Hi Jeff-
I must respectfully disagree with you just a little. The
whole book world is a buyer's market right now, especially on
ebay. There are some authors who are very colletible (Goodis
is one of them) and supply right now can't meet the demand.
To find a copy of Of Missing Persons in fine condition,
comparable to the one on ebay, a collector would have to pay
$100 on ABEbooks. And the buyer of Fire in the Flesh actually
got a deal at $59.99 in that fine condition. Since the buyers
set the price on ebay I can't agree that the all sellers are
greedy. However, I think some sellers take advantage of the
fact that not everyone knows about ABEbooks where a buyer can
sometimes get a comparable copy of some books for much less
than they pay on ebay.
Ok, here's where I agree with you :) The Black Wings seller
obviously didn't know what she had (we were watching that
auction and planning to bid); I can only guess someone tipped
her off and rather than letting the original auction fly and
let collectors bid the price up, she got greedy. Now, $500
may very well be a fair price for that book because it's so
rare and her copy is just gorgeous. But I'm not sure the
collectors watching ebay will appreciate what she did or be
willing to start bidding at $499 (although they may have bid
it up to that price had she left the original auction alone).
But you never know, some bibliomaniac may reward her greed
and bid.
Amy
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Jeff Vorzimmer"
<jvorzimmer@...> wrote:
>
> Some more obscure Goodis is getting some big bucks
on eBay this
week. Of
> Missing Persons had a bid of $51.51, which didn't
meet the reserve the
> dealer set. Another dealer put up a copy of Fire in
the Flesh with a
> starting bid of $39.99 and a Buy it Now price of
$59.99 and it sold
at that
> price.
>
> I think the book dealers on eBay are getting really
greedy. The
story of the
> week, though, is the woman (tamaradelempika she
calls herself) who
put up an
> excellent copy of Chaze's Black Wings with a
starting bid of $6.50, but
> quickly figured out how much it was worth and took
the auction down
and put
> it back up with a stating bid of $499.00. Obviously
she wasn't aware
that
> copies in similar condition went previously for
about $150.
>
> Jeff
>
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