How expensive can it be to return unsold books?
Various studies have determined that for every dollar of new textbooks returned to the publisher or other distributor, the book store (on average) pays .20 cents (actually 20.2%) to process and ship them. And the costs to publishers to accept return shipments, return the books to stock, and process store credits are similar. No one benefits from excessive returns, especially students, since the cost of returns indirectly influences textbook prices.
