On Wed, 5 May 2021 16:11:37 -0400, Ralph Mowery
wrote:

The books for college were a big rip off. The professors wrote the
books and then required the students to buy them at big price. It may
not be the professor that was teaching your class you had to buy the
book by, but one at another school.

While almost nothing chnaged in many of them, each year another book
would come out so there was no resale value. Some colleges did have a
way to turn in the old books and they would resell them for a profit.

Toward the end of my only college English class*, the professor asked about
6 of us to write an essay that would be included in the textbook that
they'd use for the next year. My wife went to that same college, 6 years
later, and they were still using the book that had my essay. I was
surprised because I figured they'd change long before that.

*That was my only English class because I tested out of the others.