Why are academic books so expensive?

[Rival]

@Left Coast , for reference, similar books of the same cover and binding are about £10-15. Half the price.

 

[Rival]

Understandable. It's a ridiculous racket. I was only able to pay my way through undergrad because I lived at home and worked full time as well.

Yeah I have to pay rent. Once that's paid I have around £1,400 or so to last for 3 months supplemented by work.

 

[Left Coast]

Yeah I have to pay rent. Once that's paid I have around £1,400 or so to last for 3 months supplemented by work.

1,400 is provided by some sort of governmental assistance?

 

[Rival]

1,400 is provided by some sort of governmental assistance?

You get a loan but over half of it goes on rent, the rest (whatever's left) is for other expenses such as food and literally everything else. £1,400 is barely anything given the price of food, books, laundry, etc. It doesn't go far. You're expected to work to supplement that but it's hard to work around the bizarre lecture hours. I do weekend work and it's good enough money but I'm still on a budget.

 

[exchemist]

These are actually from the 1950s themselves, mostly, whereas the reprints are from the 2000s-2010s. Half have clearly been kept in storage at universities almost completely untouched

There's your answer I suspect. The cost is high because the level of sales is so low.