Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles We got a problem y'all. In the world the post secondary education 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.
B1 US textbook custom edition amazon homework brand The Problem with Textbooks 285 25 Zenn posted on 2014/11/24 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary