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Chess Books

  • 05-03-2018 07:03PM
    #1
    sodacat11
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,300 ✭✭✭


    It has come to my attention recently just how much some chess books have increased in value. Alexander Baburin's excellent Winning Pawn Structures is quoted around 95 dollars on Amazon.com and while some copies are available at 28 pounds sterling on Amazon U.K others are priced at 76 pounds.
    Alexander Morozevich's book on the Chigorin is quoted at 150 dollars on Amazon.
    I am sure that there must be hundred of other examples of books rocketing in price but I wouldn't have thought that the two I mentioned are particularly rare.
    Does anyone else know of any chess books that are now worth a huge amount? Why is it that some chess books have gone up so much? and are people readily available who will pay these prices?


Comments

  • #2
    brilliantboy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 444 ✭✭brilliantboy


    A lot of amazon sellers use algorithms to set their pricing, which in some cases can be quite primitive and "stupid". Some sellers will even list a book for sale if they don't have it in stock, just at a higher price than normal so they can easily obtain it from another seller if someone actually buys it. A combination of these factors can lead to strange pricing quirks with unremarkable and not even particularly rare books being listed for obscene prices.

    In the case of the Baburin book a price of £28 seems normal to me. It's a very well regarded book published 2 decades ago that hasn't been reprinted since and probably never will be. The Morozevich/Barsky book is a stranger case given that it's not that old, not that good, and published by New in Chess who presumably could and would organize a reprint if the demand was there. I suspect this one is a case of over optimistic pricing algorithms


  • #3
    sodacat11
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,300 ✭✭✭sodacat11


    Thanks for that. I'm off to Google now just what exactly an algorithm is!


  • #4
    Are Am Eye
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,166 ✭✭✭Are Am Eye


    One grand new. Hundred and fifty second hand.




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