Garage sales to become illegal?

[U-Ute]

http://www.marketwatch.com/Story/sto...2-002128049AD6

The case stems from Supap Kirtsaeng’s college experience. A native of Thailand, Kirtsaeng came to America in 1997 to study at Cornell University. When he discovered that his textbooks, produced by Wiley, were substantially cheaper to buy in Thailand than they were in Ithaca, N.Y., he rallied his Thai relatives to buy the books and ship them to him in the United States.

He then sold them on eBay, making upward of $1.2 million, according to court documents.

Wiley, which admitted that it charged less for books sold abroad than it did in the United States, sued him for copyright infringement. Kirtsaeng countered with the first-sale doctrine.

In August 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court’s ruling that anything that was manufactured overseas is not subject to the first-sale principle. Only American-made products or “copies manufactured domestically” were.

[Moliere]

http://www.marketwatch.com/Story/sto...2-002128049AD6

I'm not sure that buying and selling $1.2 million in textbooks constitutes a garage sale. Sounds like an ongoing business.

However, I wouldn't mind putting a stop to garage sales. Our neighborhood sponsors two of them a year and it sucks trying to get in and out of our street due to all the traffic.

[CJF]

Just imagine the drop in value when you drive your new car off the lot. DDD wins if this comes about.

[U-Ute]

I'm not sure that buying and selling $1.2 million in textbooks constitutes a garage sale. Sounds like an ongoing business.

The problem is that the ruling doesn't put any kind of scope on the impact. In theory, you wouldn't be able to sell your old MP3 players.

[wuapinmon]

However, I wouldn't mind putting a stop to garage sales. Our neighborhood sponsors two of them a year and it sucks trying to get in and out of our street due to all the traffic.

https://www.whitewine.com

[pellegrino]

The problem is that the ruling doesn't put any kind of scope on the impact. In theory, you wouldn't be able to sell your old MP3 players.

exactly. I don't like this case one bit and I hope the Roberts Court reverses it. Sure, the guy took advantage of the publishing company, but siding with them would completely change the entire concept of the free market.

[CJF]

exactly. I don't like this case one bit and I hope the Roberts Court reverses it. Sure, the guy took advantage of the publishing company, but siding with them would completely change the entire concept of the free market.

I thought about doing the same thing in college. Text books have been ridiculously over priced forever. If they were more reasonable, this guy wouldn't have had a market.

[BigPiney]

exactly. I don't like this case one bit and I hope the Roberts Court reverses it. Sure, the guy took advantage of the publishing company, but siding with them would completely change the entire concept of the free market.

Good for him. Publishing companies are screwing students over.

[il Padrino Ute]

Good for him. Publishing companies are screwing students over.

I'll say. Cost of two textbooks for my oldest daughter this semester:

$398.

:yikes:

[wuapinmon]

Textbooks are very very expensive to produce, including all of the media and web functions that are now expected by students. Couple that with a limited shelf life in many fields and you get high costs. The average textbook nowadays is on glossy paper with multiple graphs, photos, charts, and such on each page. My textbook includes a complete vtext version with a FERPA-compliant website that contains an online SAM and exam and quiz capabilities. It has a soap opera with actors and plot tied to each chapter on DVD or streaming on the web.

It costs $150 and is good for two semesters. I get sick of people whining about the high price of textbooks. They are expensive for a reason, a valid one.

[The_Douger]

They should get more than 2 semesters of use out of it.

Textbooks are a racket. Students get screwed over at the end of every semester during "buyback". They buy the thing back for 10 bucks and resell it again for 75, after it was bought new for 125.

[Colly Wolly]

Textbooks are very very expensive to produce, including all of the media and web functions that are now expected by students. Couple that with a limited shelf life in many fields and you get high costs. The average textbook nowadays is on glossy paper with multiple graphs, photos, charts, and such on each page. My textbook includes a complete vtext version with a FERPA-compliant website that contains an online SAM and exam and quiz capabilities. It has a soap opera with actors and plot tied to each chapter on DVD or streaming on the web.

It costs $150 and is good for two semesters. I get sick of people whining about the high price of textbooks. They are expensive for a reason, a valid one.

Why are they only expensive over here (as highlighted by the article)?

[BigPiney]

Textbooks are very very expensive to produce, including all of the media and web functions that are now expected by students. Couple that with a limited shelf life in many fields and you get high costs. The average textbook nowadays is on glossy paper with multiple graphs, photos, charts, and such on each page. My textbook includes a complete vtext version with a FERPA-compliant website that contains an online SAM and exam and quiz capabilities. It has a soap opera with actors and plot tied to each chapter on DVD or streaming on the web.

It costs $150 and is good for two semesters. I get sick of people whining about the high price of textbooks. They are expensive for a reason, a valid one.

$75 a semester for the book is reasonable.

The ones my wife just bought cost 150 and had none of that crap. It is in its 9th edition, just because. It is a rip-off.

A 2005 Government Accountability Office report showed that college textbook prices grew at twice the rate of inflation from 1986 to 2004.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/08/28/how-your-textbook-dollars-are-divvied-up

[The_Douger]

You should be able to rent an ecopy of the textbook for even cheaper than that. If you like it after that, then buy a copy.

There's no reason they should be so expensive, especially when the professor is the author and requires a new edition every year.

[wuapinmon]

They should get more than 2 semesters of use out of it.

Textbooks are a racket. Students get screwed over at the end of every semester during "buyback". They buy the thing back for 10 bucks and resell it again for 75, after it was bought new for 125.

Students who get "screwed" over are morons who have never used the internet. My students are savvy when it comes to buying and selling books from amazon and half.com. As to your first assertion: So, they should take more than two semesters to cover the material in the book so that they can get more use out of it?

Why are they only expensive over here (as highlighted by the article)?

That's what the local market can bear. There may be government subsidies. I don't know for sure, but things cost more in NYC than in SC. However, I think that the guy should be allowed to import them and sell them if they're going to sell them cheaper overseas.

$75 a semester for the book is reasonable.

The ones my wife just bought cost 150 and had none of that crap. It is in its 9th edition, just because. It is a rip-off.


http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/...are-divvied-up

Does that study account for the increase in technology and print quality? I'm not saying that there aren't some ridiculous textbooks, but they've always been expensive because they aren't normal books. They are complex to make, detailed in timely information, and have a limited shelf life (information changes, students obtain teacher copies and have access to exams which they disseminate, and professors think of better ways to teach certain principles). The competition is also fierce. I get no fewer than 10 books in the mail each year just for SPA 101--ones that I didn't even ask for.