 posted on 08/08/2015 6:15:05 PM PDT by FredZarguna ( "I pulled the lever on the machine, but the Clark Bar didn't COME OUT!!!")
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To: P-Marlowe
The cost per ounce. Typical premium candy bars vary from about 2.1 to 3.5 oz.
59 posted on 08/08/2015 6:38:43 PM PDT by FredZarguna ( "I pulled the lever on the machine, but the Clark Bar didn't COME OUT!!!")
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To: P-Marlowe
They were bigger in 1977.

Doesn't matter. The price quoted to you was the price per ounce. Ounces were the same size in 1977.

60 posted on 08/08/2015 6:41:59 PM PDT by FredZarguna ( "I pulled the lever on the machine, but the Clark Bar didn't COME OUT!!!")
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