Saturday, April 16, 2011

So Who's Making Money on the Lead Codices?



So, just for fun I decided to search Amazon.com for David Elkington's book on the Lead Codices; however, instead I came across what you can see in the image above.

In short, where there appears to be a strange and overly convenient hole in the Internet where one would expect his book to exist (i.e. a number of listings, but nowhere is it "in stock"), I found that anything else with Elkington's name on it had a price that shot sky-high:

  • $176-$187 for his book "In the Name of the Gods."
  • $300-$757 for a multimedia CD on Classical Civ.

Nearly 200 bucks? What?? I found that a signed first edition copy of "In the Name of the Gods," went for 20 quid over at BooksAndRecords.

The second one I'm not even sure is the same Elkington, as it goes new for $300 from Oxford University Press.

In either case, it seems that anything that has his name on it has inflated considerably since the Codices broke to the press.

Perhaps the phantom book may yet show up somewhere? Unlikely. In the meantime, Elkington memorabilia is selling like hotcakes.

Peace,
-Steve

3 comments:

  1. Your rhetorical question is self-answering just by looking at the pic. Amazon and its bookselling allies.
    Strange that you should still ask the question without answering it... as if you hoped people might think it was Elkington himself...
    I'm sure you realize that the modern book trade on the web works like that. Being in the news makes you more sellable. Fundamental rule of our modern commercial society. Not of traditional Christianity or Elkington's either. pg

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous,

    I thought that it was obvious that I was referring to *booksellers* and not Elkington, himself and that it was the fact that the book prices shot up due to Elkington's ill-gotten fame that I found irksome. How could one interpret it otherwise?

    However anonymous defenses like this to implications that I've never made always fascinate me.

    I could certainly be wrong, but in this case it says to me that someone is willing to defend Elkington for some reason (even where he is not the direct subject of criticism) and at the same time they are not able or willing do it at the cost of their own reputation.

    Please don't get me wrong. If you choose to reveal your identity I would love to continue a conversation about the ethics of both bookselling and (separately) Mr. Elkington, himself. ;-)

    Peace and thanks,
    -Steve

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello ,
    Thanks for the heads up and the nice deal. Thanks for all the helpful advice. It’s great that someone out there really wants to help other people succeed.
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    ReplyDelete

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