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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Give it that Old College Mark-Up
Aired October 21, 2003 - 07:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Business news now. First, people looked overseas to save money on prescription drugs. Well now, college students are taking that hint.
Let's get the story from Andy Serwer, who's "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Soledad.
I don't know about you, but when I was in college I always wondered why textbooks cost $30, $40, $50, whereas regular books cost $20.
O'BRIEN: The professors wanted to make money off the students. That's what I thought.
SERWER: I think that's exactly right.
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: Maybe it's because there is a captive market, as you're suggesting. But now, students are striking back, apparently. They are going online to buy books overseas and finding the prices are way, way cheaper. This could have a tremendous impact on the book publishing company, never mind the fortunes of some of those professors Soledad was talking about.
For years, of course, students had been buying used books, but this is a whole different matter. "The New York Times" has a great story this morning about it. They have some examples of buying books on Amazon for $100, say, physics textbooks and whatnot, and then going overseas and buying them for a lot less.
Here's an example that we did here at CNN. A psychology book, $105 on Amazon. Amazon's prices, by the way, here are roughly comparable to the bookstores at the schools. You go to Amazon, you pay $60. That's currency converted plus the shipping. I mean, how can you beat that? Forty-five dollars per book. That's a lot of money.
O'BRIEN: I had this book. I think I got it for 20 bucks.
SERWER: Well, that was because it was a few years ago. Sorry, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Ow!
SERWER: You know, students are spending $400, $500 or $600 a semester on books.
O'BRIEN: That's crazy.
SERWER: And you can see that you can save a whole lot of money. The textbook publishers are coming back and saying, well, it's really not so bad. But it's a big deal, I think.
O'BRIEN: I'd be curious to know if you really can find the bulk of the textbooks you need, you know, overall, because sometimes I found, at least when I was in school, the professors picked the books each year and made you update it.
SERWER: Yes, right. There are all kinds of games that are played, I think. But still, the savings are just tremendous.
O'BRIEN: A lot of money. All right, Andy, thank you very much.
SERWER: OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired October 21, 2003 - 07:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Business news now. First, people looked overseas to save money on prescription drugs. Well now, college students are taking that hint.
Let's get the story from Andy Serwer, who's "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Soledad.
I don't know about you, but when I was in college I always wondered why textbooks cost $30, $40, $50, whereas regular books cost $20.
O'BRIEN: The professors wanted to make money off the students. That's what I thought.
SERWER: I think that's exactly right.
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: Maybe it's because there is a captive market, as you're suggesting. But now, students are striking back, apparently. They are going online to buy books overseas and finding the prices are way, way cheaper. This could have a tremendous impact on the book publishing company, never mind the fortunes of some of those professors Soledad was talking about.
For years, of course, students had been buying used books, but this is a whole different matter. "The New York Times" has a great story this morning about it. They have some examples of buying books on Amazon for $100, say, physics textbooks and whatnot, and then going overseas and buying them for a lot less.
Here's an example that we did here at CNN. A psychology book, $105 on Amazon. Amazon's prices, by the way, here are roughly comparable to the bookstores at the schools. You go to Amazon, you pay $60. That's currency converted plus the shipping. I mean, how can you beat that? Forty-five dollars per book. That's a lot of money.
O'BRIEN: I had this book. I think I got it for 20 bucks.
SERWER: Well, that was because it was a few years ago. Sorry, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Ow!
SERWER: You know, students are spending $400, $500 or $600 a semester on books.
O'BRIEN: That's crazy.
SERWER: And you can see that you can save a whole lot of money. The textbook publishers are coming back and saying, well, it's really not so bad. But it's a big deal, I think.
O'BRIEN: I'd be curious to know if you really can find the bulk of the textbooks you need, you know, overall, because sometimes I found, at least when I was in school, the professors picked the books each year and made you update it.
SERWER: Yes, right. There are all kinds of games that are played, I think. But still, the savings are just tremendous.
O'BRIEN: A lot of money. All right, Andy, thank you very much.
SERWER: OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
