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Comment by zimbabwe | Hacker News Reader

This is why we don't snip quotes to make them sound better for our own snark. FTA:

Amazon has announced a larger, more expensive Kindle DX for textbooks and periodicals, which it will test-market to college students.

Last year I paid $500 - the price of a Kindle - for my textbooks. I didn't open most of them. Returning them was a pain in the ass. I hate going out and buying them, period. If there's a device that lets me buy books each semester for only $50 total, or - not to suggest illegal activities - that lets me download them via my college's student hub, then I'm going to take the DX and never let go of it.

College students know a good deal when they see it.

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The problem is that you can resell hard copy books. I usually spend ~$250/semester on used text books at the beginning of each semester (I'll buy them online), and get about $100 from selling them back (usually to the campus book store, although sometimes online if I feel I'm being ripped off too badly).

Net, I'm only paying $150/semester for books whose retail price is closer to $500. I don't think that publishers will be willing to price electronic books at 70% off retail like they would need to (since there is no resale of electronic books).

Ideally, they should 'rent' me the book for a semester for a huge discount (~80% off retail, say), and I have the option of 'upgrading' my rental to a purchase at the end of the semester (with no penalty over having just bought it outright upfront) if I decide I want to keep it.

That's basically what happens now on the secondary market. I get to 'rent' a book for a semester for the cost of the bid/offer spread, with the option to not the rental and just pay the original price.

I don't think you represent the average. Also, publishers try to deter this sort of activity by publishing updated editions every 2-4 years. This messes you up if you get holding the ball or if this year is the first edition. It also discourages booksellers from holding used books in stock (you can't send those back).

Then you have people keeping textbooks for various reasons. One of them is that it's hard to buy/sell books. You need to get in early.

Your $150 relies on both buying & selling used.

Or lets your lecturer distribute their own for the $2.50 he claims is all he's actually making on each one.

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