Why students are dropping U.S. version textbooks for International Textbooks

High textbook prices are the main financial pitfall for college students from the inception of thier first semester until graduation. Countless articles have been written to publicize the obvisous and malicious rise in textbook prices, however very few have discussed the newest trend that is helping college students find cheap textbooks fast and easily.

What is this new trend that's spreading from campus to campus like wildfire? Well, before I get to what the trend is, I first need to note that textbooks are sold at a high prices in the United States by publishers, because students are willing to pay them. What would happen however, if students weren't willing to pay these high textbook prices? What would happen is what has happend in some third world countries - - prices fall. See, in order for textbook publishers to expand into smaller markets, they must lower their prices dramatically. Publishers can afford to lower thier prices on textbooks, because they print them on lower quality paper and they obtain cheaper labor in these third world countries.

So, this new trend that I spoke of is the emerging of international textbooks being sold right here in the United States. To see how prevalent international textbooks have become in the marketplace, simply do a search at www.BookstoreBandits.com, which is a textbook price comparison website, and you'll find the cheapest textbook prices in the marketplaces. Then, simply click on the bookstore with the lowest price and you'll soon find that the decription of that cheap textbook says something like "this is a softcover International Edition". The sellers of these international edition textbooks, are typically pricing the textbooks at about $20-$30 below the lowest U.S. version textbook. That's substantial savings and all the student may sacrifice is lower quality paper and a few days wait to recieve thier books. The wait time is usually about 1-2 weeks, depending on the sellers terms.

You might be wandering how I know that this is a trend that is becomming more and more accepted in colleges and universities throughout the nation. Well, I simply conduct research, searching for how long certain textbooks take to sell and for what prices they're selling for. I've been monitoring the selling on several of the major bookstores that are on the website that I mentioned earlier and increased sales volume of international textbooks has never been so evident.

I believe that the textbook market is headed in a direction that U.S. publishers don't want to hear. In my opinion, the marketplace will continue to be flooded with international textbooks, causing the sales of U.S. version textbook sellers' profits to be driven into the ground. This will force textbook publishers to secure a new technology that would prevent the selling of international edition textbooks, like switching to digital textbooks that are secured.

James Vasuqez is the Founder/Owner of the popular textbook price comparison site called that helps college students find cheap textbooks, where college students can buy cheap textbooks by comparing textbook prices.
To find cheap textbooks, used textbooks and international textbooks simply visit his website at www.BookstoreBandits.com