Why are college text books so expensive?
Simply put, it’s a racket. They sell high, buy low and then sell high again. They have high prices because they know you have to buy it. If it were public service it would be called graft. There is always the excuse that because of low circulation and specialization the books cost more, but that’s nonsense. Check with your university library to see if the book is already on the shelf. Checking out books rather than buying them saved me hundreds of dollars during my many years in college. You can also use older editions, even if the syllabus says to buy the latest. Rarely are the changes that important. Also, rather than buying a book before class begins, wait for a while. Sometimes the book is on the list even if you don’t read from it. Sometimes it’s just a “for further reading” type of text.
