Why do college bookstores charge such abusively high prices for their textbooks? ?

Question

Why do the bookstores think they need to make a 300k profit each year? I thought the public colleges are non-profit services, meaning they just need to break even.

& Why do they require these professors to keep pubishing new books every year?

& why do they keep purchasing these new editions?

Information doesn't change that much in the cousre of 5 to 10 years. But they update their books every 1-3 years.

& how come when a book is 3 years old........they still charge new prices for it? like books from 2005 they might be selling in the store for 130 dollars, but online it's selling for 20 dollars. That makes it so inconvenient to buy the book because you have to either get it online & wait a week for it, or pay outrageous prices in the store (if you happen to need it in a timely manner). Buying it online is so inconvenient because you have to go into the store, collect the information, and then search for it online.

Why can't they operate like a high school...........in high school, they loan you the books, for free........and when the semester's over, you return the books back to them; for free. (if you happen to lose the book it might be a $50 fine).

So why can't a college bookstore operate like a high school or library?

In borders bookstore, barnes & noble, joseph beth etc. those book stores.........what could they charge for a book? maybe $30 if it's decent. Seriously. No book should be valued at $120. Even those used book they try to charge you over 100 bucs for. crazy.

Answer 1

It's not the bookstores - it's the publishers - I worked in the college bookstore for a semester when I was in school - bookstore is lucky if they make 10% profit - textbooks have tons of pages and small print runs - that's why they cost so much

Answer 2

I absolutely sympathize with you! I just graduated in May and I believe I spent well over $2500 on text books while attending my undergrad!!



I do know that some texts that are updated yearly or every 2-3 years are updated because new information is received (science, history, sociology, psychology, medicine, etc) these professions are constantly researching, therefore constantly finding new info.

As far as the "lending" idea. I think it sounds great, but who knows if it will actually work. 1) Students are constantly dropping courses or even dropping out of school completely. It may be hard to find that student to have the book returned. 2) In almost every single one of my college texts - I highlighted, underlined, made notes in the margin, etc. These actions lowered the value of the book, so if a student returns the book the bookstores lose money.

I do have some suggestions. Most professors have a course syllabus available early - with the required texts listed. If this happens, you have time to log onto Amazon.com or wherever and order your books.  Also, it has been my experience that some professors sympathize with students regarding the price of books and are willing to wait a few days for students to obtain the books from an on-line source. It never hurts to ask.