On Wed, 2003-10-22 at 13:16, Jacob Fugal wrote:
<snip>
> as in the instance of my brother's American Heritage class, it contains
> worksheets that must be turned in in class and *cannot* be photocopies
<snip>
That whole American Heritage thing really gets me steamed. I took it
back in the day when you actually bought a book that you could read, and
maybe be able to sell it back. (Not that I was every able too, but at
least they deluded you into thinking that the possibility existed.)
Now, they sell those "disposable" books, so called, which have those
expendable work sheets and such. On the very front of the packet, there
is a little note from the publisher explaining that the whole reason
that they sell the book in disposable format is to the save the student
money. Huh? What was that? Save us money by forcing us to keep a
book? Yea, makes lots of sense, guys.
They claim they can do this because they will sell more books (because
*everybody* has to buy a new one), and thus the cost per unit will go
down. However, some simple math shows that this does not save the
students any money at all. (please indulge me, I've always wanted to
show this to somebody :)
Suppose I buy the disposable book for $80 (which is about where they are
at, if I'm not mistaken), then the book has cost me, the student, a net
of $80. I can not sell it back and recoup any of that.
If, however, I by a non-disposable book for $100 new, I can use it, and
sell it back to the bookstore (or directly to another student) for $60,
given the bookstore's current buyback rate. The book has cost me a net
$40. It is even better if I can buy it used at $75 and sell it back for
$60, then it has only cost me $15.
So, to review:
Disposable book - $80
Non-disposable book - $40
Gee, they sure are saving me money.
-Hyrum
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