Thanks for the tip!
Actually, this is merely a variation on buying used textbooks from the previous cohort and reselling them to the next - and that's been standard practice that predates Gutenberg
If the kids don't use it a coloring book, the dog does fancy it a chew-toy, and you don't deface it with mindless highlighting, you should be able to about break even.
I don't have the links at hand, so you'll have to plug into your search engine of choice for the details, but there are a couple of deadly serious programs to reduce the cost of textbooks. Another that has tremendous potential for generation-X and the Millennials in particular (who grew up with computers and can sit for hours on end a the computer) are e-books.
I'm certainly 'for' anything that brings down the cost of textbooks! It's bad enough when you have to cough up US$160-180 for an 800 page doorstop, but I'm more outraged at the thin paperbacks that run US$60-140 and really don't have much that you cannot find elsewhere in cheaper and more substative paperbook or hardcover.
Much of it boils down to supply and demand; and a LOT more than you would imagine is a direct response to a single copy passing through several gnerations of students. I can see the author's piont - they're in this to make a living, and they only get paid once the first time the book is sold. Unfortunately, most students can't see that because of sticker-shock when the hit the bookstore each term