[jeza]

In Australia textbooks typically cost $100-150 a title so I'm guessing that is on par with America. I've also been able to source these international editions at a fraction of the price by purchasing online. However, tech books from the likes of O'Reilly can easily cost 2-3 times as much here, putting them in the same league as textbooks.

I found it amusing when we had a representative from a publisher speak at the first lecture for a subject. He had a slide saying "buy locally" and was encouraging students to buy his ebook which was twice the price of the international edition I had already purchased but marginally cheaper than his print edition.

The end result is that students are not buying textbooks anymore and those that do are importing them from overseas. The independent co-operative bookshop at my university went out of business last year as a result. The university opened their own bookshop with ridiculously high prices as well, but minimal staffing from what I could tell. I don't think they can sustain the high prices in the long term without the whole thing falling in a heap.