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For Americans, Imported Textbooks Can Be Cheaper
mblase writes "The NYTimes has an article (free reg required, someone'll post the Google link any minute now) about how the Internet has trumped capitalism yet again -- the very same college textbooks used in the United States sell for half price, or less, in England. One sophomore imported 30 biology books this fall and sold them outside his classroom for less than the campus-bookstore price, netting a $1,200 profit." Wait 'til they shuffle the problem sets.
This semester, I purchased several of my books online from sellers in other countries. One of the books, which came from Hong Kong, arrived the morning after I had purchased it. I purchased the book for less than 1/3 of the US price, and the seller was still making enough profit to be able to overnight the textbook to me. If this isn't a sure sign of an overpriced book, then I don't know what is.
There's no sig like SIGSEG
Funny. I always find it the other way around. Admittedly my only experience is really with Amazon. The UK version often has less books on offer, at higher prices and longer delivery times. It's often been simpler for me to buy at the US store in US dollars and wait the extra 5 days than buy it here.
Here's an example for a book I needed this quarter:
Digital System Design Using VHDL
$59 (shipping included) to get it from the UK shipped priority to me in California. $115 at amazon new, $65 or so used. Took only a few days, the same it'd take if I bought it in the US, and probably quicker than the Media Mail that amazon marketplace and half.com usually offer.
Once there was an optional book I wanted to study from that went for about $50-$60 on half.com. Saw a used one on ebay for $15 that looked pretty much new when I got it.
A textbook was selling for $120 at my local college bookstore. This was the list price! I bet they would charge more if the list price let them. Anyway, I got the same book on Amazon for $60, free shipping, which was in the US. So it's not the foreign books that are cheaper-- the markup happens in the college bookstore.
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
...they paid about $30 per copy.
Or, following the link directly on the page, then could essentially have the book for free.
Before we all start blaming the bookstores for this, let me make it clear that I have worked with shipping/receiving/pricing textbooks, and I know that the publishers set the prices. My campus bookstore has about at 23% margin on textbooks, which basically covers paying rent to the Union, paying employees, and paying for the shipping costs to get the books. They are fortunate enough to be under the Division of Student Affairs, which means that they have a mandate to get as many used books as possible. They also pay well for used books that are needed.
OK, so now we get to the blame part. I, too, have purchased several texts from the UK (usually Blackwell's, but I always search AddAll first to find the best price. I don't know why the publishers can afford to sell things for 50% of the US price overseas, but it's atrocious. There's a comment on here about International Editions, the cheap paperback reprints sold in the Asian market, and I should be clear that the ones from the UK are the same quality hardbacks (with the exact same content) as the US editions. However, publishers have started catching onto the fact that US students are importing the books, and now there are some books that they won't let UK retailers export (e.g., Haviland's Anthropology ). The publishers are a bunch of money-grubing bastards, and most of them aren't even US-owned, so it makes it even more fun.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. BLAME THE PUBLISHERS, not your campus bookstore. The best thing you can do is to search for these deals and take advantage of them. Be warned that the shipping time to the interior of the US (say, North Dakota) can be a little long, even with Air Mail, since it's no longer Air Mail when the USPS gets its hands on it.
"You will only be remembered for two things: the problems you solve or the ones you create." Mike Murdock
Pedantic. Do s/1201/602/g and it becomes correct. U.S. copyright law, 17 USC 602, bans commercial importation of copies of copyrighted works into the United States without the copyright holder's permission.
Will I retire or break 10K?
This was the topic of my Economics class this afternoon, and I've heard about it from other faculty. The professors at UMPI are considering buying (or have the bookstore buy for them, which is actually an option if we specifically request for the bookstore to order from another place) all of the books for a few classes from Britian as a test run to see how well it works. Even with VAT, shipping, and import taxes, the books generally work out to be aproximately $30 cheaper per book. One example that has been tossed arround is a Systems Design and Analysis class:
Amazon.com (USA) = 127.10 USD
Amazon.com (UK) = 37.99 BPS (british pounds sterling?)
Sources:
USA Amazon
UK Amazon
I used the same ISBN number to get more acurate results, and this is based off of amazon's selling price, *NOT* some third party who you can get it from cheaper in the "New or used" section. granted, the American one is not availible at the moment, but the list price is still there.
We don't need an "overrated" so much as we need a "you completely missed the parent's point, dumbass..."
You think this is funny, but this sort of case has actually already been litigated, and some courts HAVE found that importing legitimate copyrighted material for resale IS a violation of copyright. The US Supreme Court disagrees, and as a result the US is in violation of some international agreement or another. Naturally the govt (legislature and executive) is working on ways to bring the US into compliance.
Harvard is a private university, Oxford is a government-funded university. In the U.S. government universities are funded by the individual states and tuition ranges from $1,500-4,000/yr, while many states such as Texas and Georgia waive the tuition fees for students who keep their grades above a certain level.
Oxford weighs funding changes
"despite Oxford's proud history and its impressive architecture, it is losing its competitive footing to America's top-tier colleges and universities, such as Harvard and Yale."
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
The bookstore is not getting it for $40. They are probably paying closer to $100, buying from an American distributor. The article mentions that university bookstores are also looking at foreign suppliers as a way to improve their margins and increase sales.
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
I was curious, so I did a bit of searching. And proceeded to be flabbergasted.
:)
American publishing houses seem to operate secondary arms in India specifically for English-language technology books.
Check this out:
Introduction to Algorithms, 2nd ed: $79.95
Introduction to Algorithms, 2nd ed: $5.73
The C Programming Language [K&R]: $40.00
The C Programming Language [K&R]: $2.10
Design Patterns: $54.99
Design Patterns: $7.11
Granted, you have to wait a while for them. And there's probably tariffs that you have to pay. But still, I know where my next book purchase is coming from.
Universities/colleges enforce professors to use the latest edition of books every 2 years. No buys the 5th edition if 6th edition is available because a) problem numbers are different b) chapters are shuffled around /w missing chapters
Although some profs are nice and give problem sets using old and new edition of text books.
So text-books have an EOL of 2 years.
It's neither wrong or frightening. It's simply good for consumers. Nobody cares if you import digital watches or microchips, so why should anyone care about books?
Plus, the college textbook market is a racket.
Amazing magic tricks
One is that textbook companies pull the old versions out of print as soon as possible. Then the school bookstore can't get enough copies of the old book into stock. Trying to have an entire class get their books online is a PITA, especially since there are always a few technophobes. I try to avoid companies that play these kind of games, but it can be a pain.
Another reason some profs change is that they are lured in by new features, some of which might only be in the professor's material - like new transparencies, CD-ROMs, etc.
If you get stuck with an old book that you don't want, try to sell it online. You'll probably be able to get a lot more for it.
All you need to do is put the book up on Amazon. It doesn't matter what edition it is, somebody will buy it and you'll get a lot more than the $5-$10 that campus bookstores pay for used books (even the ones they need!).
Conversely, if you need books, get them on Amazon. I haven't RTFA but I'm betting the morons haven't considered just buying the books online (as opposed to importing them, that's insane) instead of on campus.
I've been getting my books used/new on Amazon for over a year now, at a savings of 30-60% each quarter, which results in hundreds more in my pocket than I would otherwise have. Plus I can put them right back up for sale when I'm done, getting all my money back (less shipping, which runs up to $12 for coast-to-coast priority mail--Amazon's shipping allowances are a farce so don't expect any real help there).
Maybe I am going off on a tangent, but...
American books to hurt Indian authors/publishers? That is one of the most ridiculous theories I have ever heard.
I am an Electronics Engineer.
In general, in my field, Indian authors/publishers don't offer any competition to American ones. Have you come across a book on programming in C by Balagurusamy, an author from IIT? A few programs given there don't even compile!
Have you come across text books by Mittal & Mittal on various fields in circuits? They are the cheaper plagiarized versions of infinitely better books by Millman, Halkias and Taub.
When you said "the truth is...", how exactly did you arrive at this "truth"? When you come here, you will realize that no self respecting student reads the crap by most Indian authors.
Don't get me wrong... there are some excellent books by Indian authors. But, I assure you, such authors are a rare minority. But even their books are published by American publishers like "Tata McGraw Hill" and "Prentice Hall India".
This is not my sig.
hello all,
You can try First & Second. They claim to be India's biggest online book store and have a nice 72 hour shipping to the US.
Another one is Fabmart
I have always used Economy Asian Editions printed in India because the original American / European editions cost at least 10 times more. Happy shopping
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