Economics Lesson

I am writing in response to your article appearing in the Dec. 21 Book Review, entitled Economics 1A , regarding the price of college textbooks. To begin, as a sophomore in chemistry at the University of California at Santa Barbara, I average well over $300 a year purchasing textbooks.

Last year I spent $33.70 for a worn copy of my required Math 3ABC textook; a good deal, considering the new copies were $45. I treated the book with all the care a student should, although the pages were well wrinkled and marred when I bought the book. However, at the end of the year the school’s student store only offered me $15 to sell it back. This fall I saw the same textbooks my friends and I returned for $15 on the racks at last year’s price of $37.50 again.

This vicious cycle applies to a great many of my classes. In September I bought a copy of my Chemistry 130 text with a solutions manual for about $65 total. At the end of the year the student store will offer to buy them back for less than half the original price. Next year the student store can sell them again for about $50. As long as the class continues to use the same text, the student store can continue to make exorbitant profits at the expense of today’s college youth.

JONATHAN COHEN

Los Angeles