Grey Market - Textbooks

Textbooks

College level textbooks have a grey market, with publishers offering them for lower prices in developing countries or sometimes the UK.

The content of these books is said to differ from the content needed for universities in North America. The content is usually 98% identical to what is taught in different areas of the world. Most commonly the units of measure, spelling of certain words and/or grammar is that of the region it was intended for. Sometimes the editions are not the newest, sometimes the printing quality is not the best, and the book comes in a soft-cover only.

For example, a $160 USD math, chemistry or biology book in Canada, US or Britain could easily be acquired for 10 to 20% of the cost in Asia. The content is identical, the only discernible differences being thinner pages and a soft cover. Most textbooks are absolutely identical except for the quality of the paper and binding, though this has been greatly improved in India by the import of modern manufacturing equipment. Indian booksellers, however, are unwilling to fulfill foreign purchase orders, which means that a local individual is needed to buy the books and ship them, a worthwhile practice for any inter-university cooperation. Alternatively, there are of course grey market sellers on the Internet offering such books.

These books typically contain a disclaimer stating that importation is not permitted. However, the 1998 U.S. Supreme Court decision Quality King v. L'anza protects the reimportation of copyrighted materials under the first-sale doctrine.