She Sold A PDF Version Of Her Textbook To Her Classmates For $5, But Someone Called Her Out For Trying To Profit Off Of Students And Even Sent A Free Version Of The Textbook Afterward

This 21-year-old young woman is currently in college. And, as in most university courses, she is usually urged to buy or rent versions of textbooks offered by her school.
However, she realized one day that she could actually get PDF copies of the textbooks for her classes instead of purchasing the books outright. After all, this option was significantly cheaper.
And whenever she could not find a free version of a required textbook online, she was typically able to find a site that sold cheap PDF copies online.
Now, it did usually take her a while to locate these PDF copies on the web. But she thought it was worth it since she saved quite a bit of money.
“I will always look online for free or cheap versions before my classes start,” she explained.
“And if I can’t find some, I will generally start the course and decide if I really need to buy the expensive version. We have all been there– buying a textbook we don’t really use.”
This year, though, she enrolled in one particular class for which she could not find any free or cheap PDF copies.
She searched the web for a long time, though, because apparently, the cost of the new complete textbook was between $110 and $150.
Still, her search came up dry, so she attended class without it for a while. And at first, she thought she would just be able to slide by without ever needing to purchase the reading material at all.

BullRun – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
Then, about two or three weeks into the course, she realized that it would be best if she just found herself the textbook.
So, at that point, she set out on another online search. Yet again, though, she had no luck.
Well, that was until she eventually found a PDF version of her textbook for $40– a fraction of the original textbook price.
And since she thought that price was totally worth it, she decided to purchase the PDF and go on her merry way.
She ended up reflecting on the whole situation, though, and realized how hard it was, in general, to locate those PDF versions online. So, she figured that she might as well offer a cheap alternative to the rest of her classmates.
More specifically, she decided to send an email to everyone in her course about the PDF version she found. But, instead of her peers having to spend $40 on it, she offered to sell copies of her own PDF version for $5.
“I thought this was a win-win; fellow students would get an ultra-cheap version, and I would offset my costs,” she recalled.
“And I didn’t feel like I was extorting anyone because $5 is literally the price of a coffee. No one was going to be getting rich, and obviously, other students can look for their own version.”
In order words, it’s not like she was forcing anyone to purchase her version as opposed to the original textbook.
Plus, she just put herself in her classmates’ shoes and realized that she would have appreciated the option to purchase a cheap version had she been struggling to locate one on her own.
After she sent the email, though, it appears that her seemingly good intentions kind of backfired on her.
First, two people ended up buying the PDF version from her. But then, she received a very angry email from another student– who claimed that it was awful of her to be profiting off of other students who were already struggling. Plus, they told her that she should be ashamed of herself.
Now, she kept her cool and calmly responded to the email sender– explaining how she had purchased her own version and was not “getting rich off of broke students.”
Still, though, she just could not understand why the emailer was so offended. After all, she was selling the PDF for only $5– which she thinks is incredibly cheap. Plus, the semester had already been going on for over three weeks.
This situation became even worse just four days later, though. At that point, another student in her class apparently located a free version of the PDF online and decided to send a link to it in her same email thread.
So now, she feels really bad and has been left wondering if selling a PDF copy of a textbook that wound up being available online for free made her a real jerk.
Do you think she had good intentions when she offered to sell her PDF version for $5? How could she have known that there was a free version available if she could not find it? Would you have done the same thing? Or would you have provided your classmates with the PDF for free?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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