The Kindle DX and other e-readers are becoming an attractive alternative to print textbooks and may one day supplant them as the primary content choice for students. For now, economics weighs against this as buying print textbooks and selling them back remains a better bargain for students.
Universities across the country are running pilot programs using the Kindle DX as a more convenient and eco-friendly way of delivering content to their students. Early programs are running into a few road-bumps, as some find the readers are not as convenient and user-friendly as their low-tech print counterparts.
Although e-books sell for somewhat less than new print textbooks, students are unable to resell e-books. Because students can recoup some of the costs of their print textbooks by reselling, print textbooks remain the better bargain. Further, used print textbooks are normally less than the e-versions (this Applied Chemistry textbook costs $96.76 in electronic format, but a used print version only costs about $39.99).
Book publishers are not in the business of charity or goodwill. They’re in the business of asking the highest price the market will bear for their products. Even when e-books supplant print textbooks, publishers will still likely charge as much as possible for their product, seeing the potential for increased profits because they no longer have to foot the costs of producing books in print. E-books actually present a golden opportunity to them because of their potential to eliminate used book trading, a threat to their exorbitant prices.
The breakdown:
According to a recent study by the National Association of College Bookstores, the average student spends about $702 per year — $2,808 over a four-year college career — on print textbooks. E-book costs include $359-489 up front for an e-reader, and e-books themselves sell for about 70 percent of the cost of a new print textbook. (Also, many electronic textbooks can only be downloaded once, and some auto-delete after a set amount of days.)
So, a student would pay about $2,808 for print textbooks over a four-year college career, and $2,456 for e-books in the same amount of time. So e-books are a better deal, right?
Wrong.
Students who resell their textbooks online or to their friends can recoup about 40 to 60 percent of what they spent. Using the figures above, this amounts to about $1,404 over a four-year college career. So, figuring in resale, the real cost of buying print textbooks over a four-year college career amounts to about $1,404 for print textbooks and $2,456 for e-books. Is “convenience” worth an extra $1,000?
That’s not to say we won’t be offering e-books in the future – we will. The point is merely that student determined to save money (and get some cash back for their books) should stick with print textbooks. We’ll discuss current e-book trends in a coming post.
Questions or comments? Post your thoughts below & start the discussion.
What is FreeTextbooks? Founded in January 2009, FreeTextbooks.com is an online textbook buyer and seller with a growing nationwide online clientele and a real-world presence at the University of Alabama, Samford University, the University of Alabama-Huntsville, Auburn University, and Troy University. We sell for less, buy for more, and offer a unique cash back program (so you can earn free books). In addition, FreeTextbooks.com is a social venture, helping to meet the underprivileged’s most basic needs – food, clean water, clothing, education, and health. In the past four months, we’ve provided 850 meals to Birmingham’s Jimmie Hale Mission.
