Low Priced Edition
My room mates in India aren’t into going out at night. They’re happy to go to bed early, watch a cricket game, or read up on “The Design of the Unix Operating System.” I asked Harish how much that book cost. He opened the cover and showed me the price he bought it used at – Rs. 195, or about $4.15. Granted, this was used, but the book clearly showed it was the “low priced edition” on the front cover and was only to be sold in select regions of the world. The price of the newest edition of this book on Amazon.com is $69.66, which Amazon claims is a savings of $3.67 off the list price. Amazon has a number of sellers offering to sell used copies as low as $10.95.
Comparing apples to apples, is it really fair that people in the US should have to pay over twice as much for the same book? As any student will tell you, many teachers will ask students to purchase the newest edition of the book, often times which contains a few new questions and a switched chapter or two. These new editions will have no used copies available and students who purchase older copies run the unknown risk of missing questions or entire chapters which might be tested on. At the very least, the page numbers are out of whack for no good reason other than to encourage teachers to insist on the newest version.
As the US falls farther and farther behind in engineering, could the cost of entry into the field be one of the larger factors? I don’t know all the facts, but I’m curious if anyone else has thoughts on the matter. In the mean time, thank god for half.com where I can get my hands on these “illegal” low priced editions.