That's smart thinking. Kaplan does tend to publish many of their books in December, the idea probably being that this is the earliest they can publish it and and then have it released it for the next year. And this definitely applies to the Home Study Books, which are the books you are referring to (the 2002 and 2003 editions were actually published in Dec. 2001 and Dec. 2002, respectively). However, it is unlikely that many people will be selling the newly reased 2004 edition on ebay until at least after a few months, meaning maybe March, April at the earliest (after they've gone through it themselves).
So, option #1 Dish out the $499 and option #2 Wait for a while and keep your eye out for it on ebay. The thing is last year's edition has been selling for about $250. So the new edition will probably sell for about $325-$350 when it first comes out. (I've bought and sold hundreds of items on ebay and probably 50 odd board review books, so I have an idea of how the market changes throughout the year). Which doesn't sound like that much of a savings, when you consider that #1 You will have it for 5 months instead of maybe 2 months #2 You can resell it on ebay for maybe 65-70% of it's original market value, as long as you don't mark it up too much.
