After spending nearly $300, leaving the remaining funds in my checking account less than an eight-year-old's piggy bank, and living the next foreseeable week on meals meager enough to cause a humanitarian crisis, I have all my textbooks.
I hoped that picking up some extra hours of work over break would ease the pain of buying my textbooks, but it didn't, even for one of the cheapest of my six semesters. I bought my books used and tried to take advantage of cheaper online prices, but yet again, my bank account was ambushed and pillaged.
I wondered if ridiculously priced textbooks were a recent phenomenon, like the steep tuition hikes, so I asked my father about his textbook-buying experience when he went to college from 1967-1971. He kept most of his textbooks and often had the receipts from the bookstore.
The most he paid was for a Spanish textbook, bought new in 1969, at a whopping cost of $13.50. I was jealous; however, when accounting for inflation, that $13.50 book would cost around $76 today— not as good of a deal as I thought.
He also added that among his college textbooks he had a flyer from the Student Government about getting cheaper textbook prices for students. Apparently this problem has been going on for decades.
"Rip-off 101: How the Publishing Industry's Practices Needlessly Drive Up Textbook Costs," a report by State Public Interest Research Groups, spells out information about and reasons behind costly textbooks.
A summary of the report said that textbook prices have increased by 62% over the past 15 years while the inflation rate has increased only 14%. It also explains how new editions of textbooks are marked up around 12% from the previous edition, and are 42% more expensive than used books on average.
While Rip-off 101 has good statistics, Professor Henry L. Roediger, III, writing an article entitled "Why Are Textbooks So Expensive" in the Association for Psychological Science (APS) Observer, identified a source of all our textbook-buying woes. He explains that companies which buy and sell used books from one university to another are responsible for the huge mark-up of textbook prices; before reselling them, the company marks up the price again to make a greater profit.
When used books are bought and sold, only the seller gains a profit and the author and publisher get nothing. In order to gain more profits and royalties, new revisions must be made so that new books are sold.
Another explanation offered by Roediger is the change in ownership of college bookstores. They used to be owned primarily by the university itself, with proceeds going to help the university. Currently, many college bookstores are owned by large corporations such as Follett's and Barnes and Noble.
ASU's bookstore, on the other hand, is still owned by the university, and Roediger's reason can be exemplified by a difference in price of the Norton Field Guide to Writing, an English 101 textbook used at both ASU and MCC, whose bookstore is operated by Follett's. If bought new at ASU, the book would cost $52.75, but at MCC it costs $57.25, and the used prices differ at $39.75 and $43.00.
However, this textbook could be bought much cheaper off campus at Amazon at $40 new and as low as $23 used, or even used at half.com for $26 or Craig's List for $30. Even Barnes and Noble's price is cheaper at $46.75.
One of the reasons for the wide range in available new prices could be accounted for by the lack of a list price marked on the book itself. Without this recommended or suggested retail price, bookstores can mark up books as much as buyers are willing to pay, without any base price to which the price can be compared.
Since textbook prices have been an issue for so long, the trend probably won't fade anytime soon. Students should either support the author and publisher so new editions don't need to be published so frequently, or help other students cut out the mark-up middleman by buying from each other for a much lower price.
Monique is ready to start renting out her old textbooks for some extra cash. E-mail her for a list of her inventory at monique.devoe@asu.edu