students are burdened with tuition fees that most can't afford upfront and therefore,

accept the evidence future of being in debt.

Ain't nobody got time for debt! But I'm here to discuss the other costs that students have to worry about.

the textbooks for their curriculum.

That's right!

I can already hear the groans of contempt from those watching this. Let me bring an

important matter to your attention. I'm sure you're well aware of the tactics

textbook companies implement in order to increase their revenue. Maybe not! So let me

bring up the matter of what's called the Custom Edition

and Homework Code Packaged Textbooks.

The former works something like this: Let's take a chemistry textbook that's

been out for a while.

It's being sold brand new for, let's say two hundred dollars, but enough used

copies of the bought and sold at sites like Amazon where you can now get it for

about, hmmm, a quarter of that price. The thing is, textbook publishers don't make money

when you buy used books (obviously). They only do when new copies are purchased.

They mitigate that by creating the custom edition books, a fancy name for

something not totally new. It's very similar to the original book but with a

few differences. One: the textbook will have the university's name on it, meaning it can't

be resold anywhere else. Yale kids don't want no Harvard books (and vice versa)

Two: the textbook is paperback (yuck).

And Three: the textbook only includes a subset of the abbreviated chapters from the

main book, meaning you're actually paying less in exchange for incomplete content.

Then, textbook publishers approach the professors and say:

"Hey big boy. Looks like your book costs $200.

That's pretty expensive. I got a deal, just for you.

We can give you a customized version of the book and sell it for only $100.

That's half the price.

What do you think?" Many professors, being totally clueless that the book is even cheaper

on Amazon think,

"Uh... Ok!

Yeah, that works! Save my students a hundred bucks!

They'll love me!

You got yourself a deal!" Then the semester starts. Students buy their custom

edition books but because of the economics of supply and demand they're

totally screwed, and here's why. Non-custom textbooks can be used all over the

country.

Custom editions can't.

Everytime students list a book for sale on an online marketplace, the supply

increases, while the price decreases. When custom editions are introduced,

publishers monopolize the market at each school

in an effort to eliminate amazon out of the equation, meaning the eight thousand

students at harvard are only able to sell those custom books within those eight

thousands students instead of being able to sell them to the other twenty million

across North America.

In that scenario, the used textbook supply almost never increases, leaving students

with no choice but to buy brand new custom books.

And that's why the full textbook is often cheaper than the custom edition.

Now mandatory homework codes bundled with textbooks are no different. Instead of

custom editions, publishers do the same thing with bundling a one-time use

online homework code that can only be bought with the brand new edition of the

book, which pretty much eliminates the resale value to zero, because all future

students need the brand new book with the homework code. The textbook alone is

useless.

Sites like Amazon have been there as a savior to many of you, but guess what?

Textbook publishers see them as an obstacle. You see, they want to make money off of

every new rising student and services like Amazon prevent that. So what do they

do to prevent the selling of used books? Scam Students (evil laughter)

So, how can we stop them?

Well, you can start by telling who you know.

Raise awareness. Inform your professors, administrators, your kids, your wife

and everyone you know about the fact that custom editions are useless to students and

only benefit the publishers creating them.

Don't be seduced by the publisher's sales rep. Give your students a break.

It's not entirely the professor's fault.

It's the shady publishers.