Why are college text books SO expensive?

Text books for $80 in college bookstores that are the same size on store shelves are sold for $10 bucks. Why is this?



Furthermore, where is a good site to find cheap used books?Why are college text books SO expensive?
I just got done purchasing all of my books on Amazon. BUT listen very carefully -- find out what classes you are taking and who teaches them, ask him/her if it is alright to use the previous edition of the course text (it almost always is because not much changes in the text) and most instructors are cool with it, then look for that previous edition on Amazon. I'm taking 5 classes this semester and only spent $90 on books. One of them I got for $.01!!! Good luck!
You should buy used college textbooks at GreenTextbooks.com - Saving the Planet One Textbook at a Time GreenTextbooks.com is your online leader for finding used textbooks, DVDs, CDs. http://www.GreenTextbooks.com

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Why are college text books SO expensive?
Your textbooks are not sold in regular stores and will never become best sellers. They have a very limited audience and a very limited number of places they will be sold. If a professor drops the book next year, they'll never get rid of them, so they only print a certain number at a time - so if the book becomes somewhat popular they have to do many re-printings, and that's expensive. The professors who wrote the books make almost nothing from the sale of them, and neither do the bookstores, which is why so many campuses have let Borders or Barnes and Noble take over the bookstores. They couldn't afford to keep running them.
I actually worked in a college textbook store and let me say - the college itself actually doesn't make that much money off of the books! It's the book manufacturers that mark it up so much because they know students HAVE to have the books.



I bought most of mine off of half.com, which is part of eBay. Just be careful to make sure that it is the right edition number - they will switch editions every couple years sometimes just so that you have to buy new and can't buy used, but it messes up page numbers and they will have different material. It's best to search by the ISBN number - that's the long number above the barcode on the back of the book.



What I used to do is go into the bookstore at the college to see which edition and how much it is online vs. in store (buying online means you pay shipping and there's a delay but it's usually worth it) and write down all the ISBN numbers. Then I check half.com and make the purchases I need! Good luck :)Why are college text books SO expensive?
American forces pay a dollar screw . you can buy the same screws from the five n dime same screw same manufacturer 50 for a dollar.

Yep just being screwed;

Start a trend you passed your exams leave your text books to the new intake :)
You should rent your textbooks. I use chegg.com. It saves me a lot of money and a lot of trouble at the end of the semester because I don't have to worry about selling them back. Use this coupon at chegg.com and save an extra 5%-- CC101135 .



Good luck!
try www.campusi.com

it will give you list with all the prices all over the internet so you can get the cheapest price
I used amazon marketplace and saved $300 this semester. Half.com is also popular.



They are so expensive because they figure students are stupid enough not to buy them online, and most are.
1.) it's called getting the shaft.



2.) i buy from amazon.com. although my favorite professor suggests half.com.
In addition to amazon %26amp; half.com, you can rent books now which is sometimes the best route given how much they go down in value. Some sites are chegg.com and bookrenter.com