It's always kind of a risky thing to search for yourself on the World Wide Wackfest (WWW). You could very easily find out things about yourself that you'd rather not know.
I thought I was fairly safe, though, to search for my book, Almost the Truth About Youth Ministry: Salesmen, Secretaries, and Smart Alecks, on Amazon. I just wanted to see what Amazon and the other sub-distributors were selling it for.
The answer I found almost put me into a seizure.
On one end of the spectrum was the expected insult to my ego: Amazon Prime offering brand new copies of my precious literary child for $2.97 with free shipping and $0.21 estimated tax.
But the listing that caused a coronary was by an enterprise called AllPro Books. (Yes, that's the real name. I am not afraid to call these fine folks out in recognition of their audacity.) Their asking price ... man, I can hardly even type this without shaking ... they are expecting folks to shell out $982.90, plus $70.31 in estimated tax, for a USED copy. Not even a "Like New" used copy, nor one in "Very Good" condition. These Internet-based pirates are charging that choke-a-horse price for a "Used - Good" copy.
But wait! There's more!
They also seem to think they would be forced to go bankrupt if the buyer doesn't chip in $3.99 for shipping.
I know what you're thinking: "That's insane! They'll never sell anything with prices like that! AllPro Books is run by idiots!"
But observe...
In the past 12 months, they've received 245 ratings, 87% of which were positive.
Stop the world. I want to get off.
P.S. The pages are made out of paper, just in case you are running short of any particular kind of paper product. You may want to order a case of these from http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/deweyroth.
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