That’s not what it’s worth, it’s what some seller asks for it.<p>It could be a scammer trying to make the book look rare (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/15/technology/amazon-used-paperback-book-pricing.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/15/technology/amazon-used-pa...</a>), or it could be price-setting bots derailing each other (<a href="http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358" rel="nofollow">http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358</a>)
This is an old C programming book. I'd like to know what's so special about this book?.<p>It's not just 1 seller that has high prices, there are different sellers, selling it for $600-$700 and on abebooks I've seen a $1000.<p>Am I missing something here?
I have seen two different ideas about this in the past. One: money laundering. Anyone can say they are a book seller and sell to themselves or an accomplice, pay the fees and taxes and the rest is then legitimate income. Two: warring bots. One bot keeps raising their price slightly above the most expensive other copy for sale. And when there are two such bots there may be no upper limit. In the past I've seen books priced for $1000 U.S. or more when identical copies were for sale for a few dollars.
Try this, it is highly recommended:
"C Programming: A Modern Approach," 2nd Edition
by K. N. King is selling for 111 USD, covering C89/C99
but the First Edition, covering C89 is only 60 USD<p>But if you want his "Modula-2: A Complete Guide", its only $300 new!
A lot of people think this is an Amazon thing. But every bookstore that lists this book have it for similarly high prices. Even used copies are a couple hundred bucks.