On Sep 15, 6:28 pm, Allan Adler <a...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "Francis A. Miniter" <mini...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>
> >If you read the responses, I think you will see that most of us have
concluded
> >that the person was not listing books for sale but checking out what he
could
> >get selling them retail if he were to buy them and list them.
>
> Most of us, perhaps, but not all of us. There is a definite advantage to
not
> having to risk any capital or to have to maintain any kind of storage
facility.
Exactly how much "capital" would we be talking about
here? If the library in question is anything like the
library near where I live, the "capital" would rarely be
more than $10, because most of their stuff has an
Amazon Low Price of a couple of dollars, and therefore
would not be worth the bother.
> Also, the mere fact that a book is listed online at a certain price
doesn't
> mean that anyone is buying it at that price or any price. The online
listings
> would be useful information if they were prices that people said they
were
> willing to pay. It is not unusual to see books being listed for
thousands
> of dollars at Amazon, just because some bookseller is waiting for
someone
> who is both rich enough and desperate enough to pay it. It doesn't mean
that
> someone can actually sell that book at any price.
I would maintain that approach I suggested to
valuing books is one worth considering. You
throw out the fantasy prices, those which are
ridiculously high. You also throw out the
suspiciously low prices. Then you average
the prices left. For example, let's say a dealer
is asking $500 for a book that four reputable
dealers are asking $30, $35, $40, and $50
dollars for. I would value that book at $38.75,
or, we might as well say, about $40. If there
was a suspicious listing of the same book
in the same condition for $3, I would throw
that price along with the fantasy price. That
approach is far from infalliable, but is certainly
more accurate than looking up the price in
somebody's printed book.
I certainly agree that listings for many books
on Amazon include fantasy prices. Maybe
there are a lot of rubes on the net with money
to burn these days. Maybe they feel they can
get more "culture" from a book with a wildly
inflated price tag...
>
> Someone suggested that the books move too quickly for such a scheme to
work.
> I'm not sure that is true.
It was a valid point. What sort of "entrepreneur"
is going to risk a flock of Amazon lack of fulfillment
ratings just because his "capital" is not sufficient to
allow him to shell out $10 or $20 dollars for a number
of books worth many times that amount, judging
by the Amazon Low Price?
>
> What I'm wondering now is how many booksellers might be listing the very
> same books, all sitting on the library sale shelf.
Again, just for fun assuming your suspicions are
correct, the ones doing that are likely the "booksellers"
who peddle to the donation store on a bicyle with big
wire baskets on the rear wheel, who wear gl*****
with lenses looking like the bottoms of Coca Cola
bottles, who wear heavy overcoats on a hot day, and
conduct business from a cockroach-infested attic
they reside in over a garage.
More seriously, I personally think your suspicions
are baseless, because the library donation stores
in my area have -- on a typical day -- such a large
percentage of books with an Amazon Low Price
equal to or below the trifle the library is asking
for them. As for the few that would be worth
listing, any bookseller I know would much rather
shell out a few dollars for them than risk bad
customer ratings due to listing books he does
not actually have. You scenario suggests a dim
bulb of a book dealer saying to himself, "Gee,
someone just ordered this book I listed on
Amazon for $18. I had better rush over to the
library donation store and buy it for $2, then."
Seems like a trivial way to do business, but
then, since there seem to be so many "****pping
Charge Scrounges" listing books for a penny,
so they can scrape out a dirty nickel, so to
speak, in the difference between what Amazon
reimburses them and what they actually pay
for postage and packing materials, I suppose
anything is possible. Sigh...
[Memo from the upstairs office.]
> --
> Ignorantly,
> Allan Adler <a...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> * Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My
actions and
> * comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near
Boston.
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