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> By one estimate, college students nationwide spent $701 each year on textbooks in 2008. By 2017 that cost dropped by more than $100. The reason for this is
by wand3r 9y ago
> By one estimate, college students nationwide spent $701 each year on textbooks in 2008. By 2017 that cost dropped by more than $100.
The reason for this is piracy. People save money pirating books and it also provides competition to what was a formerly the extortionist monopolistic practices of publishers.
- wlesieutre 9y agoI took a class where the book was hundreds of dollars, only used for homework problems and nobody could find a PDF. One of the students bought it, "scanned" every page with their camera, and returned it. Piracy is definitely how students are saving money on books.
- nickparker 9y agoI've come dangerously close to starting a shadowy organization at my university for the sole purpose of maintaining and operating a couple DIY book scanners.
- vlunkr 9y agoI'm sure that's part of it, but there are plenty more factors. I was in school 2007-2013 and I saw a huge decrease (> half) in cost over that time because a local business started doing rental/buyback systems that significantly undercut what the school was doing. I also saw more courses going with cheap/free online content.