Monday, July 2, 2012

The Semantics of Form (take two)


A ways back, we noted the availability of our rather pricily-priced book about Arabic in used copies, on Amazon,  for a mere thirty bucks. 
These have since been snapped up; but now there is an even more curious development.  The Amazon page now reads:

            2 new from $170.82, 1 used from $277.14

In other words -- simply by virtue of purchasing a copy, the value of your investment goes up by over a hundred dollars!  Ten copies, that puts you a thousand dollars in the black.  Buy ten thousand copies, and your net worth shoots skyward by a cool one million dollars. -- And these, note, are unsigned copies; no signed copies are currently in existence.  But for a consideration of a mere nine hundred dollars, I will personally sign your copy, thus immediately boosting tenfold its value as a collector’s item.

Hurry while supplies last !!

[Update 25 July]  Supplies ... didn't last.   There are no more used copies for sale.
Which means:  either
   (1) someone bought that copy, paying a premium of over a hundred dollars over the price of the same thing new;
or
   (2) the offering was withdrawn from the market, as being too valuable to set out for sale.
 

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