The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 49, December 8, 2002, Article 16

WHY DO BOOKS COST SO MUCH?

  Asylum Editor Tom Fort found an article on Salon
  about "sticker shock" over new book prices.  I know
  I have to blanche sometimes at the cost of new
  numismatic books these days.  Maybe I'm just getting
  old.  People who used to buy a Coke for a quarter don't
  much feel like paying $1.95 for the same thing today.
  Here are a couple excerpts - follow the link for the
  full article.

  "During his 10 years in the retail book business-- at B.
  Dalton and also at independent stores and selling college
  textbooks -- he's seen the same reaction time and again.
  "No matter what the prices are, they say it's too expensive,"
  he says. "The first thing they ask about is price, and the
  reactions range from a grunt to an outright whine."

  It's unlikely that Ritenbaugh will be hearing happier noises
  anytime soon: Book buyers now must shell out $20, $30
  or even $40 or more for hardcovers that decades ago
  used to cost less than $10. And the sticker shock is
  causing many customers not to buy as many books."

  "Why do books cost so much? Consumers are often
  baffled at the price tag attached to what appears to be little
  more than a mass of paper, cardboard and ink. A whole
  host of factors, including the size of the book, the quality of
  paper, the quantity of books printed, whether it contains
  illustrations, what sort of deal the publisher can make with
  the printer and the cost of warehouse space, all affect the
  production costs of a book.  But, roughly speaking, only
  about 20 percent of a publisher's budget for each book
  pays for paper, printing and binding, the trinity that
  determines the physical cost."

  http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/12/03/prices/

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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