Like prescription drugs, college textbooks also can cost a lot less outside the United States.

Former Williams College student Richard Sarkis said semester after semester, he forked over $500 or $600 for books. He thought: Surely there must be another way.

That's when he and a classmate discovered that the same college textbooks could be purchased in Europe for half price or less. Now, the online store they founded, BookCentral.com, and others offer cheaper, imported textbooks to students in the United States.

On the Web site for the Association of American Publishers, president Patricia Schroeder writes that many overseas editions are not identical to the U.S. editions, but Sarkis said the differences are minor. He said the cover might be hardcover, instead of paperback, or you'll find the words, "International Edition" next to the title.

The National Association of College Stores has accused the publishers of price-gouging, but Schroeder said textbooks must be priced lower overseas, where they face heavy competition from pirated versions.

But BookCentral.com says that publishers are trying to prevent the sale of cheaper books to students. The following statement is from the Web site:

BookCentral in the News

As many of you may have read in the New York Times on 10/21/03, BookCentral tries to save students money on textbooks by sourcing from overseas.
What the article does not mention, however, is that a number of publishers have actually taken measures to prevent us from sourcing our books from overseas (essentially preventing us from offering steep discounts to students on many popular titles).
You may therefore notice that we do not carry a large number of textbooks that we previously had offered.
Despite this setback we still believe that US college students should not have to pay an arm and a leg for their textbooks and we are trying to find other ways to save students money.
If you want additional information email us at rich@bookcentral.com.
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