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Plath biography on eBay

Well, I thought I had seen it all.

As many of you know, I scour the Interwebs for books, auctions, and other things in which to tempt you into spending your hard earned money. Well, then I stumble on an auction for my own book, the price for which I think has several too many 0's.



I mean, I wrote the thing I know it's not worth that much. Earlier this year I re-purchased a signed/inscribed copy of my own book that I had given to a relative. How rude! Just wait till Christmas...
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Comments

  1. Julia Gordon-Bramer10 August, 2010 13:59

    If you haven't already read it, I highly recommend Mortification: Writers' Stories of their Public Shame by Robin Robertson. Your story is beaten only by the guy who found his book in a dumpster. It had been inscribed to his Mom and Dad.

    On the brighter side: someone evidently thinks you're quite valuable. As do we. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Peter K Steinberg10 August, 2010 14:03

    Oh you're so sweet to me. Thanks for recommending that book it sounds awesome. To be honest I always wanted to find a copy in a used book shop. And then to re-purchase it and give it back, but I never thought it would be a family member. Oh well. Be careful what we wish for, I guess.

    I don't know whether to be flattered or appalled at that pricing! And there are four available!

    pks

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous10 August, 2010 20:38

    Hey Peter - this is great! You should write the seller and ask them what their price is based on - I'd love to know (although we all know you are priceless!) kim

    ReplyDelete
  4. Peter K Steinberg10 August, 2010 20:41

    Kimberpaloozashastakazapicklestan,

    Way ahead of you. This is their reply:

    "We price certain books at $1,000 when we are temporarily running low on stock and do not necessarily want to sell the item. By setting the price to $1,000 (as opposed to ending the listing), we can just change the price back to
    normal when we receive stock, ensuring that the book is available for sale again immediately."


    I think this is the dictionary definition of stupid.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Al11 August, 2010 01:34

    P-Train, perhaps the seller travelled forward in time and found out that copies of the biography you wrote became very valuable after it had been featured on Oprah's book club?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kristina Zimbakova11 August, 2010 04:53

    Without further delay, the Ebay explanation of the multi-0 price should become an Oxford Dictionary definition of 'nonsense'

    ReplyDelete
  7. Peter K Steinberg11 August, 2010 08:46

    Al! Yes. Quite possible. Wish it were true. Probably not. Ok, sad now.

    Kristina! Yes. Yes!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous11 August, 2010 21:29

    It's got to be a weird, Ebay money-saving maneuver - if they had to re-list the book(s) it would cost them a few bucks. Still, weird.

    xo Kimberpaloozashastakazapicklestan

    ReplyDelete

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