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.
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.