Beyondthebreach wrote:I know this thread is a little off-topic, but being a used book store owner must be a tough business . . . it's come up before on the acaeum before when members relate how hardcover AD&D books are sitting on the shelves at $20+ without ever being sold . . . Badmike has lots of humorous stories as well. Have any of you ever noticed how the sellers on Abe, Amazon and Ebay (stores) have formed a kind of "unspoken" price fixing ring? That is, when a book is semi-rare or very desirable to a small group of people, they set the price astronomically high and all the other sellers fall in line. Books that might fall into this category are art books, military books, books about certain famous people, etc.Here is a prime example - I've had this book on my shelf for years called The World of Michael Parkes. It is a beautiful, oversized hardcover book featuring some of the artist's work. I figured it was time to sell it and wondered if I could get about $25 for it?But look at the prices out there:eBayAmazonAbeHoly crap! I'm sure almost none of these books have sold . . . they just sit in inventory year after year. Okay, I guess I'm not much better, after all, I did set my price at $175 which is the lowest out there, but still asking a lot of a potential buyer. Anyone who wants this book must think to themselves: "F**king asshole sellers!"It's a good thing RPG books are too common (relatively speaking) and come from many sources besides used book stores or it would cost $50 for a Player's Handbook!(Of course, when one finally does sell, it will probably be mine as it's the cheapest, has a nice picture, good seller rep, etc. I bought the damn thing at the discounted section of Barnes & Noble for around $12 some ten years ago!)
Badmike wrote:Wow, spot on! A lot of this is because sellers have really no recourse when choosing what to price something except someone elses prices. We all do it, sellers on Ebay, whenyou want to find out a price you look at what it's selling for. I think the very little price variance is twofold: #1, most sellers are greedy and if they see three other sellers hoping to get $200 for something, they figure it's worth $200 and don't want a penny less. #2, if the item is priced far below "market" (i.e. what the other sellers are charging), they one of the other sellers will buy the below market item themselves to resell! I have experienced this recently with MERP items I listed way below market, after blocking certain other sellers who I thought had much too high prices on their identical items...then being contacted by said sellers who tried to buy the item, but were blocked, and wanted to know why. The funniest part is, every below "market" price, many of my MERP items still haven't sold! What can I say, I guess I'm a bit greedy also... Mike B.
Marlith wrote:That has happened with Through Dungeons Deep or seems to have. I know someone got luckly to get a sub $30 copy here recently but otherwise they seem to be selling for $30+ even on eBay and in the online bookstores alot more than that. As to the book you mentioned is it that good? I have never heard of it or the artist. I will see if I can find some other books that have examples of his work.
bclarkie wrote:I usually don't care as to who buys from me. I have sold to folks which I knew where going to end up trying to resell the item for more money than I got for it, but I feel that hey, if you can make more money off it than me then more power to you. The only times in the past where I have blocked sellers are the ones who are blatant rip off artists i.e jonb(or whatever incarnation that he is using at the time) or those who threaten to try and take over the RPG World(muwhahahah), i.e Coug, Creep, etc.
Badmike wrote:I usually don't care either, I'm of the school that "Hey, I made my profit, if you can make more, power to you dude". But like you dislike rip off artists, I don't like those that try to corner the market on a particular item (Cougie's obsession with H1) or genre (MERP in this case). I'm not particularly altruistic, but sometimes you basically have 2-3 sellers cornering the market on certain items and then jacking up the prices because of this. Not mentioning the item or rival sellers, but I recently listed an item for $100 less than the rival sellers had the same collectible item listed. Not only was I contacted because the sellers wanted to buy my copy, but neither their copy NOR my $100 cheaper copy has sold in the last few months. As a matter of fact my rivals have LOWERED their prices as the result of not being able to buy my copy cheaply, or having sold their copies. This tells me the true worth of the copy is closer to my price than theirs. Regardless, I would rather sell this particular item to a gaming fan rather than having another seller turn it over at substantial profit. It may be hypocritical, but in the end I guess I hope by selling to gamers I might drum up more business that way.Mike B.
Badmike wrote:I don't like those that try to corner the market on a particular item (Cougie's obsession with H1)
bclarkie wrote:I should also probably mention that I also block anyone caught shilling and those jerk-offs that sell pdfs. Those are also extremely quick ways to end up on my blocked list.
Xaxaxe wrote:Just for the sake of argument, I'll say that I think we give Cougie way too much credit here.He has not — and never will — "cornered" this particular market. For one thing, the print run was too high for a single collector to ever be able to hunt down and purchase a large enough percentage of the thousands of copies that are still out there. For another, our least-favorite feline sells off his stock of H1s far too often to give himself a chance at even partially "cornering" the market. The idea is to hoard, not to sell off a copy every time you need 50 quid for cat-nip.H1 will never be "cornered," by Cougie or anyone else; it has scattered too widely. ST1, maybe ... although it would cost some serious coin. But a product with a print run in the thousands? Not going to happen.Sorry, I'm probably lurching us off-topic. It's just an expression that's always bugged me, and I don't think it really applies to anything ever printed by TSR. I'm not looking to attack BadMike or anyone else ... I just really don't like the expression.I feel better now that I've gotten that out of my system ... I'll stop now. *edited for spelling*