On 2016-Mar-01, at 4:36 PM, Sean Conner wrote: > It was thus said that the Great Rich Alderson once stated: >> >> For most hobbyists, even $100 is too much. I was simply astounded at the >> chutzpah of the seller--right there on the Amazon list--who was asking >> nearly $1500 for a copy. > > I think that comes from an unchecked computer algorithm, not simple greed. > I think what's happening here is someone (some Amazon third party) offered > the book for, say, $5. Another third party scans Amazon for such books, and > offers it for say, $6, with the hope that you (the potential buyer) will > only see their their offer for $6 and buy from them, at which point they > will buy it for $5 from the original seller, sell it to you for $6 and > pocket the $1 profit. The problem comes when a third third-party seller > sees the offer for $6 and does the same thing as the second one, only now > they're offering it for $7, will pay $6 for it and pocket $1 profit. > > Keep repeating that process and you end up with books selling for $1500. > > -spc (Who knows? If you keep searching, you might find the original > seller selling it for $5 ... )
For example: http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/why-did-amazon-charge-23698655-93-for-a-textbook/ I've come across other articles about this in the past. Don't know the specifics of the book mentioned by Rich.