Out of print books and old editions are not in national demand and we can't buy them. For the protection of the students on campus, we always require those selling books to show current student identification. All required course books we sell are chosen by your professors. They know what titles best explain the material for their classes. Your professors study tens and sometimes hundreds of textbooks before choosing the ones that fit their needs best.
Professors are concerned about textbook prices for their students.
They often request paperback editions, when available, to help keep costs down. But faculty members also know that even though they are expensive, the textbooks you study are an important part of your education, and what you learn from them will stay with you for a long time. When no selling price is set by the publisher, we add a minimum markup to our purchase cost to cover our expenses of operation. For other textbooks, the price is determined directly by the publishing companies. They sell us the books at a set cost and also establish the selling price we must follow.