edwest said:
Why are people concerned if a higher price is set for a used copy? Unless you personally know someone who plans on paying, what difference does it make? A book I'm currently looking for is available on amazon for $2,000 +. So, I'll just look a little harder elsewhere
Those higher used copy prices are probably sourced in the title's history on ebay which is being sustained by those who have more money than sense and just have to have that book.
A reason to be concerned is because this could eventually influence the pricing of new books. (The marketing department saying 'Look how much people are willing to pay for these books.' while overlooking the fact that it is a relatively small number of people paying those prices.) This has happened - I mean the prices realized on ebay has been one of the contributing factors in the rising cost of model kits. I know that corporate extortion - I mean licensing fees - is a part of it along with oil and transport costs. Still the companies have noticed what happens when two or more people just have to have that Airfix Kingfisher kit and bid the thing up to $50, $60 or $70. Then you have those Buy It Now dealers who place outrageous prices on old kits which usually (or at least use to) sell for two or three dollars in the vendor room at a model contest. $50 for an Airfix 1/72 scale P-51 in a less than mint condition box? Can licensing and oil really explain why a new (reissue) RF-101C from Hasegawa can cost forty to fifty dollars when the mold has been in use since the 60s and has probably been paid for since the 70s?
Getting back to the subject. Maybe ebay will not be as much an influence. Maybe it will be the licensing and royalty fees. With the aerospace corporations claiming ownership of images that had been long believed to be in the public domain (Scott talked about this in another thread) and seeking to control any depiction of their "properties", maybe it's not that unreasonable to think that the cost of Squadron Signal In Action books could inch up to thirty dollars or higher and the more detailed Schiffer hardcover books on aircraft could go up to the two to three hundred dollar range. In fact, it's heading there with the armor books. Some of the Hardcover armor books in the local hobby shop are in the one hundred to one hundred fifty dollar range. But then again ebay may be an influence on the armor books as I understand that many of the authors are gathering their WWII and Korea photographic material through auctions on ebay and other auction sites.
Nutty is right and if this keeps going I can see many hobbies being priced out of existence.