Textbook Pricing

Being a college student myself I keep an eye on the prices of textbooks. Everyone I know at school will complain about the prices of their textbooks. An article on cnn.com covered how some legislators are trying to control the prices of textbooks for college students. Some students have to spend upwards of $4,000 for their books over a four year span. It is what they like to call a hidden cost of higher education. This is what the textbook publishers say in response to proposals of pricing controls:

Publishers have argued that such proposals interfere with their constitutional rights, threaten the academic freedom of faculty members, and ignore the economics of textbook publishing. Textbooks are costly, in part, because relatively few copies are sold, they say.

I have to agree with the textbook companies. I think they got the right idea making lots and lots of money off rich college students. Most of the students are just using the books to figure out ways to soon be the ones selling the books to students in the future. Its a multi-billion dollar business and goes hand in hand with colleges funds as bookstores make money off re-selling used textbooks.

I have had some three years experience of dealing with bookstore shenanigans and can get around it nowadays. I think from the past couple years I have actually turned a profit on some of my books. Buying and selling your textbooks on Amazon.com or Half.com or Textbooks.com can seriously save some money. These sites allow you to buy used books and then sell them back on the same site. I hope anyone looking to go to college starts their years buying books online as this can save you some serious money and maybe make some money in the process. Undercut those textbook companies and turn a profit on their expense.