"GASLIGHT As An nvestment" Topic

I've been saving up to buy the GASLIGHT Compendium to supersede my slender GASLIGHT volume. As long as I was ordering it, I figured I might as well order other stuff I want from Brigade. The result is that it comes to quite a bit of money. Not exactly instant gratification. So, bright idea!! Maybe I can get the Compendium used for lots less!! So, I checked Abebooks, and all I can find is the basic GASLIGHT book, like I already have, for $36.51 USD Only, my copy still has the store price sticker on it: $15.95 USD! OK, let's check Amazon.com. Wow! They do have a copy of the $50.00 USD Compendium, hardback, used for just $561.62 USD!!

Maybe instead of being responsible and waiting until I have cash to cover my purchase, I should max out my credit card now buying Compendiums (Compendia?), resell them, retire, and move to a villa in the south of France.

Grelber

Fiddle Dee Dee!! Left the "I" off of Investment in the title!

Grelber

It's an old trick. There are slightly shady "companies" out there who troll amazon for books where there may only be one or two listed by third party sellers. They "offer" a book for a high price on the hopes that someone will actually pay that much. They then order the real copy themselves and request that the owner drop-ship it to their customer and instruct them not to include a copy of the invoice.

It only takes one person who is willing to pay that much…

Yes, I've seen this too. I suspect it is in part generated by some auto listing software that looks for stuff that is 'rare' by some criteria and then offers if for a silly price.

I wonder if wargaming stuff often falls into this as the books are often published by small companies, and don't enter the full bookselling world of ISBNs and publisher catalogues.