Textbooks at most any level are expensive and quickly outdated. Hence, at centers of learning where students must acquire their own books, there is a brisk second-hand trade. Sellers are anxious to unload books they no longer need as quickly as possible, and buyers are looking for the cheapest possible price for materials in the best possible condition. Competition and haggling can be intense.
Cards offering used textbooks for sale are posted on the college notice board at the beginning of each semester, once book requirements and class schedules are settled. One posting read:
"Introduction to Psychology, $8, never used." The card was signed, "Must sell."
The next day a note had been added:
"Good price. Are you sure it's never been used?" Signed, "Prospective buyer."
Later, a different hand had added a final line:
"Positive!" Signed, "Professor who graded his exam."
The above tale appearing in these pages prompted the following rejoinder from Jim in Great Falls, Virginia:
The textbook story brings back memories to those of us who have authored textbooks. We always felt a little unhappy with the secondary market in texts. Of course, it reduced our already-meager royalties. It also told us that our teachings were not so highly valued that they would be preserved for the ages in libraries of our grateful students.
But my best memory of the textbook game was when a student in one of my classes, where I was using my own text, raised his hand and said,
"My father says that professors write texts and then use them in their own classes to rip off students here at the university. What's your answer to that?"
I told him,
"Tell you father his allegation is completely false. In truth, I am hoping to rip off thousands of students at universities all over the country."
The subject never came up again.
-----------------A Final Thought ...
"As long as learning is connected with earning, as long as certain jobs can only be reached through exams, so long must we take this examination system seriously. If another ladder to employment was contrived, much so-called education would disappear, and no one would be a penny the stupider."
- E. M. Forster (1879-1970), British writer