
The New Golden Age of Renting? - jasonlbaptiste
http://worldaccordingtocarp.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/the-new-golden-age-of-renting/
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cianestro
Any europeans here on HN? I had a german professor last semester tell me many
schools/teachers don't require students to buy specific textbooks and do
homework problem sets in Europe. They just expect their students to understand
the material, turn in good labs or essays, and pass the tests. He was
obviously criticizing that american college students are spoon-fed their
education.

~~~
benJIman
Indeed. I live in the UK and had no need to buy a single text book throughout
my degree (Computer Science). There were usually a few equivalent suggested
books for each module. We were free to purchase or borrow any of them or use
other sources such as online material.

I bought half a dozen books because they were interesting beyond the course
itself, mostly just used the library and online material though.

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larsberg
I agree that renting is incredibly popular, but I worry about Chegg's success.
I see more and more students (I'm a Ph.D. student in Computer Science) just
"obtain" a PDF of the book and skip buying new/used or trying a rental
service. The ones who still want dead tree buy copies from India for
significantly less than the rental price, with the only difference some text
on the cover.

~~~
ahk
What's wrong with those things? Obviously books costing $70 or $100 are not
priced to target people subsisting on ramen noodles. And it's only the current
debt-madness which has lead people to think those prices are anywhere near
sane.

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angstrom
[http://www.datc.edu/files/datc/departments/bookstore/textboo...](http://www.datc.edu/files/datc/departments/bookstore/textbook$.pdf)

Like most things, no one is getting terribly rich off textbooks. What bothered
me most in college was when they would release a new edition and refuse to buy
back the old one.Even when the difference between the versions wasn't
noticeable.

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muhfuhkuh
> no one is getting terribly rich off textbooks

That dollar in the PDF is sliced so many different ways and spread apart that
you don't really notice that the publisher takes 64.6% of it. Of an estimated
6 billion dollar market. I'd say _someone_is getting rich off textbooks, but
it ain't the author.

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ojbyrne
Zipcar just filed for an IPO to payoff their debt. They've got a lot of it.

I also don't see how Chegg deals with some of the things universities/text
book publishers have done to handicap the used textbook market - i.e. having a
new edition every year, with new required problems in the classes.

~~~
olefoo
Negotiating power, and the ability to shift books around the country. They can
demand discounts because they are making bulk orders larger than a single
bookstore and textbooks refresh at 3-year intervals for the most part.

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bradshaw1965
At least one barrier to the general brand of renting is that it has long been
associated with finance related ripoffs. I think brands like Netflix, etc.
have worked to make their offerings appear as services rather then renting.

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looprecur
Renting in general (cars, housing) is one of those things that people want
other people to do, but not for themselves, at least not on things they
consider important. For example, if you rent textbooks, you give them up at
the end of the semester... but a lot of people want to have them around for
years later.

An example is that, following the housing crisis, people quipped about how all
"those people" who were taking out bad mortgages should have been renting
instead of buying their homes, and there are a lot of arguments for why
renting is superior to ownership for real estate (repairs done by
professionals, more mobility, etc). But few people actually want to live by
this. They'll gladly rent in their 20s when they're starting out, but they
want to own the house they raise their children in.

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MichaelSalib
_They'll gladly rent in their 20s when they're starting out, but they want to
own the house they raise their children in._

I'm not sure that's really true. The rental and purchase markets tend to offer
different products in most places. So while you can find studio rentals
easily, you can't find rentals for a family of 5 nearly as easily.

Also, in the US, we tend to only see short term lease options for residential
renting (say 12 months). But as you get older and get children, the cost of
moving begins to rise. You've got a lot more stuff and your friends are older
and busier and less inclined to blow a day helping schlep your stuff. So I
think part of what older married people with children are buying when they buy
a house is freedom from having to worry that they'll suddenly have to scramble
to find a new place and then actually move.

