Algorithmic pricing gone critical - Re: PDP-10 programming [was RE: Dumb Terminal games (was Re: Looking for a small fast VAX development machine)]

[william degnan]

On Mar 1, 2016 8:19 PM, "Toby Thain" <toby at telegraphics.com.au> wrote:
>
> On 2016-03-01 7:36 PM, Sean Conner wrote:
>>
>> It was thus said that the Great Rich Alderson once stated:
>>>
>>>
>>> For most hobbyists, even $100 is too much.  I was simply astounded at
the
>>> chutzpah of the seller--right there on the Amazon list--who was asking
>>> nearly $1500 for a copy.
>>
>>
>>    I think that comes from an unchecked computer algorithm, not simple
greed.
>> I think what's happening here is someone (some Amazon third party)
offered
>> the book for, say, $5.  Another third party scans Amazon for such books,
and
>> offers it for say, $6, with the hope that you (the potential buyer) will
>> only see their their offer for $6 and buy from them, at which point they
>> will buy it for $5 from the original seller, sell it to you for $6 and
>> pocket the $1 profit.  The problem comes when a third third-party seller
>> sees the offer for $6 and does the same thing as the second one, only now
>> they're offering it for $7, will pay $6 for it and pocket $1 profit.
>>
>>    Keep repeating that process and you end up with books selling for
$1500.
>
>
> Or more:
> http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358
> etc.
>
> Remind me why HFT is a great idea...
>
>>
>>    -spc (Who knows?  If you keep searching, you might find the original
>>         seller selling it for $5 ... )
>>
>

I would think pdp 10 original books / manuals are hard to find.