College Textbooks

[Yaoi Master Gavin]

So I got into the same conversation I always seem to be in at my college, that being that college textbooks are an enormous scam. I'll cite the main one here though there are a few others, not necessarily my own experiences.

My first year, I took Psych 1101 and bought the textbook. A year and a half later my friend took the same class so I offered to sell him the book. So just to make sure that we had the right book (no one ever likes to use the same book here -sighs-) we went to look up the ISBN. The one they wanted was the new edition which had come out that semester. Since you can often use an older edition, we went to see what was different to see if there was a significant difference. 3 total pages of new colour pictures, a chapter rearrangement and about 5 pages of new information. Something that could be done without right? Not the point. The point is that I bought the book for $90 and this new edition was selling for $140. For that much of a change?

I think that we can all agree that no matter what change in the value of the dollar, a $50 price hike is unreasonable for those few changes.

So the point here is, who else could have/would have/did get ripped off on these textbooks and why not let out your rage while you're at it. I know for a fact I will never be buying a textbook from an on-site bookstore.

 

[kolbywhite28]

books

Well hearing about your story I realized that it is really a scam! Didn't even thought about it until now... I'm just glad that I grew up in a poor family that I just have two options; buy the book from a thrift shop or photo copy the required book pages.

 

[Yaoi Master Gavin]

Thrift store? That's a bit touchy there. I went on ebay for one of mine this semester and paid a little over $7; it's $42 at the bookstore. And that was the cheapest one in the bookstore.

 

[Summer]

Ah for my college books I went on... Amazon and... something else... I was cheap and went for second handbooks. I needed a lot for my research paper so that was the way to go. A lot of 1p purchases haha!!!

But the books required for the course (compulsory) were expensive. Like you said, a new edition cost much more just for a new cover or something -.- Ridiculous. They're just cashing in because they KNOW that students need to buy the books.
Ah well, if you're not too proud... second hand is the way to go! As long as the material is inside the previous edition of course - but you can always research it beforehand.

 

[kolbywhite28]

online bookstore

Thrift store? That's a bit touchy there. I went on ebay for one of mine this semester and paid a little over $7; it's $42 at the bookstore. And that was the cheapest one in the bookstore.

Well I've survived! It's really good that we have a lot of online bookstores nowadays and all we have to do is browse on the list until we found the book that we needed.

 

[Yaoi Master Gavin]

Very true. Or you could see about finding the eBook of the text. My history one was half the cost of the physical one. And then you can just go to the library and print it off.

 

[Will Graham]

I have bought two college textbooks so far, one of which I had to buy in order to pass the course

Our first year chemistry books, all came with a unique code inside that allowed you to sign-up for online tutorials. The tutorials were 20% of the grade and if you failed them, you failed the subject. The book cost 70e and we never used it, that is approximately 90 of your American dollars

 

[Donald Trump]

mhm aha college textbooks are not a 'scam'.
Authors and their publishers bring out new editions every couple of years so that people have to buy new books rather than second hand copies. There's nothing stopping you from buying a second hand copy from someone like Amazon.
I often have to buy books from the University bookshop because they have the right books, with the right translator etc. Last semester I had to spend over $200 on two books on ancient Egyptian art.

 

[Ewan]

Can't say I've had a problem with textbooks.

We have this thing at our University called a library. I just borrow all the textbooks I need from there and I don't have to pay anything for them.

 

[Dionysos]

Can't say I've had a problem with textbooks.

We have this thing at our University called a library. I just borrow all the textbooks I need from there and I don't have to pay anything for them.

Ditto.

Most of the important books that I need are located within the library. For the very important books / books too big (which you can't take out of the library) I'd either spend hours in the library itself, or scan (or the cheap alternative, photograph) the pages. It's time consuming, so I found myself staying in the library, and only photographing if I really needed to go.

What you (and others) have been forced to pay is a ridiculous amount. It's much better to try and hunt it down second hand, find it in e-book format, or see if it is in a library.

If you need to buy the book or risk failing the course, then that sucks. Luckily for me there wasn't a single book that the course revolved around, and the reading lists were so large that you could survive with getting what was easier to find / buy from that.

 

[Will Graham]

Our codes were unique so you could not buy the book second-hand, rent it from the library, or even sell it when done

 

[Yaoi Master Gavin]

Authors and their publishers bring out new editions every couple of years so that people have to buy new books rather than second hand copies.

Having to buy new books? Sounds like a scam to me.

Yes the code stuff is really annoying. My macroeconomics class had the stuff online so I had to buy the program for it. At least it came with an online textbook.

I honestly refuse to buy my textbooks from the bookstore anymore. Rather go on ebay. Bought my history book for $7 when it cost $40 in the store. And my biology book for $15 instead of $150.

 

[Donald Trump]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick

That is how wikipedia defines a scam.
You pay x amount of dollars and you receive a perfectly good textbook.
If you don't like it go to a communist country like Canada.

 

[Yaoi Master Gavin]

That's what you get for using wikipedia. I thought it was beaten into all college/school students of our era that wikipedia is not a source. Cons (in that use of the word) are a subclass of scam.

 

[Lirael]

The books that we HAD to buy for my English course were really expensive. I had to spend almost £45 on three books, so that's about £135... My Uni said that they were worth it 'cause we'd use them again and again, but I probably used one four times, another twice, and the other...once if I'm lucky. Thankfully, those books do contain a few texts (e.g. Paradise Lost, The Faerie Queen) which I want to read. On top of those three books, I had to buy several books for several modules, which must have totalled at another £300+ over the years. I suppose I'll always have them...

Anyway, in answer to the question, some of it is a scam. There were certain books I semi-needed for wider reading, of which the library had only one copy. I searched for these online, and they were being sold for £80 odd. So... I didn't get them and read what I could on googlebooks, got what I could from the library, and made do. It actually worked out!

 

[Mitsuki]

mhm aha college textbooks are not a 'scam'.
Authors and their publishers bring out new editions every couple of years so that people have to buy new books rather than second hand copies.

Huh? You make it sound like the book company cares about the buyers and don't want them to have second hand copies. There's nothing wrong with second-hand copies, as long as the book is intact and not falling apart.

Not a scam? Hmm, don't know about that. They get huge markups with their books. If publishers are so concerned about us having books that are not second hand, they should just print new copies of the current edition. Instead they try to make insignificant changes to a 'newer edition' and markup the price significantly.

The main issue here is that book companies are making new versions because they know that colleges and universities won't accept previous versions. Why? Because of the little changes in the book. There might be a small variance - sometimes a single page difference, a disc with different activities, chapter questions that may vary slightly, a rearrangement of a couple chapters, and let us not forget the attractive new cover that is essential for the existence of all life.

And to top it off, colleges makes money off of this scam too, so they're all in cohorts with each other. For instance, let's say I buy a Used book. The book company does not make money off of it; only the college will. When they sell a New book, everybody makes money off of it. Everyone's happy, except for the students.

Bottom-line is, they're not changing things to benefit the students. Unless there is a possible update in facts; all in all though the information from previous editions are the same.

And Wiki is not a credible source; you don't need credentials to write in Wiki.