Problem:
At first glance, the market for college textbooks appears to be stacked against students. Professors assign a book with a big price tag, students buy it, and the publisher pockets a tidy profit. End of story, right? Not quite. Historically, students managed to work both sides of the used textbook market in an attempt to lower their textbook tab-hunting for used textbook bargains when classes begin and often reselling them at the end of the term. Price-conscious students understand that they effectively overpay for the book with an older publication date than for a more recent one because the older one is more likely to get revised soon and lose its resale value. Research shows that the semester before economics textbooks are revised, sales plummet, typically by 50%.