Low-priced textbooks sold online may tempt any student on a tight budget, but sometimes bargains aren’t the best way to go.
Wade Pentz, a 21-year-old senior electrical engineering major, said he thought he was being a savvy shopper when he bought a textbook. “Fundamentals of Power Electronics” (Second Edition) was bought by Pentz for $80 through an Amazon third party seller Premiertexts, which is much lower than the retail price of $122.85. After receiving his purchase Pentz said he discovered his copy was counterfeit.
“When you get the counterfeit copies there is no copyright page, I tried to check and lo and behold [there wasn’t one],” Pentz said.
Even though it was cheaper, Pentz said he didn’t suspect foul play because of the company’s high user rating.
“There were a lot of reviews for [Premiertexts],” Pentz said. “This company had five stars or very close to five stars, but I’m sure most of the books people got were not counterfeit…I don’t even know if [Premiertexts] knows [that this book was counterfeit].”
Attempts to contact Premiertexts for comment were unsuccessful.
CU Professor Robert Erickson, who is the textbook author and requires it for his Introduction to Power Electronics class, said he started seeing the counterfeit copies at least five years ago.
“In the past, students in my class have shown up to class with books that they’ve bought from Amazon that are counterfeit,” Erickson said. “They generally say something like ‘Student Edition for sale in China’ or they don’t have the copyright page. I find out because the counterfeit books are generally copies of the first printing of the second edition of the book.”
Since Erickson first published the second edition, there have been eight re-printings to correct errors, he said. This then becomes a problem for students who own the counterfeit copy.
“Some of the homework problems refer to things that that were corrected and [students] turn in homework based on this first printing, so I’ve taken to warning students in class about this,” Erickson said.
To help his students, Erickson said he also posted an errata sheet online, which details the corrections made in the re-printing. Also on the site is a warning about the illegal copies.
Erickson said when he first found out about the counterfeit copies, he alerted his publisher who said that they would contact the seller. However, he said Amazon did not take responsibility in the matter.
“[Amazon] said it’s not their problem and it’s the fault of the third party,” Erickson said. “It’s not like I’m selling millions of copies and getting rich off it, it’s more frustrating that it would happen on Amazon and the position that even though they handle it, [they say] they aren’t responsible.”
Erickson represents one of the many pirated authors as was in 2006, when the US Book Publishers lost an estimated $600 million to book piracy, according to Havocscope.
Tracking down the counterfeiters, however is a difficult process, Erickson said, especially because the differences between the textbooks are hard to notice. About three years ago, even the CU Bookstore sold the counterfeit books, Erickson said.
“It wasn’t the bookstore’s fault,” Erickson said. “They bought them from a wholesaler…it’s hard to tell [the difference], the only way to tell is if you know what is going on. But once the CU Bookstore found out, they’ve been careful ever since.”
Some students, like 18-year-old sophomore chemical engineering and business double major Katie Scott, say they avoid buying online altogether.
“I never do it,” Scott said. “I’m scared to get scammed.”
Despite his experience, Pentz said he will likely continue to purchase online, just perhaps be a little warier.
“This makes me more skeptical of books online,” Pentz said. “I would say if you’re going to buy online make sure it’s from a trusted source. Buy it from Amazon, not a secondary seller. There’s a bit of gambling when you’re buying a book from a random seller online, there’s a chance it could be counterfeit or a different edition. I don’t know how big it is, but it’s there.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Rose Heaphy at Josephine.heaphy@colorado.edu.
