Land transactions can often — maybe always — be boiled down to a simple concept: Resistance to a seller’s price is diminished in direct proportion to the buyers’ perception of the land’s value to their purposes.

For the trustees of NorthWest Arkansas Community College, the eye-popping $2.5 million price tag Arkansas & Missouri Railroad officials placed on the company’s unneeded tracks through campus didn’t seem too high at all.

A little more than a week ago, the trustees voted 7-1 to accept the railroad’s asking price for a 50-foot strip of land that runs 11/4 mile. The rail spur runs parallel to Eagle Way from Water Tower Road west to the intersection of Southeast P and Southeast Eighth streets. The price includes removing rail, ties and signals, as well as leveling the land, though there’s no timetable yet for those things to happen.

For that price, we think the college would be right to expect quick action.

“It’s a wonderful deal for the college,” said Evelyn Jorgenson, college president, after the board’s vote.

Jorgenson’s characterization is a bit overstated. It probably reflects more of the excitement she feels at uniting the physical campus and eliminating an annoying presence that contributed nothing to the educational environment. Surely, she can’t be referring to the price tag.

She hinted at the potential to sell the portions of land that are off campus to other Bentonville interests, but she declined to go into specifics. Maybe she’s got a great deal worked out to make this transaction look sweeter, but she’s confirmed nothing so far.

Congratulations must go to the A&M Railroad for convincing a public institution to take surplus land off its hand while earning a hefty sum, a price it deemed non-negotiable. The railroad benefits from the fact trustees were willing to be taken advantage of.

The railroad-created blight of graffiti-covered rail cars parked smack in the middle of campus no doubt proved a compelling factor for the college board, which parted with almost half the cash in its debt service fund. Who can argue that eliminating the presence of A&M’s train cars sitting idle in the midst of campus is a bad move?

We’re always impressed when community-oriented companies find a way to give back. Given the disruptions trains have as they carve through a college campus or community, one might have hoped for discount for the college. For its own reasons, A&M wasn’t feeling it. One wonders how many other buyers it would have had, or whether the college might have been able to negotiate the nonnegotiable anyway. We won’t find out.

Todd Schwartz was the only trustee to oppose the deal, saying none of the taxpayers he spoke with favored it.

Jorgenson suggested taxpayers don’t know all the details, to which we say, please share. If the college wants taxpayers to respond to all the details, reveal them.

We do believe the college’s aesthetics will be improved by this, just not to the tune of $2.5 million out of the educational institution’s accounts. Wonderful deals are, indeed, in the eye of the beholder.