March 18, 2008

Class-Action Lawsuit Over Textbook Prices Is Dismissed

A federal court on Monday dismissed a class-action lawsuit over textbook prices that was filed by two students at Daytona Beach Community College, according to Westlaw, a legal-research clearinghouse.

In November 2006, the students sued the college and Follett Higher Education Group, the nation’s largest collegiate-bookstore chain, seeking to recover at least $5-million in damages because of what they alleged were overcharges by Follett on sales of used textbooks and underpayment for buybacks of used textbooks. The students sought class-action status for the case, on behalf of students on other campuses where Follett runs bookstores.

According to Westlaw, the U.S. District Court in Orlando, Fla., concluded that the case lacked “predominance of common issues of law, as required for certification of the nationwide class.” One issue in the case was that the students were nonresidents, and would need to prove the application of consumer-protection laws in each state where book purchases were made and damages were suffered. Furthermore, the court ruled, the students had not proved they had incurred sufficient damages to warrant the amount they were seeking in restitution. —Elizabeth F. Farrell

Comments

1. In countries outside the United States, a student can purchase the same textbook at a fraction of the cost.

   — Frank    Mar 19, 07:42 AM    #

2. In the United States, a student can purchase the same textbook from someone who imported it (back) into the United States and still get it at a fraction of the cost.

   So we print the books here in the US, ship some of them overseas and some of them straight to the bookstores. When resourceful people ship those overseas back to the US and sell them here, the cost of the book, with all of that shipping to be paid for, is still less than half the cost of the book that never left the country?

   — Phillip    Mar 19, 07:58 AM    #

3. Can that possibly be true? It is too bizarre not to be.

   — Ken    Mar 19, 08:18 AM    #

4. This happens all the time, especially in luxury items such as cars. Its called “charging what the market will bear” and has been a pillar of capitalist societies since they came to be.

   — Ian    Mar 19, 10:19 AM    #

5. 5. The book companies must recoup their costs of publishing a book in a year or so before the used book market cuts their sales to zero.Therefore they must charge higher prices to get their investment back. The way to reduce book prices is to eliminate the used book market!!! The students and the book companies gain.The students could purchase cheap books and keep them forever. The publishers could get back their investment over a longer period of time at lower book prices because they would sell more books (their demand curves for most university books is inelastic).

   — LJ    Mar 19, 10:47 AM    #

6. Does anyone lease text books?

   — Neil Markee    Mar 19, 12:39 PM    #

7. Inside the United States, a student can purchase used textbooks at a fraction of the price, so long as they don’t buy them from the campus bookstore. Ebay and Craigslist work very well; it’s the campus bookstores that are the problem.

   — Jon    Mar 19, 01:25 PM    #

8. OOh, the idea of leasing textbooks is a good one, I think. Neil: you’ve got a niche to pursue should you be that sort of capitalist! :)

   I am always amazed at how much textbooks cost. How much does it cost to make them? Some of the earlier commenters said that the publishers have to recoup their cost— how much do they actually spend? Is it really enough to justify 100 for a biology textbook?

   In my field, we did a survey of grammar textbooks over the last few years. Unsubstantial changes were made to create new “editions”. Sentences changed from “The person researched the band NXS” to “The person researched the band 98 Degrees”. It wasn’t a change in grammar, it was silly “updates” to pop culture. And the content was not significant— but it was a new edition, and therefore, cost money to publish. But it’s just silly to put out new editions just to update non-substantive changes.

   I wonder how often that is the case in other disciplines. I suspect often.

   — Kim    Mar 19, 01:51 PM    #

9. Overseas editions usually are not physically exported. Rather, they are printed by overseas partner companies, and are priced for the local market (e.g., India’s Tata-McGraw-Hill). Texts usually have a paper cover, no color pages, cheaper binding, maybe no student CD, etc. Many U.S. publishers offer cheap custom textbooks similar to the international editions, but few instructors order them. They are less durable and students can’t resell them for as much at the end of the semester.

   — David    Mar 19, 02:24 PM    #

10. One of my students got his hands on one of those overseas editions that David describes. He asked if he could use it, so I looked at the examples and homework problems. We discovered that all of the problems were identical to those in the U.S. edition, except they all used the metric system. Many of the problems in the U.S. edition used the customary U.S. system (feet, pounds, etc.). We applied conversion factors to all of the given data in one of the problems and discovered that it truly was the same problem that was in the U.S. edition, so I let him use the book. The student saved money, and at the same time got additional practice in the use of conversion factors. A plus all around.

    — FB    Mar 19, 03:31 PM    #

11. How much does it cost to publish a book ? — development costs for a biology book (color photos, artwork, electronic ancillaries, etc.) can run a million dollars. If the book sells 20,000 copies in the first year, that’s $50 per book without counting the printing, paper, binding, shipping… The sales after the first year are essentially zero,so, yes maybe $100 is not too unreasonable. What is unreasonable is that the book store sells it for $150.

    — JH    Mar 19, 04:32 PM    #

12. Follett sells an anatomy book at my campus for $300. Follett sells my book for $130. It wholesales for $80. They take $50 mark-up per copy.

    — Fred    Mar 20, 02:00 AM    #

13. #5: “eliminate the used book market!!! … The students could purchase cheap books and keep them forever”

    oh sure – just what every student needs, all their old text books. After a BA, BS & MSE, I kept three texts that were actually useful after the class was done. so keeping old texts is not real high on the desireability list

    also, “book companies must recoup their costs of publishing a book in a year or so before the used book market cuts their sales to zero”

    WHY don’t they make $$$ after the 1st year? The classes are still being taught, students are still buying the same book new – maybe not in the same quantity, but the market still exists. I knew students who would never buy used books. And not all of the used books get into the used book market. It just takes a longer-term business view – something US business doesn’t know how to do.

    #8 “Unsubstantial changes were made to create new “editions”. “

    ABSOLUTELY! In all my fields of study I found multiple editions that had the most insignificant modifications – just to call it a new edition & charge a premium for it. Of course, some (many?) profs required their book for their class and would make minor alterations each year so making the value/market for used books almost zero.

    — Gary    Mar 20, 10:41 AM    #

14. So, now that most of us agree that it is outrageous to charge so much for new books with little changes, what are we doing about it? We are the ones who write the syllabi for the classes. Do we offer the books at the library? Utilize supplimental readings for classes? CDs? If the demand is low, the price will go down. Can’t we find alternatives?

    — Pam    Mar 25, 09:49 AM    #

15. As a community college instructor, I have difficulty with the prices of new texts. Publishers put out a new edition of each text about every two years, so that students can’t buy the older books.
    The options we instructors find are (1) electronic textbooks online and (2) custom texts that we work out with the publisher, and then don’t update every two years.

    — RICHARD PERRY    Mar 29, 11:50 PM    #

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