Textbooks

"There's been like three words changed about how big historians think Tiberius Gracchus' ding-dong was. Updated due to new evidence." "Is that really so important?" "Yes."

Murica..is that you???

Ebay

200$ for a textbook?! What the actual fuck?! Is it gold plated ?

Only difference I swear sometimes was the foreword

I'm really curious, is it an American thing or depending on the course? Studied bioengineering as bachelor and molecular biotechnology right now and never had to buy a book (except one time for statistics, but is was easily available at the library and if you wanted to buy it, it would cost about 15€ new). Our profs would always suggest books for a deeper understanding but it was never a requirement.

I always bought international versions of whatever textbooks I need. Same book, but made cheaper for 3rd worlders. I also bought used books off of Amazon for stupid cheap and returned them at the end of the semester to the book store on campus and actually made about $500 each semester.

Did entire engineering school without buying a single book, really rarely I would consult it in the library but most pdfs on my Kindle, saved my back

Usually the difference is the rearranged material which will be on a different page to what the teachers book says. So you pay 200 whatever currency just to be on the same page as the teacher.

My professors actually told us, when a version was outdated and why. The also said, that we could get older versions back till the year of [insert random year] so we didn't have to buy the expensive new version.