Amazon and the double star atlas

[alan potts]

No doubt a good few of you will have seen the Cambridge Double Star Atlas, some of you may well own one. Well today I have had a right go at Amazon with regards to the ridiculous practise of making slightly used or even others stated " as new " at prices starting at 274.34 which for me is having a laugh. I pointed out to them this stupidity was often mentioned on Astro sites  and many consider them a laughing stock. After all who in their right mind would pay that amount for a book that is not even rare. The top price today from a pilot supplier was 999.14, that must have been in cracking nick.

Anyway they acted blissfully unaware of the matter and promised, after I provided exact details as to where it was stated, they would look into the matter, I of course did this and await reply. I even made the point that they may well lose business as a result of this, not only as other members are looking elsewhere for this book but they may well shop elsewhere for other things.

Lets see what happen, but if something does, leave one for me.

alan. 

[Stu]

There is some crazy pricing out there Alan. I guess they must get some chance sales at the high pricing otherwise they wouldn't bother.

I picked a copy up not that long ago for a very reasonable price, so they are 'out there'.

[stu640]

Could it be that this pricing is being done by computer algorithms rather than people? I know a lot of sellers using Amazon have software that tracks prices and sets their own accordingly, which can lead to strange results like this. Maybe!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[alan potts]

They did seem to not really understand what I was saying and this is why they asked for exact location of where this was on their site, I got the impression they were not aware of this which takes some believing. I will post replies after they claim to investigate to situation.

Lets see what transpires

Alan.

[ecuador]

You do realize you are talking about Amazon Marketplace, not Amazon itself, which is pretty much like ebay? You can sell something on Amazon as a 3rd party seller at any price you want, nobody will stop you of course. It is the same on all similar places that sell books (half.com, abebooks.com etc), they won't control the price you want to make something available for, and why should they? Now there are various reasons behind ridiculous prices (explained above - auto pricing software, hoping someone won't research and overpay etc), but Amazon has nothing to do with it and I don't know anyone "laughing at" Amazon. Perhaps some people laugh at these sellers, but I wouldn't be too sure - if they do make such a sale they will be the ones laughing...

Now, if Amazon sells something at a high price and not a 3rd party seller, usually just a message showing the price of a competitor is enough for them to fix it.

[alan potts]

Yes I agree it is sales through Amazon not Amazon itself, sorry for that but the prices are as we all know rediculous and none of us lot will buy at this level and I would have thought anyone even remotely knowledgeable in astronomy unless they had a rock star bank account.

I am only trying to do something to change this situation as I know people on this site would like to buy a copy at something like a new price, me too. There are also people here in Bulgaria that I know also find it rediculous many of them use these sites to buy things they can't get here, these type of books being very difficult to get in any language. I for one would not find it funny if someone were to be caught out by what can only be sharp practise.

They have said they will look into it but to get back to the pricing, it is Amazons site like it or not and I would have thought they should care what it being offered on it. I personally find the site very useful living here.

Maybe I'm out of touch living here so long, but for me it's not cricket.

Alan.

[Pig]

I totally Agree Alan,  I have also associated anything for sale on Amazon with them .... but it seems common practice these days, and acceptable by many people, that if you can take someone for a quick buck its ok.

I also thought the sometimes stupidly high pricing was some kind of crazy sales technique to show how cheap their product is  Maybe they should clarify the situation as it looks shabby at best.

[jambouk]

"Rare" books attract a high second hand (even if new) premium; if someone wants a book and the only available copy is £1000 then they've got two choices.

Amazon won't have any interest changing this, as it won't be adversely affecting their sales.

I think the issue of big companies not paying tax into the UK system is the issue we should be looking to resolve.

James

[D4N]

As stated above the computer pricing algorithms are probably to blame. All it takes is someone to put something on at £999.90 by mistake instead of £99.90 and the whole market shifts.

There was a bit of a scandal not so long ago where things went the other way and a lot of sellers were in trouble as their stock had been sold of for 1p.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

Stu hit the nail on the head-the crazy prices are to do with those computer algorithms. Reading on SGL and also Cloudy Nights,it would appear that there are plenty of us-including me-that would buy a copy of 'The Cambridge Double Star Atlas' if a re-print became available. I'm sure that I had read a passing remark on CN that Cambridge University press had been lobbied/approached re this. Maybe we should petition them?

[alan potts]

I agree rare books go for big money but this one I would not have thought was that rare and I am sure it will have another run at the press. I tried to sell some rare books that belonged to my late Brother by an author called George Gissing, it took him ages to find them at 50-80 pounds a copy, when I spoke to a number of buyers many offered me peanuts and told me they were not rare enough so I gave them to Oxfam, seems like there are a few sharks in that game.

I think if I were Amazon and I am not blaming them as such but they should take more care of their site because to me at least it sends out the wrong message. I buy a fair bit of gear from Amazon and I am very happy with the service, things like I have just bought a Hitachi mitre saw you can't get here and if you could it may well be more expensive, let's face it it is nice to save a few bob.

Alan 

[ronin]

Half agree but if the catalogue is not in print and several astronomers want a copy then they charge a high price hoping someone will pay.

If you throw in that asking about buying from the US on here usually gets a degree of ridicule we sort of cause part of the problem ourselves, the Double Star Atlas is $30 on Amazon.com. Even buying optical items from TS in Germany seems to involve a degree of hesitancy and usually words of caution.

I think that Cambridge books did a run of the Double Star Atlas about 18 months back, I think it was at Astrofest that i saw it. Don't recall a queue to get a copy of it, so it is also a case of when the opportunity arrives take it.

Concerning:

,it would appear that there are plenty of us-including me-that would buy a copy of 'The Cambridge Double Star Atlas' if a re-print became available

Someone posted that Waterstones had copies at £30 in one location, click and collect option. Who is driving over ?

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

I'd love to see copies in 'The Works' 

[ecuador]

You still don't understand. If you offer a marketplace service, you can't possibly selectively ban sellers because of their prices. If you do, first you are open to all sorts of liability, second you will alienate your sellers and they will simply flee to other services. If the publisher does a reprint Amazon will carry it themselves and they will be responsible for setting the price.

In any case that's how selling on an open market has worked for thousands of years. The seller prices something any way they like. If their price is the right one for the current demand, they will sell. If it is higher, they will sell with difficulty. If it is ridiculous, they will probably not sell, unless there is no other option for the buyer, in which case it can be said that the price was not ridiculous after all!

[jambouk]

Ask the Bradford branch to send a copy to your local Waterstones and collect it from there.

James

[mcolbert]

...not to stray too far off topic, but I wonder how things are faring in the book business?  It has been said that it is a chaotic time especially with information freely/cheaply available on the net.  Small publishers / printers working with authors, print on demand, e-books etc.

This directly effects my wife and I as we are developing a series of books for ESL and as the old song has it..'the times they are a'changing...'

michael

[Pig]

The advert at Waterstones says it is not available.

[alan potts]

No I do understand completely, I am just saying the prices are rather unrealisitc and wonder for the most of us if something could be done, anyone paying these prices really would have more money than brains in my opinion, it's a star atlas not a Dickin's first edition. BTW yesterday one seller was asking 1007 pounds, wonder how many left his shelf.

Any one know where one can be bought without parting with enough money to buy a decent scope. Maybe worth e-mailing Cambridge Press.

Alan.,

[Piero]

Thanks for your warning Alan to us and to them. I hope they sort this out asap so that no buyer gets cheated on this. 

[jambouk]

No one in their right mind would buy a copy for £1000. As you sauy it's not a first edition work by a classic author. If someone wants it badly enough and has a spare £1000 then who are we to criticise?

Amazon will have no interest in "solving" this; it's a marketplace and buyers can ask what they want.

James

[alan potts]

I may well achieve nothing but if you don't at least try or let them know your not happy you will never get anywhere. I was a dull and not very nice day here and it sort of brightened up my morning. BTW they have not replied so maybe they are hoping i will go away.

Alan

[Pig]

£25 for an e-book version supplied by "eebooks"  It would be nice to see a copy to determine the quality, unfortunately the preview pages end just prior to any images.

[jambouk]

Bookbutler suggests there are copies available in Germany, but I've often found with German booksellers they don't take PayPal and it's a bit of a pain to make a transaction:

http://www.bookbutler.co.uk/compare?isbn=9780521493437

James

[RLWP]

The advert at Waterstones says it is not available.

Yes, that's what often happens. When the item is no longer available, sellers often put up a price that no one will ever pay. Once one becomes available again, they restore the price to the 'correct' value. You can see this on Ebay from time to time too

Richard

[ecuador]

£25 for an e-book version supplied by "eebooks"  It would be nice to see a copy to determine the quality, unfortunately the preview pages end just prior to any images.

I bet that is the same as the pdf you find when you google "double star atlas pdf". Since Cambridge University press does not seem like they have released it in ebook form (it would not be "out of print" in ebook form), you should not be paying for pirated copies (at most, download them for free until the publisher decides to release the book again).