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.
  -spc (Who knows?  If you keep searching, you might find the original
        seller selling it for $5 ... ) 
I've come across other articles about this in the past. Don't know the specifics
of the book mentioned by Rich.