US college students don't "passively accept the egregiously high prices." Most are shocked about the prices, and there is no acclimatization to the idea that books "should be very expensive."
One reason for the high price is that the text book publishers have a short revision cycle. If the book chapters and page numbers change a bit every couple of years, and especially if the problem sets change, then there's little resale value.
Another is the bundling of workbook material (just like I pointed out for Ireland), even though most instructors don't use that material. This also makes it harder to resell the book.
As it says: "What makes students’ textbook purchases even less responsive to price increases than any other commodities is that many faculty members choose and assign their textbooks with little regard to the cost of the textbooks"
As I pointed out, the increase in freedom of choice by Irish instructors caused similar reductions in resale value of primary and secondary school text books in that country.
See http://www.lib.umich.edu/files/SPOTextbookBackground.pdf for some background information.
One reason for the high price is that the text book publishers have a short revision cycle. If the book chapters and page numbers change a bit every couple of years, and especially if the problem sets change, then there's little resale value.
Another is the bundling of workbook material (just like I pointed out for Ireland), even though most instructors don't use that material. This also makes it harder to resell the book.
As it says: "What makes students’ textbook purchases even less responsive to price increases than any other commodities is that many faculty members choose and assign their textbooks with little regard to the cost of the textbooks"
As I pointed out, the increase in freedom of choice by Irish instructors caused similar reductions in resale value of primary and secondary school text books in that country.