So I’m going through some paper piles in my home office when I come across a page I ripped out of Previews last year with a description of a book I eventually want to track down and read, Gotham City 14 Miles: Essays on Why the 1960s Batman TV Series Matters,
This essay collection offers the 1960s Batman television series starring Adam West and Burt Ward as the Dynamic Duo the critical reexamination it deserves, on subjects like counter-culture, Batmania, women, camp, gadgetry, music and more.
So I head on over to Amazon to add it to my wish list, but there’s something odd — Previews lists the MSRP as $22.95, but the only seller on Amazon offering the book wants $49.95 + $3.99 shipping for the 300 page softcover.
Since the book is such a niche product, maybe it’s already out of print and hard to find. A quick Google search turns up a web page the book’s publisher has set up, and right there on the page is a link to buy the book from Lulu.com at the astoundingly high price of $22.95.
I wonder if the Amazon seller even has a copy of the book in stock, or is just waiting for someone to order it whereupon he or she will procure the book from Lulu.com and ship it out to the customer.
Completely legal, but seriously scumbag tactics.
Anyway, it is also disappointing that since the book is available at Lulu.com already that there is no option to purchase a PDF version of it. If there was, I’d have probably just bought and downloaded it right now. As it is, I’ll add the book to my wishlist, but not sure if I’ll ever get around to actually ordering it.
Heya, by now you’ve probably seen that the book is available at its real price from Amazon – or at least I hope you have!
The pubisher was having major problems with Amazon themselves, btw, and finally got the official listing updated with real copies. We do not know who that other seller was, but they were not affiliated with Sequart or anyone else involved with the book. We regret the inconvenience and confusion.