Is there any way to buy the physical books? Not really a fan of reading via a computer and there is no way to view it on a nook or ipad or if your offline...
am not sure which book you are looking for. there are lot of vSPhere books (hard copy) available in market.
here are some
I'm sorry i'm taking VMWare VSphere 5: Fast Track [V5.0]
No as per my knowledge if you talking about the official books those are not available for the purchase in the market.
Probably you can buy the book from here :- http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Scott-Lowe/dp/047089080
If you take a course online with VMware you will get electronic courseware only. If you take a course in-class or online with a VATC you would get printed courseware. You can't buy the printed manuals separately.
I remember seeing people selling their course material at ebay
That's up to them... I've sold all sorts of stuff on ebay 😉