In college, we used to get a prior edition of whatever textbook was being "required". We'd go the book store (where they had new and used books) and grab the newest edition and then compare the pages to prior editions. Generally, they'd be off by a page or three. I mean seriously, have there been any major radical developments in Algebra, basic Economics, Geography, etc in pretty much forever? Most updates in textbooks were simply more/less/different pictures, adding/deleting a sentence or paragraph. The rarely re-write an entire textbook. That would mean work, and why work when you can gouge the next set of students for $400-$500 for a new textbook.
We'd flip through and discover that Chapter 8 started on page 382 in the 31st Edition, but page 384 in the latest and greatest 32nd edition. We even look to see how close the 30th Edition was. Simply because pricing was a follows:
Latest and Greatest Edition: Arm, Leg and a Small Child
Prior Edition: $100
The one before that: $5
That was a lot of beer money we could save.
I do distinctly remember them asking $512 for the 32nd edition of a textbook.
I bought the 30th Edition for $5. We would then take brown paper grocery bags and make covers to camouflage the older books, so the profs were none the wiser.
