Comments on: Book Costs

By: Lotte

Lotte — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:30:42 +0000

Just one more thing – IF you know you can sell the book back, try not to do too much cosmetic damage to the book! No writing in it, page turn downs, etc. The better the condition, the higher the price you’ll receive. Also, you CAN use a site such as Amazon to sell your used books! Amazon was just one of the sites we listed our books on – and we sold quite well there! Good luck, all!!!

By: Lotte

Lotte — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:25:35 +0000

My son and I both worked in a new/used bookstore. We were both in management as well as the sales end and were in on many of the meetings and conversations with publisher reps, school reps and so on. So believe me when I tell you I know what I am talking about!

For those lamenting that they can’t sell textbooks back, try the used stores OFF campus – we always bought them, because somewhere in the wide world (we sold online all over the world) someone IS using that edition. Though you will never get anywhere near what you paid for the book, something is better than nothing and just tossing the book or having it gather dust on a shelf seems dumb. And yes, it IS a rip off when you start the bull about having to have the next “edition”…often the information is identical, they have just “re-arranged” the order in the book (we WERE told this by publisher reps) and when the teacher says go to this page or chapter, you’re up the creek! We saw it happen repeatedly (there are three colleges/universities/tech colleges here as well as several satellite campuses for other major schools in the state…so we had a very wide range of classes to sell for and students to work with. We heard from teachers and administrators also in regard to the issue of constant new editions that, strictly speaking, were simply a way for the publishers to grab more bucks!!!

For those subjects where change does, indeed, happen rapidly, why not “supplements” instead of whole new editions? Why not, because that’s too logical and not as lucrative for the publishers!

We had to “purchase” the booklists from each school (each quarter) so we could try to have the books the students needed (and always at a much lower cost than the school bookstore – the one issue with that is that those using grants HAVE to buy from the school). When possible we kept good used copies at an even greater reduced cost to the students….believe me, there is a great deal more to the whole issue of books (all books, not just college texts) and their costs than I can even get into! It’s absolutely mind-boggling! Just sayin’…………………..

By: jamesinportland

jamesinportland — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:12:58 +0000

I assume the cost is in dollars.

I also assume the maker of this graph has never actually purchased a book in his life.

Kid’s board books are usually less than $10 (average of $7 or so) and hardcovers average between $25 and $35 depending on what chumps will buy them.

A book you enjoy could be in mass market paperback, trade paperback, or even hardcover. So that line is wrong too.

Epic fail.

Did I take this too seriously? Hell yes. Epic fail x2.

By: Somepartsareme

Somepartsareme — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:22:04 +0000

Two things:

1) I was being sarcastic. Because I enjoy intelligent books, people look at me like a smart freak. That’s what the “: P” means. Get it?

2) The incorrect period was for dramatic pause.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:47:45 +0000

I love my physics book. Yeah, it cost $130 and I probably could’ve got it cheaper but everything is explained so well that I don’t even have to really go to class…

By: SalamanderJones

SalamanderJones — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:33:32 +0000

A college text book that will sit in the same spot in your room full the whole semester, while use wikipedia or some one in your classes study guide for all the actually work.
When you return the book they will give you 5% of what you spent back, for essentially storing the book in your room.

By: Nikky

Nikky — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:56:34 +0000

My favorite was the $287.00 book I bought for French 101, which covered chapters 1-4. Only to be told that French 102 uses a different book. Same teacher.

Then there is of course the fact that thus far, I’ve only even opened 3 books that were “required”.

By: me

me — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:34:12 +0000

I’ve never ever ever seen a children’s book cost $35+.

Just sayin’.

By: numerobis

numerobis — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:08:35 +0000

I disagree: what goes into the books is years out of date already, so it doesn’t really matter if it’s an extra year or two more out of date. If you want to be current, you need to supplement with other things anyway.

The cost of the printing isn’t what drives the price at all. These same publishers also like to charge $30 for people to download a PDF of a single paper. Notice also that hardbacks cost twice as much as paperbacks when they have almost precisely the same production cost.

By: Sickle

Sickle — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:07:51 +0000

Textbooks are uniquely useless in most biology and chemistry courses. One, the “rapidly evolving” changes in the field will not be reflected in new editions right away – there’s considerable lag – and two, a lot of profs will make tests based on the lecture notes they give rather than the extra reading (because if they did that, they’d have to do the extra reading themselves).

By: Brandon

Brandon — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:35:15 +0000

Probably won’t read once and 95% of the time can’t be sold back.

By: silver

silver — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:27:43 +0000

Even worse when you’re an English major! You have to get an exact required edition for quotes/references/etc. It’s nice when the prof only has you buy novels or small collections that cost $5-15 a pop, but those anthologies…. the name Norton Anthology still makes me involuntarily reach toward my wallet. Not to mention that the field of literature isn’t the most rapidly evolving, and yet new editions spring like weeds. Wish I could become an editor for one of those scams, best racket ever.

By: jiggy

jiggy — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:25:35 +0000

Nice i will use this in my class to demonstrate why i suggest getting old versions of text books.

By: danica

danica — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:52:10 +0000

Try bookrenter.com. It helped us out.

By: Ferret

Ferret — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:46:49 +0000

Apparently, your college English book was “way 2 much” for you to afford, hence why you failed English and went on to make these marvelous charts. At least the chart is accurate.

By: Naktarr

Naktarr — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:31:03 +0000

I wish books I like were only ten dollars – here due to tariffs the prices are hiked up to 20 – 40 dollars. Which is why I don’t get to read much anymore :/

By: Starlinguk

Starlinguk — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:56:16 +0000

My professor wrote a grammar book that was full of contradictions, but of course we had to use it. People kept failing their syntax exam, until the professor took a sabbatical, the replacement lecturer changed the book, and everybody passed their syntax exam at once. Of course, when he came back he changed the book back, but by then we’d all passed and didn’t have to do his course anymore (pity the new students).

By: Starlinguk

Starlinguk — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:54:00 +0000

I have never bought a first hand college book. I’ve always bought the most recent one available second hand, even though it might not have been the right edition. It’s never made any difference (in fact, lecturers were so used to it that if there were minor changes, they’d say “for those who have the older edition, it’s paragraph …).

By: RequiredName

RequiredName — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:36:34 +0000

I’m think there’s a voting system. Submissions go into a pool, and, theoretically at least, when they get enough votes they go to the main page. But I also think you need to have an account to vote, so since I don’t have an account, I don’t know the details.

By: keshet

keshet — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:06:51 +0000

There is now also the option of renting textbooks for a much more reasonable price. A friend of mine discovered this and is taking advantage of it. I plan to try it when I go back to school.

By: Sephiur

Sephiur — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:00:53 +0000

This is what pisses me off the most too. Too many times, I have been unable to sell back my textbooks because they have gone into new editions and the old ones can’t be taken. >:(

By: Kirby the Cow

Kirby the Cow — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:47:21 +0000

Not unless you can find the book used on ebay or amazon for 5% of the cost of a new copy. But this IS painfully true.

By: you + i = happyhappyjoyjoy

you + i = happyhappyjoyjoy — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:05:56 +0000

wow sorry i meant to say charge more

By: you + i = happyhappyjoyjoy

you + i = happyhappyjoyjoy — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:05:15 +0000

who said you can’t pay more??

By: Ashley Taylor

Ashley Taylor — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:37:59 +0000

i agree with most of this, except kids books are cheaper than hard back books, I should know this as I own almost everything in Hardback and have been collecting them over a long time. about 40 bucks for a hardback book. Kids books rarely break 20 unless it is special edition and college books just screw u up the butt for cost. it is rediculous but they will continue to cost more thanks to the internet and cyber books. just like post as aposed to email.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:22:02 +0000

those college books cost so much so they’ll teach you not to say 2 instead of too

By: Dfrtbx

Dfrtbx — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:18:41 +0000

Humility.

You have none.

After you’re done looking it up in the dictionary, why don’t you swing over to Google and look up proper period/comma use, “smart freak”?

By: QUESTION

QUESTION — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:40:47 +0000

How do you get graphs that you created using graphjams builder to show up on this page ?
or do i just have to wait a while so they can look at it to make sure its worth being on here?

By: Tourist on this planet

Tourist on this planet — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:28:58 +0000

Our college had a lending library for old textbooks. Anyone on financial aid could use it, first-come, first-served. Some of the books were written in, or highlighted for you, which could be helpful, or merely amusing, but professors would routinely accept “x edition” or “x-1,” or even “x-2 edition,” depending on how many real changes had been made in the text.

It also paid to make friends in older classes, and borrow their unused books from time to time.

By: The_Great_G

The_Great_G — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:16:48 +0000

Aren’t the professors supposed to teach you, not simply tell you to “read your book”? If you don’t have the time to come up with your own homework, either a) don’t assign it (preferred option) or b) make your TAs write the worksheets

By: Mina

Mina — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:02:51 +0000

I once had to buy a brand new Chemistry book for about $200, and then couldn’t sell it back at the end of the semester because they had already come out with a new edition. Even when I do get to sell things like that back, I usually get about a tenth of the cost back, which sucks when it involves classes that I’m not majoring in and won’t find much use for other to graduate.

By: Somepartsareme

Somepartsareme — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:41:19 +0000

Eh. The books I like are really expensive. Because I’m a smart freak.

By: Why not?

Why not? — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:18:30 +0000

The utter BS that’s being forced down everyone’s throats is the obligatory 20% price increase for every new edition when ZERO corrections have been made to the text. This makes me want to vomit. Thank god for my scanner and PDFs!!!!!

By: Gustav

Gustav — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:47:49 +0000

This is true except for kids books. Kids’ books are often cheaper than paperbacks – which makes you wonder why hardcover books aren’t that cheap.

By: ...

... — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:47:37 +0000

If ever…

By: d4m4s74

d4m4s74 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:25:07 +0000

yup, agreed.
especially ict studies, we all have laptops anyway

By: Aaaaargh

Aaaaargh — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:21:59 +0000

True. And this whole graph is true. No mistakes at all. I am amazed and delighted…

Except the cost is missing a unit but okay. It’s good.

By: Ghost

Ghost — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:00:23 +0000

Look on the bright side, at least books you actually enjoy hardly cost anything.
Although, the graph IS painfully true.

By: jzimbert

jzimbert — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:45:21 +0000

For the princely sum of 6% of what you paid for them!

By: KZN02

KZN02 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:13:42 +0000

Well, there’s always the option of selling the books.

By: jacobyjd

jacobyjd — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:05:55 +0000

Stuff does change that fast (or faster) in many fields. The real issue is that they’re using paper books that take time to write and be printed, when in reality, a solid website could contain just as much or more information. Make students pay for a secure login, whatever, just stop making them buy into an archaic structure when most would prefer an easier, more portable, and more advanced medium for learning material.

By: Bubba Fett

Bubba Fett — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:46:45 +0000

I don’t mind Nth editions, stuff does change in most fields. But I do mind the two-year cycle that they’re all on. Stuff doesn’t change that fast.

By: dinserdinser

dinserdinser — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:46:26 +0000

This is very much the truth. I die a little inside whenever I spend my money on those books. This is especially true for Gen Ed books. While books within my major are going to be useful for the years to come, I shudder at the thought of spending nearly $200 on books that will have no use by next semester.

By: d4m4s74

d4m4s74 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:32:34 +0000

do you know how much time is spent on writing a college book?

what I hate is second, third, fourth and fifth editions between which the only difference is different pictures and a few things changed in charts (with the data exactly the same except it says “in 2008″ instead of “in 1999″) which are are 5 times more expensive then the first edition ever was.

By: kazoink

kazoink — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:14:29 +0000

You mean a college text book that you may not even ready once.