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Re: textbook prices (was jaw dropper)



Although I no more approve of book weasels (buyers/sellers of
promotional copies) than John does, I doubt that these people
have a major effect on textbook prices. What drives textbook
prices up is a complicated mixture of corporate greed, instructor
apathy, author apathy, and student helplessness.

-dan (DSCHROEDER@cc.weber.edu)

Actually in the 80's at the prices then current, it was estimated by the
publishers that the used book resales required them to up the price of a
new text by $7 - $10, because they had to amortize the cost of production
of the book over a shorter new book sales life. This of course allows the
used book folks to charge more, too.

Do we really think it costs as much as a used book price to bring that book
back into the market? If so, then the new books are not outrageously
priced; it seems to me.

Dewey

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Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418 Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University dykstrad@bsumail.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper

"Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and
are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external
world."--A. Einstein in The Evolution of Physics with L. Infeld,
1938
"Don't mistake your watermelon for the universe." --K. Amdahl in
There Are No Electrons, 1991.
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