JerryC

Yes, I always check all the online used book dealers, not just Amazon. Amazon often has incredibly high prices. I think their software simply lists everything for whatever anybody is asking. People see the highest asking price on Amazon and then add a bit more when they list the same thing and it just feeds on itself.

There was a time when there were bargains to be had if one searched the brick and mortar used bookstores. I picked up books worth two or three hundred bucks for ten or twenty bucks back in the day. Now, with the internet, it's a lot easier to find a given book you might be searching for, but the odds of the seller not knowing what the book is really worth are a lot less likely. More often than not, their prices are inflated on the basis of the "there's a sucker born every minute" principle. Fortunately, I've been collecting maritime reference works for some fifty years now and have everything I need, more or less. Some of the recent stuff, like Froelich's book, are real works of art and worth paying the price, but most are at least three-quarters full of information I've already got on hand from older books.

I got Takakjian's Ship Modeling Techniques for $45.00. I thought that was high for what it was, but there just aren't all that many copies around, so I paid up for it. It's a "classic" that I wanted for the sake of completeness, but it is somewhat dated, as far as the techniques shown go. She straddled the "early period" of Davis and Underhill, and the "modern period" of tight tolerance machine tool building of plank on frame style models. If my luck is as it often is, somebody will issue a reprint in a couple of months and this time next year it will be selling new for $9.95! Oh well! 

Bob Cleek