College students everywhere continuously deal with the heavy load of textbooks not just in weight but in high prices too.  I remember textbooks being high priced when I went to college and there was always a rush to try to get the used version of a book.  New textbooks would cost upwards of $130 or more.  It's only been several years since I graduated from college and the prices have climbed to astronomical rates since that time. 

College is expensive no matter which college a student chooses to attend. It can cost a student approximately $900 or more per year for textbooks. Unfortunately textbooks lose some value when the student is done with it at the end of the semester.  That is another issue students have to tackle with every end of the semester or quarter.

There are several factors students have to contend with determining how much their college books will cost them each semester or quarter. The professors play a role in determining the types and topics of books they will use in their classes.  Some professors use multiple books for their classes such as 4 to 5 books or more. However, many of the books professors choose will be books that have been recently published.  Everyone gets a cut in the profits such as the publishers, and distributors however the college student doesn't get a cut in the profits.

It has been found that U.S. publishers sell their books to foreign wholesalers who in turn sell those books to foreign students.  However, the foreign wholesalers will re-import those extra textbooks back to the U.S. and in turn make a profit selling them at a higher price to U.S. students.  U.S. publishers have caught onto what's been happening and have changed the way they handle selling textbooks to foreign wholesalers. Contracts have been changed to handle the re-import problem.  The U.S. students are exploited in every which way and paying for their textbooks has continued to be a constant problem for them to deal with each semester or quarter of college.