That’s right, $1,955.89 (And .89!) making it perhaps the world’s most expensive contemporary astrology book.
I do own a copy of Melanie Reinhart’s Chiron and the Healing Journey. Slightly yellowed due to the oxidation of the bad Penguin paper, but otherwise in pristine condition.
I would be willing to part with it for only $977.60. At just half of the Amazon.com price, a phenomenal bargain, doncha’ think?
Update (Sep 3, 2006): The price has now increased to $2,121.54! My offer to sell my personal copy for only $977.60 still stands.
Update (Sept 14, 2006): the 2,121.54 copy has presumably been sold.
What strikes me the most isn’t the initial high price. It’s the range of other prices of other “used book” sellers. The same page on amazon lists the used offerings from 4.20 to 52.21. I’m not sure, even now, what the difference in the reading material is to warrant a price range from 4.20 to the thousands! Very neptunian bit there…
One wonders if someone isn’t trying to make some sort of a statement as to his or her feelings regarding the “value” of this book. It is out of print, and I am thinking that amazon must automatically spot-light the highest-priced book.
The weirdest thing is the way in which the price suddenly increased!
On the subject of hard to find books, I have been trying to find the Michelsen Ephemeris for the complete 21st Century. I have heard a rumor that it is being reprinted. Can anyone confirm or deny the story?
Have just come across your article about amazon pricing, and as an amazon marketplace seller I thought I’d post a comment in regard to the high-pricing of books by some sellers.
Some hard to find and out of print books do command a high price, but often on amazon there is a certain number of sellers that try to exploit this market by asking for ludicrous prices, and sometimes they get them! This is down to the fact that they use software to find books that have few, if any, copies available on amazon and then list it for a ridiculously high price. When an order is placed they then search dozens of book selling sites worldwide to locate copies at reasonable prices and buy them and ship to the customer. These sellers are usually easy to spot on amazon as when you look at their feedback you will see comments such as “long wait”, “book not in stock” etc etc.
If searching for books that may be in short supply and you see the only copy being sold far above the original RRP, try search amazon.co.uk or one of the other specialist book sites like ABE or Alibris and you may well find a copy much cheaper.