December 5, 2002
TRY SHOPPING:
Why do books cost so much?: Thirty bucks for a new hardcover! How book prices got so out of hand, who's responsible and what it will take to make reading more affordable in the future. (Christopher Dreher, 12/03/02, Salon)[A]ccording to Michael Cader, a longtime book packager and the creator of Publisher's Lunch, a Web site and e-mail newsletter service read religiously by many publishing professionals, book prices must change. He points to reports that indicate that the total amount of money being spent on books is stagnant while more and more books are published every year. According to Bowker, over 135,000 titles were published last year, compared to 119,000 in 2000.) Simple economics dictates that with more books vying for the same amount of money, there should be more competition and prices should come down. [...]Many consumers have found more immediate remedies for high book prices, however. Over the past few years used book sales have skyrocketed, particularly with the Internet making used booksellers' inventory more accessible to more consumers. And big-box retailers like Costco, Wal-Mart and Target sell huge numbers of discounted books. And in the end, for those who believe there should be no price tag on knowledge or information, there'salways the library.
"Cars aren't free, neither are apartments or food," says Greco. "We live in a free market economy. Yes, books are important and play a unique role inthe culture. But that doesn't mean they have to be free. Or cheap."
Take it from someone who, to paraphrase Phil Gramm, has more books than I need but less than I want, there is fairly little reason to pay full price for any book. For one thing, Amazon.com has a terrific recently-added feature where you can buy and sell used copies of every book they sell (and many they don't). I've used it to find out of print books and to sell a couple that folks were offering silly prices for. Both experiences worked out well.
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 5, 2002 10:26 AM
In bigger cities (and college towns, for that matter), the used bookstores can be a real treasure trove as well. So many of the classics in politics and history are out of print that it can sometimes be more rewarding than the chain bookstores (you never know what you may find!). In fact, I haven't done a Half-Price Books crawl across the Houston area in a while. Thanks for the reminder, Orrin -- you're gonna be responsible for helping the local economy this weekend! :)
Posted by: Kevin Whited at December 5, 2002 9:46 AMAnother great site is abebooks.com. Terrific for the out-of-print and hard-to-find.
Posted by: Casey Abell at December 5, 2002 11:23 AMWas in NYC for the first time in two years this weekend, and as usual, the first place I hit was Strand
. The half-price review copies and Americana sections are real treasure troves.
Just got a crate of Strand books last week, purchased in October. They ship free, even across a continent and an ocean. (They have remote purchasing, too, but I've never bought except at the store.)
Ebay is good for rare books. I recently put together a full set of Singer's History of Technology by trolling eBay and bn.com's OOP section. The going rate for the
5-volume set is around $250. I put mine together for
less than half that.