[Smt-talk] Jonathan Kramer's "The Time of Music"

[Stephen Jablonsky]

Gerald's posting reminded me of how ludicrous the pricing of books online can be. My theory text, Tonal Facts & Tonal Theories, sells for $67.66 directly from the publisher. If you check Amazon you can buy a new copy for $83.88 from a number of different sellers unless you want to get a used copy, then it is $175.83! Imagine how I felt when I saw that! I figured this must be a hand-signed copy from the deceased author, but I'm still here!! The same is true of my other books, so it really is caveat emptor. BTW, Textbooks.com is even worse.



On Aug 2, 2011, at 1:04 PM, gzar at mail2.gis.net wrote:

> Last year I noticed on Amazon a long out-of-print book I wanted (by Alexandra Pierce), but for a much-too-high, triple-digit price. I could not imagine it was a true market price (especially as this was not an antiquarian item), so I somehow became inspired to write the seller, directly, a sincere note asking whether he might revise the price to something closer to what in my experience academic folks like me might expect to pay for such a book. I added that I had had known the author personally, which I think didn't hurt.
> 
> The seller was happy to have heard from me, responsive to our shared connection with the book, and genuinely willing to consider my suggestion about the price. We made a sale, and, needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome.
> 
> Now that our List has been told something about how such astonishingly unrealistic sales prices might arise, I could imagine any such seller might be happy to hear from someone personally, not only to respond to a possible heartfelt plea, but maybe more to the point, to be able to unload, even if at "only" a reasonable price, an item whose listed price would likely never result in a sale.
> 
> At the least, the seller might realize why the item is not moving and lower the price to something that is more marketable -- even if still not perhaps for one's own budget...
> 
> 
> Gerald Zaritzky
> Faculty, Department of Music Theory
> New England Conservatory of Music
> 290 Huntington Avenue (Room JH 325)
> Boston, Massachusetts 02115  USA
> 617-585-1373; fax: 617-585-1301
> gerald.zaritzky at necmusic.edu
> 
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Prof. Stephen Jablonsky, Ph.D.
Music Department Chair
The City College of New York
160 Convent Avenue S-72
New York NY 10031
(212) 650-7663



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