On Fri, 5 Mar 2021 14:52:38 -0500, Bill wrote:

J. Clarke wrote:
On Fri, 5 Mar 2021 09:18:20 -0500, Bill wrote:

wrote:
On Thu, 4 Mar 2021 01:52:52 -0500, Bill wrote:

Emanuel Berg wrote:
Leon wrote:

Yeah, many/most books can be less expensive than a tool

Maybe they can be but with the exception of power tools they
aren't, and certainly not if we talk university textbooks...

Of course, as you may know, university textbooks fall into a "rigged"
(monopolistic) framework. I think that the Internet is countering that
a bit for folks who like e-books.

I don't know how it is now but at one time people were re importing
textbooks because they were being sold for a fraction of what they
cost here.


Yes, in some countries, there is little hesitation about copying
software or other publications onto a CD, and selling them for $5 on the
open market. One of the factors keeping expensive books relevant, is the
added "online-resources" (consisting of homework problems that the
student is required to do, an e-copy of the textbook, along with extra
video lectures of the material). Such a "book" may run $175, and even
a re-purchaser (i.e. every re-purchaser) of it will need to pay $75 or
so to access the online-resources for a semester or two. In some sense,
these
more expensive books serve the students more effectively than the old
ones. Many students are happy to just pay the $75 and forego a physical
copy of the textbook. On the other hand, the cost of tuition, not so
heavily subsidized by the state, as in yesteryear, makes the cost of the
textbooks a relatively small expense, even if it might reach as much as
$1000 some semesters.

The "international editions" usually have different problem sets, or
at least different orderings.

I'm sure they do now but at one time they were exactly the same books.
It costs money to come up with different problem sets and "the rubes
will never know". In many of my classes the problem sets in the book
were only for study and had nothing to do with the class. Some had
different problem sets but most of the higher level courses didn't
have any assigned homework.

Even different editions of the same textbook tend to have their problems
reordered, to give students a reason to buy the relevant edition. Based
on only a few examples, I haven't noticed a difference in the content of
specific versions published in some Asian countries. Now, the paper and
printing quality, that is wholly different. Many of them are printed on
*very thin* paper. And the characters used on the cover reflect the
country from which the reproduction has been sourced.

As noted before, a new edition on some books came out yearly to defeat
the used book market. Another reason was to screw with the
fraternities, who had copies of previous problem sets. ... and tests.
Profs had to change tests yearly. I knew some who had a four or five
year cycle on tests, figuring that anyone who had taken that test had
moved on.