[HN Gopher] Why the textbook marketplace is fundamentally broken
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       Why the textbook marketplace is fundamentally broken
        
       Author : skadamat
       Score  : 8 points
       Date   : 2021-06-06 17:11 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.openintro.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.openintro.org)
        
       | jjeaff wrote:
       | This is an easy issue to solve. Require colleges to include all
       | required expenditures and fees in their tuition and then they can
       | provide all textbooks and materials to the students.
       | 
       | Watch how fast textbook prices fall when there is that much money
       | to be saved by the university. You won't have professors choosing
       | the $350 book when the $55 text from 2 years ago will work fine
       | because their employer will not allow it.
       | 
       | And this would not be some revolutionary law. We already have
       | myriad laws in place for deceptive pricing practices. Many
       | countries have laws against things like a "resort fee" that gets
       | tacked on last minute.
        
         | leipert wrote:
         | Wouldn't that make things intransparent for the students and
         | the universities/colleges would just raise the tuition?
         | 
         | Universities already have problems getting journal access for
         | reasonable prices. At least here in Germany textbooks are an
         | oligopoly business so I don't know if it'd be better.
         | 
         | If the student has to get a textbook they can choose to buy it
         | used or even copy relevant parts.
        
       | todd8 wrote:
       | I've also noticed that publishers try to sabotage the used book
       | market:
       | 
       | 1) make small changes and publish new editions frequently.
       | 
       | 2) provide "online" accounts (for answer keys, extra chapters,
       | etc.) that can be signed up for with a key provided with the
       | book.
       | 
       | 3) publishing large books as thick stacks of loose pages three
       | hole punched for binders. Without a proper binding these books
       | will soon be worthless, even on the used book market.
        
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       (page generated 2021-06-06 23:02 UTC)