I have problems with setting prices too—I suspect there’s a delusion that it’s possible to get prices right, while in fact while there’s definitely too high and definitely too low, there’s also a middle range where you might as well say something and the odds are in your favor that it will be accepted.
And I might not even be very correct about the too high and too low. For some reason, prices for used books at amazon don’t converge to a market-clearing price. I have no idea what economists would say about that.
For some reason, prices for used books at amazon don’t converge to a market-clearing price.
Shipping costs? It’s generally uneconomic even to give books away. I was going to offer a spare copy of a book here until I realized the shipping costs were such a high percentage of the cost to buy it new.
Amazon prices for Simak’s Time and Again—there’s a rough correlation between condition and price, but it’s very rough.
New copies range from $48 to $130. Good copies range for 50 cents to $23. The ratings of the vendors don’t have a strong correlation with the prices.
It took me 3 tries to get a price page like that (Heinlein’s Expanded Universe and Byatt’s Possession don’t show the pattern, but I can tell you that it isn’t rare for science fiction that’s been around for a while.
I have problems with setting prices too—I suspect there’s a delusion that it’s possible to get prices right, while in fact while there’s definitely too high and definitely too low, there’s also a middle range where you might as well say something and the odds are in your favor that it will be accepted.
And I might not even be very correct about the too high and too low. For some reason, prices for used books at amazon don’t converge to a market-clearing price. I have no idea what economists would say about that.
Shipping costs? It’s generally uneconomic even to give books away. I was going to offer a spare copy of a book here until I realized the shipping costs were such a high percentage of the cost to buy it new.
Amazon prices for Simak’s Time and Again—there’s a rough correlation between condition and price, but it’s very rough.
New copies range from $48 to $130. Good copies range for 50 cents to $23. The ratings of the vendors don’t have a strong correlation with the prices.
It took me 3 tries to get a price page like that (Heinlein’s Expanded Universe and Byatt’s Possession don’t show the pattern, but I can tell you that it isn’t rare for science fiction that’s been around for a while.
Markets are imperfect. Shipping costs dominate the exchange value of books in my experience.
If anyone wants a ‘free’ first edition of The Four Hour Work Week and is willing to pay shipping from Canada let me know.