Students sue over textbook Prices

by **yourmom** on Sun Nov 26, 2006 10:31 am

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/volusia/orl-collegebooks2506nov25,0,954603.story

In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that could affect thousands of college students who think they are overcharged for textbooks, two Daytona Beach Community College students have sued the nation's largest collegiate-bookstore chain and their school.

The class-action suit, filed in Orlando's federal court, alleges unfair and illegal pricing practices and seeks to recover at least $5 million in damages. It accuses the Follett Higher Education Group and DBCC of overcharging students pennies on each used-book sale and underpaying them when buying books back.

**Sponsor**

by **Gvlax** on Sun Nov 26, 2006 12:16 pm

All i have to say is one word:

Reparations.

ha i can not stand looking at how much i spend on text books.

by **Beta** on Sun Nov 26, 2006 1:36 pm

What's the most someone's dropped on books? I had a $600 semester for my edumakational books.

by **Zeuslax** on Sun Nov 26, 2006 1:48 pm

About time with this one. The most I ever spent on a book was my freshman year at Hopkins: $800 dollars for one and I needed 2 for the class. The grand total was $1,500.

by **cjwilhelmi** on Sun Nov 26, 2006 2:32 pm

Most I ever got hit with was $800 or so.

EDIT::

Just remembered, I bought a book for around $200 for one class, never opened the book and sold it back to the University for around $50.

by **Beta** on Sun Nov 26, 2006 3:20 pm

cjwilhelmi wrote:Most I ever got hit with was $800 or so.

EDIT::

Just remembered, I bought a book for around $200 for one class, never opened the book and sold it back to the University for around $50.

I was offered 50 cents for a psychology book one time...I was so digusted, having spent $100 only 5 months earlier. At least I got a soda outa the deal.

by **Sonny** on Sun Nov 26, 2006 4:04 pm

The solution: Buy/sell used textbooks over the Internet. You will cut out the middleman and get more value (both buying or selling). There are tons of sites out there.

by **Madlax16** on Sun Nov 26, 2006 4:16 pm

oh man i remeber at st. andrews last year i dropped a total of 3k on books in total for 5 classes. there went my "weekend" money.

by **nine** on Sun Nov 26, 2006 5:39 pm

the best is when they won't buy it back because a "new edition" is coming out.

by **Gvlax** on Sun Nov 26, 2006 7:56 pm

I hate it when the professor writes his own text book and then all he does is make you read the book. When it comes time to sell it back he is coming out with a new edition and all that changes is the cover and copyright date.

Most i spent on books one semester was $950.

by **UofMLaxGoalie11** on Sun Nov 26, 2006 10:41 pm

Gvlax wrote:When it comes time to sell it back he is coming out with a new edition and all that changes is the cover and copyright date.

My statics (not statistics) and dynamics books were like that. All they did was change some numbers in the problems and reprinted it. A couple people in the class are an edition behind and lots of the problems are the exact same.

cjwilhelmi wrote:Just remembered, I bought a book for around $200 for one class, never opened the book and sold it back to the University for around $50.

For my physics class we were required to buy a back of about 6 or 7 books. Only two were the text and the rest were just filler whose only purpose that year was as pins in "hallway textbook bowling". I didn't want to spend an extra $200 just for the tutoring guides or mathematics for physicists. That and when I went to sell them back, they wouldnt take them. If I would have known that I only needed those two books, I would have looked elsewhere.

by **bste_lax** on Sun Nov 26, 2006 11:41 pm

I am also a fan of the 2 dollar bills and dollar coins you get when you do sell them back.

by **DanGenck** on Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:09 am

Come'on now, you can't be all gung-ho for free market capitalism and then cry when it kicks you in the butt.

High demand + Low supply + Lack of alternatives = High price.

by **laxfan25** on Mon Nov 27, 2006 8:37 am

Not exactly a free market though - they've got a captive market (also known as having them by the lacrosse balls). If the students were free to use ANY physics textbook vs. the one written by the prof - it might be a little better.

I'm glad I'm not buying textbooks anymore (just paying for my four kids' books!)

by **StrykerFSU** on Mon Nov 27, 2006 10:58 am

Make sure you get all the facts before blaming the professors. They hardly get rich writing these things.

Read the article guys...this isn't about the price of new books or even the publisher's price. It's about a few dollars on resales and buybacks. Believe me, I know how expensive books are. I'm in year 9 of the higher education experience.

Before the fall semester began in August, Rebman and Brandner say, their college bookstore illegally rounded up the prices of used books to the next 25-cent increment. Used books that should have cost $88.69 and $85.31 were sold to them for $88.75 and $85.50, respectively, they argue.

And when they sold books back to the store, they say the store paid them less than 50 percent of the new retail price as required by the contract. Examples cited in the suit include the return of a college-algebra book that cost $118.25 new but was bought back by the store for $56.25, or less than half its new price. In that transaction, the student should have received $59.12, the suit says.

Also, the bookstore can buy books for any price it wants, it's up to you as the seller to decide if that is a fair price to you. If you don't think it is fair, sell somewhere else or to a friend.