Everyone’s heard about being able to buy American-made drugs for much cheaper in other countries. But tne new story is how the same is true for textbooks.
Just like prescription drugs, textbooks cost far less overseas than they do in the United States. The publishing industry defends its pricing policies, saying that foreign sales would be impossible if book prices were not pegged to local market conditions.
But many Americans do not see it that way. The National Association of College Stores has written to all the leading publishers asking them to end a practice they see as an unfair to American students.
“We think it’s frightening, and it’s wrong, that the same American textbooks our stores buy here for $100 can be shipped in from some other country for $50,” said Laura Nakoneczny, a spokeswoman for the association. “It represents price-gouging of the American public generally and college students in particular.”
But thanks to the Internet, more and more individual students and college bookstores are starting to order textbooks from abroad — and a few entrepreneurs, including Mr. Sarkis and his friends, have begun what are essentially arbitrage businesses to exploit the price differentials.
Ah, the joys of globalization.
Alas, it all came far too late for me. When I was on college, the clay tablets textbooks we used were really available only one place — the college bookstore. And the only price break you got was if you bought one used (which was often thwarted by new editions coming out).
It will be interesting to see how this market evolves. Reduced domestic (high-priced) consumption will cut into book company margins. Will they settle for that? Will they seek some sort of legal remedy (“It’s, ah, digitally printed, so, um, the DMCA makes it illegal!”)? Will they raise overseas prices (presumably hurting sales there, and possibly ending up giving a leg-up to foreign text manufacturers)?
Stay tuned …
(via Cronaca)