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What in the world is up with book prices on Amazon????


robsiew
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Okay,

 

So someone suggested The Body Book to me and I went out to buy it... people are charging in the hundreds for this book! (I was able to find one at $24 and swiped it right away). Why are people charging this much? It's a bunch of paper, people!!! :confused:

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I've been wondering the same thing....Just this past week, I've noticed some history books (same edition, same cover) listed for tons more "used" than the Amazon in-stock new price was! Nothing special (such as author signatures, original editions, etc.) was noted in the over inflated listings either. Weird. I hope no one falls for buying at those prices.

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I hope no one falls for buying at those prices.

 

:iagree:

 

 

P.S. Robyn, I think there's a new edition that's cheaper: http://www.amazon.com/Easy-make-Hands-Models-Teach/dp/0545048737/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260337350&sr=1-7

 

And MFW sells it if you scroll down: http://www.mfwbooks.com/rr.htm#basic

 

Julie

Edited by Julie in MN
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Sometimes the Amazon search engines go wacky and instead of seeing the regular amazon listing first, the vendors listings show up first and some of those prices are very inflated. When that happens see what you can do to surface the amazon listing or check other sites because you can sometimes find it cheaper.

 

Vendors are in business to make money and they'll charge what they think they can get for a book. Oftentimes it will pay for them to wait it out a bit and see if they can get the higher price. They also encourage one another not to list lower than the lowest price which discourages lower pricing. If it's an out of print book they truly have the upper hand. I have an out of print book sitting on my shelf that I went to list and decided not to because the price is ridiculously unfair based on content. If I list it low, another vendor would likely scoop it up to resale at the higher price, so it just sits.

 

\

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Sometimes I wonder if it is just a typo on the part of a vendor. Folks who buy used books at auctions, library sales, thrift stores etc. to sell to book dealers use a computerized search tool that compares the price of the book they are considering to the price on Amazon. When the difference is great enough they buy it. I'm assuming that the dealer then sets his price based on the cost and the potential shown by the typo from the original dealer. So bunches of folks through the use of computers instead of sense end up with crazy prices.

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Because the BIG online booksellers that come under Amazon Marketplace use automated monitoring to keep their prices "just right" you'll see some real shockers, both extremely high and extremely low.

 

Don't think that books will actually sell at those prices. From what I've heard, high ones usually bump down before they're sold. Who is going to buy a Spelling Workout workbook for $150 anyway?

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