I spent part of yesterday researching textbooks for AbeBooks.com and I know this was naive of me but I’m still shocked at how the price of college textbooks keeps increasing. Let’s take Marketing Management by Philip Kotler - a key business studies textbook and one of AbeBooks’ bestselling textbooks every year. This book is now in its 13th edition.
September 2005 - list price is $140
September 2006 - list price is $153
September 2007 - list price is $166
September 2008 - list price is $176
Today, the list price remains $176 - thank heavens for small mercies. Later this year, this book will be priced at $189 - I guarantee it.
The cheapest copy of Marketing Management, a new copy, on AbeBooks.com is $27 from a bookseller in Singapore and the shipping would be $14 to the US. Prices are much lower on AbeBooks because of the intense competition between booksellers in the textbooks segment. The Internet allows instant price comparisons so sellers with high prices don’t sell any books. I know where I’d buy my textbooks if I was at university.
