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Unscrupulous Dealers and Price Gouging in Seattle?
I own a pristine copy of a volume titled "The Picatrix", published by
Ourobouros Press in 2001 in a limited edition of 1000 copies (mine is #331). I'm doing an appraisal of the current value of this book, so I searched Bookfinder to see what was listed there. There are several copies listed, ranging in price from a low of $204 to a high of over $500 (the latter from a Seattle brick and mortar store for a copy with a scuff on the cover!) One of the outliers, pricing a copy at $430, was an outfit called "seattle_bookseller". I wrote and asked why the price was so high, and got an amazingly vituperative and abusive response, stating that this "WAS HOW THE RARE BOOK BUSINESS WORKED" and that I "NEED A COURSE IN REMEDIAL ECONOMICS" and so on. I was a little surprised at this, but a little research turned up the even more surprising information that this seller is one "Luis M. Arsupial", the same person who was doing business (kinda) as "texas_bookseller" up until about six months ago, and who previously created a huge stink in this group over some questionable transactions! This kind of pricing seems like nothing more than gouging to me. I could buy two copies of this book for what this yoyo is asking for it. I can only assume that he's doing business on a basis of relying on his customers being ignorant and not doing their research. Based on the listings on Bookfinder, I'd estimate the value of this book at $225 to $250, certainly nowhere close to $430. Is this a usual practice? Do a lot of booksellers price their wares in the hopes that their buyers will be too stupid to know that they're being asked to pay twice what a book is worth? (Apparently this "Luis M. Arsupial"--"marsupial"...?--was once known as "Jason Christopher Hughes", a name which turns up a wide variety of odd and amazing postings on USENET...) |
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