...seriously?



  • I've decided to buy some stuff from amazon and I figured that that I might as well check out all those books I keep hearing about; Code Complete, The Pragmatic Programmer, etc, etc. All was well until I got to Peopleware.

    Can someone explain to me why this costs 130$? And that's in amazon.com. I live in the EU so I checked amazon.co.uk first where it costs -get this- 153 quid or 175 euro. That's 240 bucks. For a book. I can buy a bookcase for that.

    What the hell is in that book, the answer to life, the universe and everything? Or is it the materials? Is it made out of diamond dust ink on gold-plated pages?



  • It's quite simple. It's not amazon selling the book, it's some random guy on amazon marketplace. The RRP is actually only £26.99, if you can find a somewhere that actually has them in stock.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @DOA said:

    Can someone explain to me why this costs 130$?
    Because there are people out there willing to pay that? Give Amazon a miss for this one:



    has it for $29 new or $8 refurbished.



    has it from £18.89 new.



    has it from €24,60... you get the idea.



  •  Niche. Supply and demand. People are willing to pay that amount.



  • Somebody's trying to make a quick buck by selling to an unsuspecting buyer.  Obviously you're not said unsuspecting buyer.  I feel sorry for the poor fool who does buy it for that amount; on the other hand, I suspect they'll give us more material for this site.



  • I've told my kids repeatedly that the actual value of an item is not what it's price is; it is what someone else is willilng to pay for it.  Take for example a piece of artwork we bought recently -- my wife thought it was worth $130.00;  I suspect that if I tried to sell it at a garage sale I'd get about $10.00; and that;s just because it is framed nicely.

    Why not try to sell something for a rediculous amount of money?  If you're up to it, find a ugly potato chip and post it on ebay; someone will buy it for a few bucks....



  • @dogbrags said:

    find a ugly potato chip and post it on ebay; someone will buy it for a few bucks....
    I'm interested, but I need more info before I purchase: just how ugly are we talking?  Because I don't accept anything less than a 7 on the morbiuswilters scale.



  • Maybe it got picked as a text book. The instant a book becomes a text book, the price seems to go up by $80...

    You should also add:

    If you click those links, I get money. (Hopefully.) Fair warning.



  • @bstorer said:

    Because I don't accept anything less than a 7 on the morbiuswilters scale.

    We know, we've seen your wife...

     

    Burn.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    The Mythical Man-Month (Ignore everything Brooks says about UI.)
     

    Ok, I clicked.  I haven't read this (yet...) but I'm curious to know what sort of thing he says about UI and why I should ignore it?



  • Two reasons:

    1) That edition came out in 1995, so it's horrendously out-of-date

    2) Even in his 1995 notes, he still retained tons of fantasies that UI researchers have long-dismissed. For example, he expressed surprised that computers couldn't be dictated to. Nobody does it because it's a terrible way to run a computer, not because it's technically difficult.

    I had more complaints, but it's been a few years since I read the book and I can't remember them. Fortunately, he doesn't talk about UI all that much at all, so it's not a crippling flaw.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @bstorer said:

    Because I don't accept anything less than a 7 on the morbiuswilters scale.

    We know, we've seen your wife...

    I didn't pick my wife; I inherited her as part of the estate of my dead brother.  Idiot.


  • @blakeyrat said:

    Two reasons:
     

    Cool, thanks.



  •  @bstorer said:

    @dogbrags said:

    find a ugly potato chip and post it on ebay; someone will buy it for a few bucks....
    I'm interested, but I need more info before I purchase: just how ugly are we talking?  Because I don't accept anything less than a 7 on the morbiuswilters scale.

    I must see this morbiuswilters scale to which you refer.



  • So I've been looking around and apparently Peopleware new doesn't exist. Anywhere. Seriously, try to find a new copy for a reasonable price. It's out of stock everywhere. Wth is going on?

    Right, that's it, I'm getting the torrent and printing the damned thing. Supply and demand my ass.



  • @dogbrags said:

    Take for example a piece of artwork we bought recently -- my wife thought it was worth $130.00;  I suspect that if I tried to sell it at a garage sale I'd get about $10.00
     

    I'm curious what it looks like.



  • @DOA said:

    So I've been looking around and apparently Peopleware new doesn't exist. Anywhere. Seriously, try to find a new copy for a reasonable price. It's out of stock everywhere. Wth is going on?

    Right, that's it, I'm getting the torrent and printing the damned thing. Supply and demand my ass.

     

    That's what happens when books go out-of-print for longer than a couple years. :( It sucks.

    I've been wanting a copy of Logan's Run (the novel) for ages, but it's been out-of-print since like the mid-90s and you can't get it for love nor money. I mean there are used copies available, but I'd much rather have new and I haven't wanted it *enough* to pay the premium.

    Hopefully e-books will change all this.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @blakeyrat said:

    @DOA said:

    So I've been looking around and apparently Peopleware new doesn't exist. Anywhere. Seriously, try to find a new copy for a reasonable price. It's out of stock everywhere. Wth is going on?

    Right, that's it, I'm getting the torrent and printing the damned thing. Supply and demand my ass.

     

    That's what happens when books go out-of-print for longer than a couple years. :( It sucks.

    I've been wanting a copy of Logan's Run (the novel) for ages, but it's been out-of-print since like the mid-90s and you can't get it for love nor money. I mean there are used copies available, but I'd much rather have new and I haven't wanted it *enough* to pay the premium.

    I have a virgin print copy of 1984 available if anyone wants it. FOI request's reply from the current UK gubbmint.

    I also have another title available from this particular author, though sadly it's only available on DVD. Apparently the script wasn't written down.

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