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From: elm@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (ethan miller)
Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.physics,comp.edu
Subject: Re: the high cost of text books!
Message-ID: <8250@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 12 Dec 88 19:09:12 GMT
References: <278@heurikon.UUCP> <6304@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> <4959@bsu-cs.UUCP> <841@novavax.UUCP>
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: bandersnatch@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (ethan miller)
Organization: That radical campus in Berkeley
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In article <841@novavax.UUCP> maddoxt@novavax.UUCP (Thomas Maddox) writes:
->	In all these instances, the bookseller pays postage (both ways
->on returns, quite common with texts).  
->
->	So if you want to know why obscene operations such as
->Waldenbooks and B. Dalton are taking over the world, look at these
->figures to begin with.  Then consider the commented-upon fact that
->publishers no longer can take a tax break on backstock and that most
->mundane of facts, the high price of mailing books.  Combined with
	     ^^^^^
Hardly a fact.  If you use 4th class (book rate) to mail books, it's
less than 30 cents per pound to mail cross-country.  I don't know if
it's lower for shorter distances.  I do know that when I moved to CA
from Boston, I paid around $11 for each box of books that weighed
around 40 pounds.  Now, I've never seen a college text that cost less
than $15/pound, and many cost much more.  That's $.60 postage _both
ways_ for $15, and, as I said, most books cost even more than that.
->computerization of the book trade, these add up to an oligopoly of 
->massive wholesaler sells to massive retailer, and the individual
->bookseller, once the backbone of the trade, struggles at best.  
->
->	One could probably tell a similar story about grocery stores.
->
->	Anyone want to comment upon, add to, or update these figures?
---------------- "Quod erat demonstrandum, baby." ------------------------
WHO: ethan miller       |   WHERE: bandersnatch@ernie.berkeley.edu
HOW: (415) 643-6228     |   WHAT : overworked underpaid graduate student