I need a copy of Gaeilge Gan Stró, Beginners Level, for the class I'm teaching in January. Thinking to save a bit on currency conversion fees and shipping, I decided to check Amazon.com first, so see if a used copy might be available on the cheap. I was absolutely shocked at what booksellers think they can get for this book! The one offer that really amused me is the one that's offering a copy in "acceptable" condition, without the accompanying CDs, for $487!

Needless to say, I decided to forego that offer and order my copy from An Siopa Gaeilge!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... 1419101855

It's madness and I'd also say bordering on extorsion. There's no excuse for it, so why Amazon and the others allow it to happen is beyond me. I've just looked on Bookfinder and it's a similar story. Not so long ago I looked up the ISBN of a book that had a retail price (new and still available direct from the publisher) of a few euros and next to it the price was (second-hand) over two thousand for it. I once complained about it to a book distributor here in Paris, only to be told that it is a free market and a seller can ask any price he/she wishes to. They didn't see me again.

What adds insult to injury is they also charge for postage on top.
If you give me $200 for any of my old books I'll bring it round myself.

I honestly wonder if accounts that do that with "obscure" but not rare books are not laundering money.

Anyway, Gaelchultúr USA has it for about $50 which includes the shipping. I'd imagine that's close to what Siopa.ie has it for with shipping.

Gaeilge gan Stró!

Yeah...it's about the same, but since it ships from Ireland anyway, I just figured I'd order direct (well, actually, I ordered it from An Siopa Gaeilge because I kind of hope it will get here before January 8 - February 12, which was the earliest Gaelchultúr USA could promise it). It also gave me the excuse to tack on a couple of other books I've been wanting.

Redwolf

I've only ordered from Gaelchultúr USA twice but each time seemed to take longer than some of the books I've ordered from Kenny's and Litríocht.

I usually order books from Litríocht and I am satisified with the service I get from them. There are quite a few Irish publishers who you can order directly from - Futa Fata, Four Courts, the Folklore Commission srl and there's Kenny's, O'Mahoney, O'Brien, CIC, Cló Maigh Eo srl. There are also several educational publishers and organisations where you can browse and download pages in Irish.

As I understand it, a lot of this nonsense is actually down to automation. The system takes in all available data (Amazon sales rank, online availability, historical prices etc) and tries to predict which books/videos/CDs are likely to sell for a lot of money. Sometimes it makes wild overestimates, incorrectly identifying a low-value niche item as a rarity, but for the professional traders, a lost sale on a low value item is acceptable if none of their genuinely high value items are accidentally sold for a song.

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A language belongs to its native speakers, and when you speak it, you are a guest in their homes.
If you are not a good guest, you have no right to complain about receiving poor hospitality.

That makes complete sense. It's sad that I'm a software engineer who deals with issues exactly like that on a regular basis and had not considered it.

The Infinite Loop Of Algorithmic Pricing On Amazon... Or How A Book On Flies Cost $23,698,655.93

That makes sense. Due to mad prices, they then don't sell the books and they seem even more 'elitist'. Vicious circle.

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